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Forum Discussion
Solved
Hidden Dropbox logs folder is stuck, continually growing bigger, now beyond 300GB
Application Affected
(Dropbox app & backup)
Device
(Optiplex 3060 i5-8500, 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD)
Operating System/Browser (if using the web)
(Windows 10)
Dropbox App Version (if using the app)
(236.4.5918)
Question or Issue
For the past few days, a folder called "log" within the dropbox system folders, specifically "C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Dropbox\logs" is constantly growing and growing.. occupying my entire hard disk! please help..
Not sure if they're at all related, but the following points have recently changed in this computer:
1. I bought a new SSD for backup purposes, which I have set to backup by Dropbox
It's 2TB, 900GB of which are occupied, it's connected over USB and it doesn't seem to actually backup..
2. I removed Avast and installed Bitdefender instead. I was running Malwarebytes and Spybot in parallel, though these have now been removed.
I have noticed that the Tray Assistant almost maxes out my CPU use, as well..
Any ideas of how to troubleshoot/resolve this?
Many thanks!
Hi everyone - Thanks for highlighting this issue with the logs running away in size.
We believe we've found the problem and it is fixed in V240, the next Desktop release, which is slated for next week (week of Jan 20, 2026).
If you still have a problem after upgrading next week, please consider opening a support ticket so we can get the to bottom of your issue! We might need more detail than you'd prefer to post in a public forum thread.
35 Replies
I have solved the problem. I just deleted all the log files in Dropbox, and then logged out of my account from within Dropbox. Then I logged into my account again, and Dropbox re-indexed the files by itself. Now the space size is back to normal.
Dropbox filled up my hard drive with logs last night. It keeps continually creating new log files. I'm on Linux Mint:
$ ls .dropbox/logs/1/ | wc -l
20986
~ $ ls .dropbox/logs/1/ | wc -l
21210Same issue here on macOS Sequoia 15.7.2, Dropbox version 239.4.8301
I discovered today that my .dropbox/logs/1 folder had grown to 123 GB (65,535 files at ~1 MB each), completely filling my 500 GB drive.
After clearing the logs, they started growing again immediately — 1.6 GB within 15 minutes, even with Dropbox just doing a normal sync of ~70 files in the background.
Key observations:
- Dropbox process shows 100% CPU usage and ~8 GB RAM while this happens
- Logs continue to grow even after "quitting" Dropbox (helper processes stay alive)
- Had to use `pkill -9 -f Dropbox` to fully stop it
- This is a recent issue — never seen this in years of using Dropbox
This appears to be a regression in a recent Dropbox update. The logging is completely out of control and there's no log rotation happening.
For now I'm forced to keep Dropbox closed and periodically run cleanup scripts to delete the logs folder. This is not a sustainable workaround.
Please escalate this to engineering — multiple users are being affected and it's filling up drives overnight.
- Dell_Dropbox
Community Manager
razzamatazz thanks for flagging
We're aware of this issue and its actively being worked on, although I can't provide a timeline for updates I'll circle back in this thread when we know more.
Kristen_Support EngineerDropbox Staff
Hi everyone - Thanks for highlighting this issue with the logs running away in size.
We believe we've found the problem and it is fixed in V240, the next Desktop release, which is slated for next week (week of Jan 20, 2026).
If you still have a problem after upgrading next week, please consider opening a support ticket so we can get the to bottom of your issue! We might need more detail than you'd prefer to post in a public forum thread.
