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Forum Discussion

RichJ's avatar
RichJ
Helpful | Level 5
6 years ago

My computer's experiencing a lot of high CPU usage

I have a fresh install of Windows 10 on a 32Gb i7 laptop. Dropbox was installed a week ago with most files set to online only, and the initial sync completed within a few hours.  Now, Dropbox frequen...
desktop
sync
windows
RichJ's avatar
RichJ
Helpful | Level 5
6 years ago

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?

Walter's avatar
Walter
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
6 years ago

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! 

  • RichJ's avatar
    RichJ
    Helpful | Level 5
    6 years ago

    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.

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