.tmp files being created in C:\Program files(x86)\Dropbox\Temp

Hey mtuckervisualedgeit, thanks for letting us know about this.

These temporary files only exist in the program folder, right, not in your Dropbox folder as well?

Also, which version of the app are you using?

You can see that along with the sync status of the app, by hovering over the Dropbox icon in your system tray.

Let me know what you find.

What was the solution to this?

I also see the question here with no solution.

https://www.dropboxforum.com/discussions/101001015/why-is-my-computer-being-filled-with-tmp-files-in-the-dropbox-program-folder/788592

slawson2000, can you share a few more details with us? 

For example, is this something that just started happening on your desktop app or has it been an issue ever since you installed Dropbox on your computer? 

Can you send me a few screenshots of what you see on your end?

Actually this is a friends computer so I do not have access a the moment.  He ran out of space on his hard drive and this seemed the culprit, about 125G.   However if you to the link above it looks almost identical to the picture in that thread.

The files are in the Program Files (x86)\Dropbox\Temp folder and dated back a to September.  We deleted up to the beginning of December to get him operational. 

The screenshot is almost identical to the one in the link above.  The files are on Program File (x86)/Dropbox/Temp.  About 125Gb.  The dated back to September.  We deleted up through the beginning of December to get the computer workable again.  About 55Gb.

Not sure when or what caused it, it just became a problem when the drive was full

Thanks for clarifying. Can you also tell me the syncing status and app version of the Dropbox app he's running?

Am chiming in to help the other person. 

Am seeing the same behavior on my company user account.  Dropbox has been installed for ~6 years on a Windows 2016 server that I use for automation. 

Dropbox 214.4.5217, shows up to date.

The first I was made aware of the issue was about six weeks ago, when our contract IT noticed the C: drive was out of space.  C:\Program Files (x86)\Dropbox\Temp   had ~180Gb of files/directories named "GUMxxxx.tmp, where xxxx is a random sequence of 2-4 letters and numbers.  We were unsure what was going on so we exited Dropbox, purged, rebooted.  From all indications, these files are detritus.

Although I have not done any deep dive into this, after removal, these continue to accrue at about 1Gb per day.  For context, our Dropbox space usage is about 3Gb, 6,464 files, 1,417 folders total.   I'd estimate that 25Mb, 500 files change daily.

Filenames are illustrated below.  (The errors are because I used cygwin's find command to try to delete everything, but the location requires admin rights.  I removed them via GUI.)

Hope this helps.

More information:

• Temp file accumulation is approximately 3.4Gb a day.  
• Accumulation occurs in two batches, at approximately 01:16 and 12 hours later, 13:16
• In an average day, there are 18 (empty) directories and 18 files created.
• If the directory name is GUMxxxx, the file name will be GUT(xxxx+1) where xxxx is a hex number.  Thus, these are related.
• Average file size is 192Mb (* 18)

Also: the .tmp files are POSIX tar archives.  Here is their contents:

Looks like the update process which fires off multiple times per day. Could it be that the update is failing, possibly because Windows Server is not supported, and each retry is downloading a new update file?