Sync is getting stuck and won't complete

I had a similar issue after the upgrade to Sonoma 14.0 this morning (MacBook Air 2020, 13”, Intel, running Dropbox v183.4.7058) but it seems to have resolved (at least for now).

After the upgrade, Dropbox did a complete re-index of my several thousand files (thankfully found no changes), then I got stuck in the “Sync’ing” situation with no further info. Was still going after an hour.

Noticed after loading Activity Monitor and sorting processes to show highest CPU usage that “fileproviderd” was using 80% CPU. Files in Dropbox show sync’d and available offline (green checkmark, my preference) however, but something was clearly still going on.

Since restarting, I notice a bit of ad-hoc sync’ing on startup (sometimes a few minutes), then it seems to settle down and show finished.

Must admit, I will be watching this carefully before upgrading my other (main) laptop, and might wait for the 14.1 release.

I think what I encountered on my MacBook Air may not be common thankfully.

I just also (perhaps unwisely, but what the heck) also upgraded my MacBook Pro 13” 2022 Apple M2… with zero issues. Dropbox sync’d cleanly right after Sonoma installation.

So perhaps, given it’s my older machine that seemed to require a complete re-sync/index by Dropbox, that it’s just the sheer complexity of the state of an older installation, its configuration & cache etc. The M2 (which had no issues) had only had Dropbox installed on it about a week ago.

Hope the above helps and that those encountering this sync issue are finding it eventually resolves, maybe after a restart or two or some time.

Thank you iancackett, Megan , Hannah 

The problem seems to have been solved.

I tried deleting some folders and dropping them back in and it appears to have worked!

The icon is no longer stuck and I have the "up to date" message.

Thanks again for all of your help and suggestions

I accidentally deleted some files and have now gone back to dropbox to a backup prior to the deleted files. I am downloading the deleted files to my laptop.  The computer is going very slowly and for the past two days has noted-  indexing 2 files, uploading 66 files and downloading 37 files.  I initially had about 300,000 files downloading.  I have adequate hard drive space and also adequate dropbox storage space remaining.  Could it be certain files will now back up?  Is is possible for me to review te files not yet backed up?  And if they do not back up can I exclude backup of these files?

Thanks!

Hey GLDROP, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Since it's been a couple of days, can you let us know if you're still having this issue?

If you do and since you mentioned that you have about 300K files in your Dropbox folder, can you use our selective sync feature, to remove some folders from your Dropbox folder and see if it helps the syncing progress?

Hi,

I'm finding that my syncing is stuck at 15,000 roughly, and when looking at the dropbox control panel, it's stating that a few files are "waiting to sync".

I have tried everything at this stage, including;

- Clear dropbox cache

- Restart dropbox

- Delete and re-add files to dropbox

- No syncing issues present

Could anyone help me resolve this? I have just subscribed to a 2TB version for my business and since then it appears none of my files are syncing. I work from home on my PC, where I add, delete and edit files via dropbox, but I need access to the same folders and files when out on site or at our office. I can't fix this issue myself, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

I look forward to a response.

Thank you.

Hi JasonC32, sorry to hear about your syncing issue.

Could you let me know the app's exact status and version as shown in your system tray/menu bar?

Also, are you able to see which file isn't able to sync from within File Explorer? Are there any files listed there?

Let me know what you find. 

I currently have the above information showing on my tray when I hover over it. It's been stuck here for a few weeks now. I stop syncing and deleted some of the files that were syncing last week, but it's now stuck on the next files which are .mov files. It cycles with different estimated times as well, but doesn't appear to actually be syncing anything at all.

I'm not sure where to find the version of the app. Could you point me in the right direction.

Many thanks.

Hi from me too, JasonC32!

You can check your app’s version by hovering over the small Dropbox icon in your system tray (right before you open the menu showing in your screenshot). 

Just to clarify, does the number of the syncing files seem to change at all, or is it completely stuck? 

Also, the .mov files that you’re having trouble syncing at the moment, can you let me know what’s their approximate size?

Good Morning Nancy,

Apologies for the delayed response. I have been on-site all week.

I hover over the app icon and it only tells me the sync status, see the following screenshot;

The amount of sync files doesn't change, it just flicks up and down with duration, but number of files remains complete.

The approx. size of the currently files stuck in syncing is as follows;

- IMG_7587 = 10.5 MB

- IMG_7588 = 10.8 MB

- IMG_7583 = 11.2 MB

Thank you.