My macOS desktop app has been stuck syncing 10MB for 3 days.

Hi sniffly! Thanks for your post and for all the details you’ve shared so far. 

To clarify, are you still seeing the error message that you mentioned at the beginning of your post? If you are, I’d appreciate a screenshot of it, to have a visual.

Other than that, I’d also like a screenshot showing the current syncing status of your Dropbox app. 

Finally, have you also tried reinstalling the Dropbox app in the meantime? If yes, did that make any difference? 

Let me know, and we’ll go from there.

Well, in predictable fashion, now that I finally posted about the problem, it has suddenly and miraculously vanished.

To answer your questions, though, no, the error message was gone as soon as I restarted Dropbox. And now 60 hours later, the syncing status is saying all files are up to date. I can confirm this because I just finished saving edits to the Scrivener files that Dropbox syncs, and it did so instantly, as it always has.

I reinstalled Dropbox after the data wipe two weeks, but I hadn't done it again.

Thanks for keeping me updated! Happy to hear your desktop app is now syncing once more.

In case something else occurs though, don’t hesitate to ping me here.

Hi there sniffly​ , and welcome to the Dropbox Community! 😊

I am glad to see your issue is resolved - having the your dropbox account stuck syncing such a small amount of data for days can definitely be puzzling and frustrating, so it’s great to hear things are finally moving normally again. Thanks so much for coming back to update the thread as well.

By the way, I’m Theresa 👩‍💻, one of the community managers here at Dropbox HQ. 

I’d love to know… what do you usually use Dropbox for? Whether it’s work files, personal projects, backups, or something else entirely, I’m always curious how people fit Dropbox into their day-to-day workflows.

Looking forward to hearing more,

T 😺 (Dropbox Community Manager)

It's happening again.

Today I was working on the file I sync through Dropbox. I then changed locations, joined a new network where I was having connectivity problems, got the connectivity straightened out, went to reopen the file, and just like last time, the finder said Dropbox couldn't be found. I restarted the computer. Now, for 2 hours, Dropbox has been claiming that it's syncing but showing no evidence of actually syncing. The icon up in the task bar shows the circle of arrows, and when I click on it says syncing down at the bottom, but the arrows aren't turning and it's showing no files being synced. Again, I use Dropbox for only one file, so it should never take more 10 seconds for it sync.

Worse still, because the thing it's supposedly syncing is the file I'm trying to work on, when I try to open it, the program (Scrivener) crashes. Three or four times I've restarted the computer but I can't get Dropbox to finish doing whatever it think it's doing.

According to my Activity Monitor, something called fileproviderd is working at 70–100%.

An update: on the fifth or sixth try, I finally got the file and program to open without crashing. So that's good. I can at least get back to work. But Dropbox is still stuck syncing and my laptop sounds like a jet engine because fileproviderd is hovering around 99%.

Thanks for the update on this sniffly - much appreciated.

Can you close and relaunch the Dropbox desktop app and/or reboot your computer and let us know if this persists?

If it does, please send us a screenshot of the app's exact status as shown in your menu bar. 

Quit and rebooted. Tried twice, both times I got messages that it can't restart. Nevertheless fileproviderd is still going crazy.

Can you also forward us the whole error log as shown in your screen after you click on the hyperlink shown in your screenshot's error message sniffly? 

bn.BUILD_KEY: Dropbox

bn.VERSION: 241.4.4795

bn.constants.WINDOWS_SHELL_EXT_VERSION: 89

bn.is_frozen: True

machine_id: db23d940-45b0-57f5-86d9-b08a6b0fef65

pid: 1217

ppid: 1

uid: 501

user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=501, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx', pw_dir='/Users/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx', pw_shell='/bin/zsh')

effective_user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=501, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx', pw_dir='/Users/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx', pw_shell='/bin/zsh')

euid: 501

gid: 20

egid: 20

group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root'])

effective_group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root'])

DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH: None

cwd: '/'

real_path='/'

mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0

parent mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0

HOME: '/Users/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'

appdata: '/Users/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/.dropbox/instance1'

real_path='/Users/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/.dropbox/instance1'

mode=0o40700 uid=501 gid=20

parent mode=0o40755 uid=501 gid=20

dropbox_path: '/Users/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox'

real_path='/Users/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox'

mode=0o40700 uid=501 gid=20

parent mode=0o40755 uid=501 gid=20

sys_executable: '/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox'

real_path='/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox'

mode=0o100775 uid=501 gid=20

parent mode=0o40775 uid=501 gid=20

trace.__file__: '/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'

real_path='/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'

not found

parent not found

tempdir: '/var/folders/s9/mrydg93j4971_lgxny5vq1gw0000gn/T'

real_path='/private/var/folders/s9/mrydg93j4971_lgxny5vq1gw0000gn/T'

mode=0o40700 uid=501 gid=20

parent mode=0o40755 uid=501 gid=20

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "desktop/dropbox/client/main.py", line 7214, in _setup_root_for_account

File "desktop/dropbox/client/main.py", line 7548, in _get_root_for_account

File "desktop/dropbox/sync_root/helpers.py", line 594, in get_root_for_account

File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.py", line 934, in result

File "../mac_x86_64_dropbox_virtual_env/lib/python3.8/threading.py", line 890, in _bootstrap

File "../mac_x86_64_dropbox_virtual_env/lib/python3.8/threading.py", line 932, in _bootstrap_inner

File "desktop/dropbox/db_thread.py", line 100, in run

File "<string>", line 1, in _x__db_thread__sleep_thread

File "desktop/dropbox/db_thread.py", line 39, in set_name_and_run

File "../mac_x86_64_dropbox_virtual_env/lib/python3.8/threading.py", line 870, in run

File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/runtime/__init__.py", line 731, in decorated

File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/sleep/__init__.py", line 169, in _run

File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.py", line 751, in set_result

File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.py", line 714, in _on_post

File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.py", line 1114, in _stage1

File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.py", line 451, in _then_callback

File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/helpers.py", line 527, in <lambda>

File "desktop/dropbox/sync_root/handlers/macos/file_provider.py", line 607, in _get_mount_path

dropbox.mac.internal.MacError: [Errno -2001] Error Domain=NSFileProviderErrorDomain Code=-2001 "No valid file provider found with identifier ‘com.getdropbox.dropbox.fileprovider/89d34a8c-ea13-4711-8cea-a576164c7c98’." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=No valid file provider found with identifier ‘com.getdropbox.dropbox.fileprovider/89d34a8c-ea13-4711-8cea-a576164c7c98’., NSUnderlyingError=0x600003b385d0 {Error Domain=NSFileProviderErrorDomain Code=-2012 "(null)"}}