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Why is the 'icon.db' file over 1 GB?
I'm trying to figure out why my C: drive is reporting so much disk consumption, even though I don't have much on it and I tracked down a few things in Dropbox.
In the AppData, it appears there are two "instances". Not sure on instances of what.... The first instance includes icon.db of over 1.3 gigabytes, while the second instance is a reasonable 23 megabytes. (Typically databases are simple references to files -- they don't usually include the files, so 23 mb seems normal, but 1.3 gb seems insane.)
%HOMEPATH%\AppData\Local\Dropbox\instance1\icon.db
- Over 1.3 GIGABYTES
%HOMEPATH%\AppData\Local\Dropbox\instance2\icon.db
- 23 megabytes
Can anyone explain the purpose of these db files and whether I can somehow reset, refresh, or purge them? (And, if so, how?)
Nathan
(web engineer)
1 Reply
Hi Nathan,
I understand your concern about the large icon.db file in Dropbox. Here's a simple explanation and steps to address it:
icon.db caches thumbnails and icons for files in Dropbox, helping to load previews faster.
Reason for size difference: The large size (1.3 GB) may be due to accumulated data over time or a glitch, while the smaller instance (23 MB) is more typical.
Steps to refresh/reset:
- Close Dropbox: Right-click the Dropbox icon in the system tray and select "Exit Dropbox."
- Delete icon.db: Go to %HOMEPATH%\AppData\Local\Dropbox\instance1\ and delete the icon.db file.
- Restart Dropbox: Open Dropbox again from the Start menu.
This should reset the cache. If the problem persists, consider reinstalling Dropbox.
Hope this helps!
Johnny
