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Forum Discussion
cgnerd
4 years agoHelpful | Level 6
Mac client continuously syncing with no file changes
For the past couple of weeks I've noticed that the Dropbox client is continuously syncing, even though there are no new files to sync. I can confirm that no files have been updated and need to be re-...
Nancy
Dropbox Community Moderator
4 years agoNo, we basically want to make sure that the desktop app doesnât sync more than 300k files.
So, if your Dropbox account has more than 300k files in total, but you donât have everything syncing locally and some of them are only available on www.dropbox.com, you should be good.
cgnerd
4 years agoHelpful | Level 6
I have way over 300k files (I'm an animator, rendering out image sequences means loads of files). The terminal command I used below includes online-only files, not sure how to count only offline files. Is 300k files some kind of limit for Dropbox in general, or is this just the Mac client? Do you know if this is something that will be improved/resolved?
- Jay4 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
The 300k file limit is a soft limit depending on the machine itself.
Are you able to use selective sync to prevent entire folders from syncing to the site to see if this helps?
- cgnerd4 years agoHelpful | Level 6
I've made all of the folders that I don't currently need 'online-only' and I've calculated the number of files in the offline folders (28,438), less than 10% of your soft limit. The issue is still occurring.
This is a screenshot of Dropbox not syncing, yet it's using up a whole core.
âA couple of seconds later, it ramps up to 217%. Clicking on the Dropbox icon says it's syncing x number of files, but no changes have been made to the dropbox folder. There are no new files to sync. No new files are in the sync history either.
After a minute of this intense draw of power, it stops for a minute or so, then the process repeats again. I often have to pause Dropbox syncing if I'm having a video meeting as this excessive use of processing power makes the fans kick in.
- Hannah4 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Sorry to jump in here, cgnerd.
The process of making a file online-only and selective sync are a bit different from each other.
Making a file online-only stops it from taking up space on your hard drive, but a placeholder file still remains in the folder.
With selective sync you can remove entire folders off of the Dropbox folder completely.
Can you try it, using the steps here, to see what happens?
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