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Niki_p's avatar
Niki_p
Explorer | Level 4
3 months ago

How does the app sync large content?

Hi - after an issue with an external HDD I'm in the process of loading up lots of images to Dropbox, so syncing from my computer to Dropbox and making everything online-only. Syncing up around 5~10GB at a time and waiting for a folder to complete before adding a new one to Dropbox. I know it will take time. 

I wait till Dropbox says "all folders are up to date" then add a new folder to Dropbox. I added a new folder yesterday that has maybe 900 images in it but for some reason Dropbox says it's syncing nearly 4,000 files. Many of the files waiting to sync are files that it previously told me are up to date. 

Anyone any ideas on what could be going on? It's going to take me months if Dropbox re-syncs everything each time I add a new folder. I'm using a MacBook Pro with MacOS Sonoma 14.5 and Dropbox says I am up to date on Dropbox App. 

 

Cheers,

Niki

 

  • Mark's avatar
    Mark
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II

    Hi Niki_p 

     

    It is almost certainly not resyncing BUT is reindexing (the wording on the app has always been terrible!). 

     

    Dropbox will reindex each type it starts up but then upload any changes to files if it finds them when it indexs. 

    • Niki_p's avatar
      Niki_p
      Explorer | Level 4

      Thanks for replying Mark. So does that mean that each time I load a bunch of new jpg files Dropbox will re-index every jpg file in my Dropbox folder? If that's the case I'll be here for years, the process seems to take forever. It's almost impossible to tell what Dropbox is actually doing at all, not very informative, so I have no idea if new files are getting loaded up or old files are being re-indexed. Is there anything I can do to speed things up or prevent re-indexing?  

      • Здравко's avatar
        Здравко
        Legendary | Level 20

        Hi Niki_p,

        If I'm in your shoes, I would try upload folder by folder and once entire folder is ready, just selectively unsync it and after that continue with the next one. The same for any other folder you don't need immediately. In such a way on your local Dropbox folder will be small subset of all data available in account, so significantly less time for reindex (whenever needed) - the local files only (or their placeholders) are indexed. 😉 Try at least.

        Hope this helps.

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