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!

Hey tsomek - thanks for the additional information and the screenshot too. Can you clear your browser's cache and/or try another browser and let us know if you still get the same results? Also, what is the Dropbox desktop app's exact status at the moment?

I am experiencing the same problems since last Monday (11/10/25), using Dropbox version 236.4.5918 on a Windows 11 laptop. It indicates that it is downloading over 720,000 files, but I did not initiate such a big download at all. Same as the other users reported, the Users/UserName/AppData/Local/Dropbox/logs folder gets filled up steadily until all free space (about 60GB) has been used up. During daytime (when other processes are active), the currently used log folder gets cleared after about 1 hour / 10,000 files in it (I can't indicate what exactly triggers this), but this does not seem to happen over night (similar to what exouk reported) and the log folder eventually fills up the entire hard drive, leaving 0 bytes of free space, and basically requires a shutdown and reboot of my computer in the morning.The Dropbox processes use large amounts of my computer's memory and CPU, but there does not seem to be any actual download activity as the log folder continues to grow in size even when I turn off my internet connection.In addition, Dropbox does no longer sync any new files that are added to local folders that are typically synced to the dropbox cloud.Same as with the other users, I haven't seen this before in the past 3+ years since I have been using Dropbox.I didn't uninstall Dropbox so far as that apparently didn't help the other users and just wanted to keep this running through the end (at a rate of 10,000 new log files per hour, that would have been about 72 hours), but that time frame also has long been passed by now.Any other suggestions what to try?

Thanks for keeping us in the loop on this exouk - much appreciated. I just wanted to add that if the reboot doesn't improve matters, you can also try clearing your cache folder. Let us know of any updates!

PS.I have noticed that, although it has been running it hasn't actually backed up anything of the 900GB! It has only managed to fill up my system drive to reach 0 free bytes.. the log folder reached more than 300GB in size.I then killed the dropbox app, which seemed to delete the log contents, but upon restarting the app am noticing it's filling up again quickly..

For reference, wanted to upload a couple of screenshots ofThe growing folder contentsthe status overlay when hoovering over the dropbox iconAnd seeing point 2, I have started suspecting older hard disk backups might be messing things up..The "1TB po.." that it seems to be downloading is an older hard disk, whose backup I have deleted.. So confused with all of this!

Hidden Dropbox logs folder is stuck, continually growing bigger, now beyond 300GB

22 Replies

Jasper B.3
Helpful | Level 5
3 days ago
Just to add that the update that rolled out today has not fixed the sync being stuck or the log file pileup. For now I'll continue not using dropbox. It's been close to two weeks now.
Nancy
Dropbox Community Moderator
4 days ago
Sorry to hear that, tyarc. When did this issue start on your computer approximately? Did you notice this after a specific update of your OS, or your Dropbox app?
tyarc
New member | Level 2
4 days ago
I'm also having this problem, log files are taking up my entire C drive causing my entire computer problems. I can temporarily resolve it by quitting dropbox desktop and deleting the logs but then my files don't get backed up! Very frustrating.
Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
12 days ago
Hi everyone, if you're still experiencing these issues, please could you contact the support team for them to look into this in more detail.
Jasper B.3
Helpful | Level 5
12 days ago
No change here either. Dropbox will not sync. Even when syncing is paused, it creates 100's of Gb of logs a day leading to data loss on my system drive. After running for an hour or so it also just crashes. I have to stop using the app until this is resolved, despite paying hundreds a year.
jusy
New member | Level 2
13 days ago
Unfortunately no success on my side. I stopped dropbox, deleted all files and folders in .dropbox.cache, rebooted, and restarted dropbox.
It created 6 new subdirectories in .dropbox.cache. They remained empty so far for about 2 days, but the problem still exists on my side: It still tries to download over 700,000 files. That number is exactly the same as before. As far as I can see in my log files, very little has been downloaded (if anything at all).
dropbox itself got updated to version 237.4.5655 on my side. Other than that, no obvious change. The log folder still gets filled, but eventually gets deleted after about 1 hour / 10,000 files during daytime (but not when no other processes are running at night).
I should mention that no new files or modified files have been synced since the start of this issue, i.e., for about 12 days now on my side.
I am wondering: What are those files in Users/[UserID]/AppData/Local/Dropbox/instancex (where x=3 on my side). Those are pretty big data base files and get updated regularly. I do not manually want to mess with them, but could they contain what dropbox tries to download (or upload) unsuccessfully - and could some of them be modified or deleted?
Jasper B.3
Helpful | Level 5
15 days ago
Just registering for updates as I'm also experiencing this. It's showstopping so I hope dropbox will address this asap
Megan
Dropbox Community Moderator
16 days ago
Hi exouk, thanks for the info here!

Happy to see that your issue is now resolved! If you need something else, please let me know and I will be more than happy to help every step of the way. 😇
exouk
Helpful | Level 5
17 days ago
Walter, thank you.
I'm glad to report that deleting .dropbox.cache after I let it fully sync, and a reboot has finally fixed the issue.
I think part of the issue was DB could not fully sync due to running out of HD space.
I hope some of the details on this post help others.

All the best.
Walter
Dropbox Community Moderator
17 days ago
Thanks for keeping us in the loop on this exouk - much appreciated.

I just wanted to add that if the reboot doesn't improve matters, you can also try clearing your cache folder.

Let us know of any updates!