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ProfCJJ's avatar
ProfCJJ
Explorer | Level 4
2 years ago

Syncing issues on a new Apple MacBook Air - "syncing is paused while a file in this folder is open"

Hi

 

I have setup my new Mac and setup dropbox and the app has been synchronising for days - it has 1,200,000+ files left to sync and seems to be stuck.

 

Looking at "sync issues" there appear to be a dozen or so "syncing is paused while a file in this folder is open. Close the program using this file" errors. The files and folders in question are not being used by me and are not open. 

 

I am stuck - I need my files to synchronise so that I can get back to work - any help please?

 

I am on a MacBook Air M2 2023 running Ventura 13.6.3 - I have Dropbox Personal with 2TB of space of which in 1TB is used.

 

Thanks

 

Christopher

 

desktop
Error Messages
Mac
sync

22 Replies

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  • Nancy's avatar
    Nancy
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    2 years ago

    Welcome to our Community, ProfCJJ!

     

    From what you mention, it seems that there’s a very large amount of files trying to sync to the Dropbox app, which is most likely why you’re facing this issue. 

     

    In general, it’s not recommended to sync locally more than 300k at a time, as this may cause performance issues on the app.

     

    Instead, you can try using selective sync and remove any large folders you don’t need to have locally synced, so that we can exclude this as a cause. 

     

    Let me know if that seems to help.

    • ProfCJJ's avatar
      ProfCJJ
      Explorer | Level 4
      2 years ago

      Thanks for the response. I understand what you are saying - the dropbox folder sits on an external SSD drive so when I moved to new Mac I just plugged it into the new Mac so almost all files (barring probably about 50 files) are already on the drive - but clearly dropbox still needs to synchronise.

       

      I will try and see if I reduce the folders to just a few to see what happens ... however, what about the "sync issues" I pointed out? would they be stopping the sync process? the message given implies that it has?

       

      Cheers

       

      Christopher

       

      • Jay's avatar
        Jay
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
        2 years ago

        Hi ProfCJJ, could you test to see if syncing has stopped entirely by creating a test file and adding it into your Dropbox folder, as well as uploading a differently named file to the site directly, and let me know if both files synced?

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