Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨‍💻? Find out how to check here.

Forum Discussion

arled's avatar
arled
New member | Level 2
6 years ago

What happens when I pause (or exit) Dropbox during file syncing?

Let's say I have a 16GB file that is now syncing for the first time to the Dropbox cloud from a Windows PC, using the desktop app.

The file is 89% uploaded, I then pause Dropbox, the desktop app itself is still open, 12 hours later I resume Dropbox, does the upload continue from the same point?

And how does this work when instead of pausing, I exit the desktop app entirely?

I just can't determine what the behavior is and how I should handle syncing big files.

1 Reply

Replies have been turned off for this discussion
  • Daphne's avatar
    Daphne
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    6 years ago

    Hi there arled, thanks for reaching out to us here!

     

    If you pause the sync of the desktop app, when you resume the sync should continue where it left off. This is because the Dropbox folder contains a cache folder which assists in the syncing of the desktop app.

     

    If you were to quit the app and restart it at a later point, most likely the app will again continue where it left off after doing a quick re-index of the files to check for changes.

     

    However, this would depend on how long you have the app closed for as the cache folder automatically empties around every few days. If the cache folder is emptied then the sync would start again for the file.

     

    I hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions!

About Create, upload, and share

Find help to solve issues with creating, uploading, and sharing files and folders in Dropbox. Get support and advice from the Dropbox Community.

The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X, Facebook or Instagram.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!