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Persistent issue: upload speeds are incredibly slow for years
Dropbox upload speeds are incredibly slow. Issue persists for years. Dropbox mods shut down discussions
I have seen complaints from many people that Dropbox upload speeds are incredibly slow. Often less than 50 kBps. I have experienced this issue intermittently for years, but over the past 3 months it has become a daily problem. Many temporary fixes have been posted, but I have yet to see any permanent solution. Common to most reports is that this issue doesn't affect other cloud services, so it's clearly a problem with Dropbox and not with people's caches, system preferences, browsers, or ISPs. I can confirm this: when my Dropbox uploads slow to a crawl, my Google Drive upload speeds are 100x faster for same file.
I have found that these steps will sometimes resolve the problem but it now recurs after a day or 2:
1. Quit dropbox app
2. plug ethernet cable into laptop
3. turn off laptop wifi
4. Restart modem & router
5. Restart dropbox app
This temporary fix seems to last a bit longer: logging out of dropbox, uninstalling and reinstalling dropbox, then logging back in. But this results in a very lengthy re-indexing process, so it's not something I want to be doing on a regular basis.
You can see a couple of the past discussions, starting 6 years ago:
https://www.dropboxforum.com/discussions/101001014/ridiculously-slow-upload-speeds/395342
https://www.dropboxforum.com/discussions/101001014/upload-app-sync-speed-is-very-slow-on-macos-/801174
Despite being marked "solved" this is an ongoing issue. The OP of the second discussion requested that mods remove the "solved" flag, but they refused and subsequently blocked new comments in the discussion: https://www.dropboxforum.com/discussions/101001014/upload-app-sync-speed-is-very-slow-on-macos-/801174/replies/824433
Dropbox staff person Hannah has been involved in both these discussions so mods are definitely aware that this is an issue that has persisted for years.
What's going on? For many years Dropbox was a great service, but it really seems like they're neglecting their core service. Is the only solution moving to a different cloud storage service?
14 Replies
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- Megan
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey thecargocultnz, thanks for the info!
Do you face slow upload speeds only when using the Dropbox desktop app, or does this also happen when you're uploading through the Dropbox website too?
Do you have any proxy, VPN, firewall, security software, or even ISP/router settings that could be restricting traffic to the following Dropbox domains?
Can you check if the Dropbox bandwidth settings have any limits set?
Always using the desktop app on all of my computers. Yesterday when I was desperate, I tried the web interface and it was no better. But that's a sample size of 1, so dont put to much importance on it.
Windows machine on same network is incredibly fast to upload.
No proxy, VPN, firewall, security software or weird router setup - as I said -the windows machine is fine, and both my macOS15 and macOS12.5 systems have terrible DB upload speeds.
Dropbox bandwidth setting are unlimited. As I said - everything is at default - it's a clean install of the OS and DB.
speedTest.net (depending on the day)
Up: ~300-400Mbps
Down: ~600-900Mbps
Can you now admit you have a fundamental issue with macOS. Please tell me one way or the other because I'm trying to run a business around Dropbox and right now I'm being crippled. I've been paying for this service since the early days so I think I deserve an honest answer- Jay
Hi thecargocultnz, in order to look into this matter in more detail, I'd recommend contacting the support team directly for them to investigate further.
I know I've done that in the past and it was pointless. "Have you restarted?" Have you upgraded to the latest MacOS? etc. etc. Dodging and gaslighting. You have an issue -there is no doubt.
