all 'FILE EXPLORER' FILE icons flashing whenever dropbox is running

Hey peeps, thanks for reports on this!

If you've already checked out Walter's earlier post, could you also check if you've got the latest stable version of our desktop app installed?

You can do this by hovering over the Dropbox icon that's on your system tray or menu bar. 

If you find that you have the beta version installed (which can be recognized from xx.3.xx):

1. Go to your General tab in your online Settings. 
2. Uncheck the box next to "Include me in early releases" if it is checked.
3. Download and install the latest version of the desktop app. 

Let me know if this helps!

Exactly the same as mine.  Window 10 here.

Hey clevercrow1, thanks for checking in with us!

Could you please let me know if you've tried reinstalling the desktop app by any chance? 

If you haven't, please have a look at my post above where I mention the exact steps to follow. 

Let me know what you find!

I have reinstalled a number of times. Given that I have close to a million file, this took well over a month. Not keen to do it again, as it is unlikely to help.

Robert

Yep, this is exactly the behavior mine is exhibiting...driving me absolutely insane!

Hey peeps, thanks for nudging us on the thread. 

robertcz, since you've already given a reinstall a try - awesome work by the way - could you also check for me how many files you have in your Dropbox folder by right-clicking and selecting Properties?

If you find that you have more than 300,000 files, although this is a soft limit that greatly depends on the hardware specifications of the computer running the app, it can negatively affect the performance of the desktop app. 

If you've checked that and you're still having trouble, try the steps in this article to see if they help. 

Likewise, RonAZ1, please try the same steps and let me know how it goes. 

Keep me posted, everyone!

Replying to my earlier post after sending two other emails directly to Dropbox Support.

Here's another video...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/n8ylwhahwf5ywbv/VID_20200106_222854.mp4?dl=0Ok...

I haven't heard back from you regarding the previously submitted videos and information, nonetheless, I am providing another video from yet another computer.

In fact, my ability to use Dropbox is significantly compromised by the slowness of the blinking video issue.  To recap, I have two OTHER computers that BOTH exhibit this problem and many people have reported this issue for a long time and it's really disappointing that no REAL fix for this issue has been provided to ANY of the users reporting this problem.

So because I was having such difficulty using my files, I BROUGHT a brand new Dell laptop (my other two machines are HPs) and with only the basic supplied files, I installed the latest Dropbox App and set everything to "Online Only". 

After the files completed syncing, I took a few of the Dropbox folders and changed them to "Local". 

From the 1 minute video above, you can see the behavior of the system (EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE VIDEOS SHOWING THE PROBLEM WHILE RENAMING OR MOVING FILES).

So folks, this is beyond acceptable.  I will be posting portions of this email to the Dropbox Community so that others who are having this problem can see the behavior and determine if it's the same problem they may be experiencing.I would also like to build a little fire under you guys.  I'm disappointed that none of my previous emails have been acknowledged despite being asked by Dropbox support to provide more information.Your reply would be most appreciated but YOUR SOLUTION would really be BETTER.

Lusil, I tried the reinstall and selected fewer folders to selectively sync with the local folder.  Same issues. It's problematic and needs a solution.  I'll be cancelling my service soon if there isn't a fix. I can't work like this much longer.

@Lusil, I'm in complete agreement.  I'm also considering cancelling my service soon if there isn't a fix.  Dropbox used to be reliable and convenient.  When it stops having those qualities and when Customer Support inanely keeps saying the same "update your desktop app and let us know what happens" it's time to consider other options.  Someplace I remember reading the words, "Oh how the mighty have fallen!"  Let's see, was it ToysRUs or Sears or KMart ???  Well, hope Dropbox wakes up from their deep sleep and gives us a solution soon.

Any may I suggest, why do we need all these different versions of icons in the first place?  When Dropbox first came out, I don't think there were multiple icons to show the file status.  Can you put an option into the preferences to NOT USE ICON FILE STATUS?  

Also, the whole idea of "cloud only files" doesn't seem to be very well implemented.  Programs such as image viewers and Office products get very confused and generate error messages when encountering "offline" files.

Sorry to hear that you’re still having trouble with this and thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us, RonAZ1 and clevercrow1.

RonAZ1, I’ve sent you a ticket to the email address connected to your Community profile so that we can have a better look into this together. When you have the chance, please check your inbox and we’ll take it from there.

clevercrow1, I’m sorry to hear about your frustration and I do understand how important this is for you.

