My computer's experiencing a lot of high CPU usage

Hi there RichJ, thanks for checking in with us about this. 

In general, you can have a look at this article for some info on how symlinks work with the Dropbox folder, but you can also check out this link for some suggestions on how to tackle high CPU usage issues. 

If you're still having trouble with it though, don't hesitate to give us another nudge, and we'll make sure to get back to you as soon as possible. Cheers!

Hi Lusil,

Thanks for getting back to me.

Regarding the point in the high CPU usage article:

1. I have around 70,000 files, the majority of which are not stored locally
2. The high CPU usage happens when Dropbox sync is paused, so this is not the cause
3. Same answer as point 2.
4. See point 1
5. I'm not using a NAS drive, it's a local SSD drive
6. Same answer as point 2.

Regarding symlinks, I don't use them. However, around 50,000 files in my Dropbox folder are flagged up as symlinks when I run dir c:\dropbox /a:l /s

Dropbox created these files when it performed it's initial file sync, so it must be Dropbox that set the symlink flag on each file. Has Dropbox set these files up as symlinks because they are not stored locally?

What's frustrating here is that this is a fresh installation of Windows 10, on a decent spec laptop, with all updates applied. Dropbox has been installed and left to do it's sync on around 70,000 files, which is well below the 300,000 stated as the point where performance can start to decline. Most files are stored online. Dropbox is hogging CPU. Why?

Hi RichJ; sorry to jump in here.

Can you maybe try the following steps and let us know if they improved matters for you at all?

1. Make sure the Dropbox desktop application is running

2. Click on the Dropbox icon in the system tray and then click your profile picture or initials

3. Select 'Preferences'

4. Click on the 'Account' tab, and then click in the window under the tab (just anywhere will do)

5. Hold down the 'alt+H' keys

6. Click on the 'Fix Hardlinks' button

7. You may be prompted for your a username and password, this is your computer login credentials, not your Dropbox account ones

8. Please wait about ten minutes to see if Dropbox resumes syncing.

If the above steps don’t resolve your issue, please repeat steps 1 to 5, but at step 6, this time click on the “Fix Permissions” button. 

Please note that if you use “Fix Permissions” syncing will start back over. At that point, let it sync until it shows Up to date and let us know if you're still noticing high CPU usage or any other discrepancy. 

Thanks a bunch and have a lovely weekend Rich! 

Thanks Walter. I've done the "Fix Hardlinks", I'll see how it goes over the next day or so before trying the other option.

Both suggestions made no difference, and as I type, Dropbox sync is paused, but it's still consuming 40% CPU. Windows Explorer has gone sluggish with Dropbox icons flickering across my folders. Bare in mind, this is a decent spec laptop, with a fresh install of Windows 10. The only major software installed is Visual Studio Community 2019 and Adobe Creative Suite. Sorry but Dropbox is just not as good as it used to be, to the point where it's now a hindrance on a daily basis.

Thanks for the updates on this RichJ!

As our most recent, stable version of the desktop app just came out, may I have you install this one and let us know if you're still noticing high CPU usage on your computer?

Here's a direct link for your reference: 

https://www.dropbox.com/downloading?build=99.4.501&plat=win&type=full 

Thanks for your patience and cooperation Rich. 

I'm already on build 99.4.501.  When Dropbox is doing it's high CPU thing, Windows Explorer becomes very unresponsive.  The Dropbox icons flicker on and off across my folder tree, the mouse cursor continously flickers from arrow to hourglass and right clicking for context menus is very sluggish.  I don't really feel like I'm going to get a solution to this.  I'll say it again, this is a decent laptop with a fresh install of Windows and most of my Dropbox files are online only.  Your software is killing my laptop performance, how can it be so bad??

It's all got too complicated. Only this morning I double clicked an OGG file to open it up in my default media player, VLC, but Dropbox jumped in with a popup window saying something like, "Hey you can do all this here now, etc, etc". I'm not interested Dropbox, just look after my files and leave it at that. Stop bloating your software with features that are killing the core functionality. My last throw of the dice is to remove the Dropbox client and reinstall it from scratch. If that doesn't work, then it's over to GoogleDrive or OneDrive. It's a real shame, because Dropbox used to be king by a long way.

...and the last throw fails. Fresh install of Dropbox, fully synced up, syncing paused, and taking up 35-40% CPU.