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My dropbox is stuck on sync.
My Dropbox has been stuck syncing the exact same number of files for several days. There is no problem with my Internet connection and I have tried quitting/restarting/unlinking the app many times. What is showing on the Dropbox website is correct but what is showing on the app/on my computer is out of date. I use it every day for work and am desperate to fix the problem ASAP.
Thanks for your help, Lusil, but I think we should leave this here now. I hadn't realised the process would take this long to move to the first stage of someone getting in touch who can actually help/give advice. Unfortunately I don't have that sort of time at my disposal to resolve the issue so you can close the ticket now. My business requirements mean this is a really urgent enquiry, not something that can take four days without an engineer even getting in touch yet. Thanks again for your help.
In the end I found an online solution that meant me having to back up my Dropbox data on an external hard drive as a safety, then unlinking my computer from Dropbox (again), quitting the Dropbox application on my computer (again), then deleting everything related to Dropbox from my Mac (data/application/cache/hidden files etc...) and then starting again from scratch. The crucial two elements seem to have been deleting the Dropbox data on my computer as well as going into the Mac Terminal application and entering a command to show all hidden files. There is a hidden .dropbox file that needed deleting (amongst others buried elsewhere in the system).
I then relinked the computer with my Dropbox account - effectively treating it as if it's a brand new computer with no history of my Dropbox account anywhere to be found on it. The sync seems to be working now - it certainly isn't stuck at the same point as before - but not everything has finished syncing yet so I'll just have to wait and see...
Thanks again for your help and sorry you weren't able to resolve it for me this time.
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Hi,
My problem is almost exactly the same as that described here. I am running Ubuntu 16.04. Is the solution still to delete dropbox and all its contents and redownload everything? Is there a better solution?
- Lusil
Dropbox Staff
Hey Ravinderjit-S, thanks for reaching out to us about this - let's have a look at this together!
As a first step, could you confirm for me if your computer meets the minimum requirements to completely run the desktop app?
If it does, could you send me a screenshot (without any personal info) of what the Dropbox icon that's next to your computer's clock shows when you hover over it?
Let me know what you find!
I have attached the screenshot and my comptuer does meet those requrements. It is showing the synching arrows
- Lusil
Thanks for checking that out for me, Ravinderjit-S!
Could you also temporarily disable any security software or antivirus running on your computer to see if there's a change in behavior?
If that doesn't do the trick, could there be any symlinks working in your Dropbox folder? You can see if you have any by following the steps shown here (step 7).
Let me know of any updates!
Hi,
I do have symlinks apparently! Not sure how they got there. How do I get rid of them?
Thanks!
- Lusil
Ah-ha, a clue! 🔍
To remove symlinks, you'll have to follow the file paths that are provided when you run the command, and remove the files in your Dropbox folder by dragging them elsewhere on your computer (if you don't want them deleted).
After you've removed them, quit Terminal, open it again, and run the command again to ensure that no symlinks remain in your Dropbox folder.
If the symlink pathway is part of a single file that’s visible in your Dropbox folder on your computer, it may be part of a container file. Container files look like regular files if you look at them on your device, but they're actually wrappers that contain other file types. Such examples include iPhoto libraries, Aperture files or iWork files.
In these cases, you may want to remove the entire container file, rather than just the symlink itself, as removing just a component could damage the container file and you may have problems when opening it.
After you remove the symlinks, it can take some time for syncing to get back to normal. I’d recommend rebooting and giving the desktop app some time to re-index and sync again.
Let me know how it goes, Ravinderjit-S!
Hello,
I had the same problem after adding a huge number of files. It seemed the PC app got stuck syncing and going nowhere.
I did the following steps and the snag got released:1- Quit the Dropbox app
2- Deactivate the antivirus
3- Uninstall Dropbox app
4- Restart the computer
5- Reinstall the newest version of Dropbox app (keep the antivirus deactivated)
6- Let the Dropbox sync.
And it worked.
Bests