I was able to find your ticket that’s been forwarded to a specialized member of my team and have made sure to pass all your comments along to them.

I’d recommend continuing to troubleshoot with them as they have internal tools that will help the investigation towards the correct path.

As soon as they have more info on the matter, they’ll get back to you via email. Rest assured, they’ll do their best to assist you.

If there’s anything else I can help with, please don’t hesitate to get back to me. Thanks!

Thanks, Lusil.  I hope to get to the ticket today. 

Hi all,

Thought I would let everyone having this problem (blinking icons) know of a solution that may save your sanity.  Here's the letter I shared with Jack of Support.

Thanks clevercrow1  Tell me if you also have a problem with Windows File Explorer "losing" the drive where your Dropbox local folder resides.  That is the most frustrating part of the problem for me.  If it "disappears" while I'm working on a document, I can't be assured that my changes will be saved to the cloud.  It's the main problem I have.  I will try the other file manager and see if that helps.  Thanks for sharing!

Lusil  I tried to start the ticket, but for some reason my password didn't work. Hope that's not the start of another problem...will dig into it later tonight.

Hi Ron,

Fortunately for me, I have not experienced the disasterous problem you have also encountered.  I felt the blinking icons and slow return to normalcy were bad but if you lose track of your drive, that would be really bad.  In my case, it would be my C: drive and obviously disasterous.  Best of luck as we work to solve this.

At present, I'm experimenting with "the other white meat" since I'm sure this has nothing to do with any of the three computers I am having problems with.  Just moved a fairly big chunk of my files to THAT sharing program and going to give it a try.  Since I'm an Office 365 subscriber the first terabyte of storage is free.

Regarding my using a different file explorer, I'm already seeing this is far from a perfect solution since my Office products always use the same "explorer" as the Windows Explorer, so unless I'm just pushing files around, anything I do within Office (mainly Word and Excel) will be still blinking.

Final observation, while the files are syncing with Dropbox (until it reports "Up to Date") you can still see the Free Manager I'm using occasionally twitching... it's not as annoying as the BLINKING but until Dropbox is finished, there are hints of its transferring files.

Best, Tim

Hi Tim,

So now I think I might be having 2 problems at the same time, the Dropbox issue and also maybe a bad cable on the hard drive.  I'm going to switch over to a laptop docked to my monitor system and see how that works, while I figure out what to do about my desktop computer.  I just don't have time to try to figure it all out while I'm as busy as I am.  Thanks again for sharing your findings.

Best,

Ron

Glad to hear that your one problem has a straightforward logical explanation.

Hope that Dropbox support is able to make progress on our common problem.

Hey RonAZ1, sorry to hear that you're having trouble getting back to me via email.

I'd sent you a ticket to the email connected to your Community profile. You can check which email is associated from here by:

1. Clicking on the Dropbox logo on the top left corner of this page. 
2. Selecting your avatar on the top right corner. 
3. Clicking on Settings. 
4. Under Basics in the General tab, you should find the email in question. 

If for any reason you can't access that email address right now or you can't find my message, you can submit a ticket via this link and let me know the ticket ID that's created. 

Try again and I'm here if you have any trouble along the way. :slight_smile:

clevercrow1, thank you once again for sharing your ongoing investigation with us. I'm afraid though there's not much further I can do from my end. My colleague who specializes in this and who's reviewing this case for you would be better equipped to answer your questions on the matter. 

Thank you for your continuous effort and time.

I submitted the ticket today. Thanks Lusil

I am just hoping to bump a reply as to the solution to this problem. Windows 10, flashing happens whenever files are updating.

Brings file management in dropbox using explorer to a halt. As organizing files is what causes the problem, its devastating to productivity. 

If only the dropbox desktop could recognize a folder rename or move for what it is, and replicate the change on the server instead of deleting and reuploading every renamed file. It has to be doing that if the files are online only anyway.

Obviously, we could probably solve the problem by changing to online only, but that doesn't suit everyone.

Since this never used to be an issue, it almost seems like it was a problem intentionally introduced in order to push people to online only. I can understand why that is preferable to Dropbox. But it is also preferable to most people who have limited bandwidth. There are ways to push people toward that goal (incentives, surcharge for the fully local option) that are better than disrupting countless hours of real people's work.

