My desktop app says that it's up to date, but it's not syncing

Hey there Danisc - sorry to hear that!

Can you please let me know if you're running the desktop app on both of these computers and if they both are "up to date"? Do you see the syncing icons on your files on both machines? 

Dropbox takes time to transfer files between your computer and our servers while most standard consumer ISPs offer 1/10th the upload speed when compared to the download speed and larger files will take longer to sync.

You can always look at the Dropbox icon in your taskbar or menu bar (for Macs) and see if it is done syncing. When Dropbox is fully synced then you should see a tick followed by the words “Up to date” on the menu.

If you do not see this then can you please let me know what the message being displayed reads (on both devices)? 

To see if there are files in your Dropbox that may have problematic file names you can try our lookup tool. 

Last but not least, you can take a look at the full list of the characters (letters, symbols, or numbers) that may be incompatible with the operating system on your computer in this Help Center article.

I hope this helps and please keep me posted on your findings. 

PS: If you'd like to boost your upload speed during the syncing process, you can change your bandwidth settings accordingly. 

I'm sorry, Walter, but it seems you did not actually read Danisc's problem.  He stated that the Dropbox icon is not reporting an error, but is indicating "Up to Date" even though the files are clearly not sync'd to the server.

I am experiencing the same issue.  I copy several photos from my camera; the new folder of photos immedately shows the green checkmark overlay and the Dropbox icon on the system tray states "Up to Date" when hovering with the mouse.  For one, there is no way several high-resolution photos uploaded that quickly.  For another, I checked the Dropbox web site and the photos are not present.

In order to get the sync to occur, I have to manually "Pause syncing", then manually "Resume syncing".  Once I follow that sequence, Dropbox starts indexing files, realizes something is missing, and uploads the new photos.  Once it indexes the files, the overlay on the new photos folder overlay I mentioned above gets updated to show it is, in fact, not up to date.  Additionally, the system tray icon will display "Uploading nnn files..."

This manual process defeats some of the point of the cloud storage I'm paying for.

OS: Windows 10.

I am having the same issue, if I uninstall Dropbox from ny PC do my local folders and content get errased (ie do I have to redownload all files from the cloud)?

Not at all Jimmyutah33; assuming that these files made it to our servers that is (meaning that you see them on our website that would indicate that they're fully synced). 

Keep me posted on your progress!

hi, I am having the same problem and your answer does not address it. I will state the problem from my perspective. 

1. desktop app says it is up to date (unlike NickSchaf’s issue, it takes a few minutes to get there, which seems to indicate that something is happening) but the files are not  updated / new files are not present when I access my dropbox through a browser.

2. all of my dropbox files are held locally, so this next question is incredibly important and the response to JimmyUtah33 doesn’t cut it. I will try to rephrase it from my perspective:

what happens with my local dropbox files when I uninstall and reinstall dropbox? How does dropbox negotiate the difference between what is online and what is on my desktop?

JimmyUtah33 asked if local folders and content get erased when reinstalling dropbox. They are local, not in the cloud. So it’s not a question of resyncing online files. they never made it online. How does dropbox handle this anomalous situation when it is reinstalled and directed to use the same folder as it used before? (so we don’t have to start from scratch, downloading the entire dropbox)

or is that what we have to do? do we need to choose a different folder to sync and redownload everything and manually put in the folders that did not successfully sync before (how to know which files are synced without manually sorting thousands of files considering the app is telling me that they are all synced?)

I hope my comments clarify the problem. If not, I will try again because this problem is intractable otherwise, no matter how enthusiastic and positive you are with your response.

thanks, dangirl

sorry, didn’t link previous respondents: @Walter @NickSchaf and @Jimmyutah33

grateful for a response 

dangirl

That sounds strange indeed dangirl.

Could you forward me a screenshot of your Dropbox folder on the affected computer (omitting any personal information) so as to check how your syncing icons show at the moment?

In addition, note that upon re-installing the files you'll be syncing are the ones that have already made it to our servers (meaning that they're visible on our website at dropbox.com) - not the other way round. 

I'll be waiting for your response in order to have a better look into this.

problem solved. it seems when dropbox was updated and – to my horror – for no known reason deleted 42,000 files, I did rewind and somehow ended up with duplicate files. One set was shared and the other, hidden set, is the one I was using on my desktop. I have no idea how this happened, but you might imagine the panic when dropbox suddenly told me all of those files had been deleted.

I have to say (while someone from dropbox is actually listening for a moment), I didn't want or need the mega upgrade that just went into effect and am not very happy with it. I'm certainly not happy with being given no choice but to accept it and pay a 50% hike in my yearly fee for the privilege. If nothing had changed I wouldn't have had to use rewind and I wouldn't have ended up in this mess.

fortunately, it's solved now. but seriously. we shouldn't be paying to test your ideas, especially when we don't even want them.

thanks for getting this far, and for being willing to troubleshoot in the first place