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andy03's avatar
andy03
Helpful | Level 5
2 years ago
Solved

Upload app sync speed is insanely slow compared to web speed

Located in South Africa.  I have 500 mbps down/100-200 mbps upload.   When I use the browser to upload 1 gb, it uploads in a minute or so. When I upload the same 1gb via the dropbox app, it c...
desktop
sync
upload
Web
  • morgele's avatar
    morgele
    1 year ago

    I'm replying to this thread 8 months later to share that I was having the exact same problem with Mullvad VPN installed.  When I was off the VPN I was getting 10-30kb/sec with a lot of pauses.  Turned it on and speed immediately shot to 400-600kb/s and sustained.  If you have a VPN, even if it's off, test if the VPN software is causing the problem!

andy03's avatar
andy03
Helpful | Level 5
2 years ago

Thank you for the answer, Rich. I'm aware of the conversion of kbs>mbps. Its why I felt I needed to write here.

My other PC in a different location with the same internet speeds has the dropbox app at that point is uploading 1gb within a minute or two as well. But this PC and app, the internet speed is the same but the upload speed is throttled big time. I'm not sure what to point at because again, the disparity is huge. I work in VFX and I need to upload 10-100 gb/day. 1 gb taking 1 hour to upload is just not feasible.

Especially when I upload it to the website in 1 minute and it is immediately available for syncing on my desktop app and is able to sync/download at 26,000 kb/s. 

 

So why is my downloads speed 26,000 kb/s and upload speed crawling at 160 kb/s in the app? That's my big question. I can see what you wrote making sense, but it doesn't account for the same file tested at a different location/PC with the exact same speeds on internet speed tests, but uploading much faster?

Jay's avatar
Jay
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
2 years ago

Hi andy03, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

 

Do you have any proxy, VPN, firewall, security software, or even ISP/router settings that could be restricting traffic to the following Dropbox domains?

 

This will help me to assist further!

  • andy03's avatar
    andy03
    Helpful | Level 5
    2 years ago

    I have installed NordVPN. However, I only enable Nord VPN when I absolutely need it. Most of the time, it is off. For these upload tests, I also had the NordVPN app off/VPN turned off.

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

      If the app is uploading slowly to the Dropbox servers, then something could be throttling that connection. Are you certain that you have no other software that could be monitoring the Dropbox folder or app?

       

      Have you contacted your ISP for further assistance on this matter?

      • andy03's avatar
        andy03
        Helpful | Level 5
        2 years ago

        I just opened a laptop with a wifi connection, uploaded the same 1gb file. It took exactly 5 seconds to upload it to dropbox servers using the desktop app on the same internet connection.

         

        As for software, I don't know. I don't use any firewalls, VPNs when I can help it. Short of reformatting my PC, i don't know what else to do.

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