Hello Jspangehl,

In my case going silent deserves some comment and I'll also comment on your concern that this is intentional.

After several rounds of suggestions for different kinds of reinstallation of the Dropbox app from the tech support person assigned to my case, I finally was unable/unwilling to continue to just "try things" in order to find a solution to the blinking icons.

In my case, I was having the problem on three different machines where the machines were of different types and ages.  In that the problem was universal with "me" I was unwilling to keep trying things on individual machines and concluded that the problem was NOT with my machines, per se, but affect many many Dropbox users.

In the meantime, I had been experimenting with OneDrive and found no issues whatsoever when I duplicated my file structure to MS.  One notible with this was that the method used to indicate the status of the files in OneDrive is much different than Dropbox.  

So I don't think your comment about Dropbox doing anything intentionally to drive the community to use Online only can be supported.  I don't see why that would benefit them particularly anyway.

However, I do believe this problem is widespread (much wider than just a few individuals reading this forum) and that it could be easily verified/produced on machines local to the Dropbox tech support.  If they had their hands on an affected computer CERTAINLY they should be able to duplicate the problem.  I conclude that it does what it does because of what they do when they are updating files.  From my viewpoint, whenever ANY file in the Dropbox structure the GRAPHICAL representation of the ENTIRE Dropbox Folder blinks constantly in the File Explorer until ALL updating/synching is occuring.

NOT MY PROBLEM... and as I hinted at, I found the OneDrive implementation to be without issues so I am only providing a duplicate folder structure in Dropbox STILL HOPING that their tech support people will announce a solution or release an update that eliminates the problem.  

I personally don't care to invest large chunks of my time to "try things" for Dropbox Tech Support.  This problem is WELL DEFINED and the basic mechanism is OBVIOUS albeit I don't know enough about Windows to know how they internally handle updating icons, etc.  That's Dropbox's problem.

Personally I was supprised by the assumption by Dropbox Tech support that the problem had something to do with "my machine" when all three of my machines were affected.  And that many other individuals also experience this problem kind of eliminates "my network" as the problem as well.

Good luck to us all and it would be nice to hear that THEY have finally announced a solution.  After weeks and weeks, I can't understand WHY this is so hard.

Has anybody actually had this problem solved? I only see complaints about it. 

I've been having the same problem for a long time but it finally became too much so I searched and found this sad thread.

Do I really have to switch to OneDrive?

(Yes, I've tried the solutions suggested here, among other things, and no, not interested in being a tester for dropbox)

I understand your frustration... I have it too.  Seems like it would be a problem that could be fixed by Dropbox programmers (well defined... when you have it, it's obvious and persistent.)  However, I, like you, have been plagued by the "blinking icons" while Dropbox syncs for long months with no one really working from known symptoms to a solution.

On the other hand, I have been "forced" by the situation to give OneDrive a try, and since I have a subscription to Office 365 and have a "free" 1T of OneDrive storage, and was surprised to find it far easier to work with "online" files and well integrated into File Explorer and other major software.

My last conversation with technical support via a chat window resulted in "nada" while I was fed some deliberately misleading information... namely, I asked if there were any programs etc. while would automate transfers among "clouds" so that files could be easily transferred.  I was told "No" ... but now that I have had time to research the issue I found a fairly large number of "cloud-cloud" syncing and xfer sites... some even having a "free" membership with limited data exchange (actually using that now to move some software off Dropbox).  Oh yeah... it's MultCloud.

So, sad to say, I have been underwhelmed by Dropbox not providing a solution within months knowing it is so obviously an understandable problem with known (to Dropbox programmers) how the issue of syncing employed whatever tools to provide the icon status.

I guess... see you one OneDrive.

10 months later, and the problem still persists. Is there any news from dropbox on this problem?

I probably am one of the few Dropbox users to have found a cure to the problem.

I simply migrated my gigs and gigs of files to OneDrive and I left Dropbox with the job of importing my new photos from my phone.  That's it...  I have since used OneDrive with utter pleasure and found additional benefits (like complete and transparent integration into all software applications.)

Since I was a Office365 subscriber, I already had enough space for my needs so my Dropbox account went back to a "free" status.

Well, I never heard back from anyone at Dropbox and I guess that's about all the effort they wanted to put into this mess.

Hope you all find satisfaction with this debilitating and needless problem.