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My Dropbox desktop app was updated on my Windows device. Now I can't tell if my content is synced.
OK, so the day I dreaded seems to have finally come.
Dropbox rolled out its "new appearance model" to production, bringing the end of the era of status icons overlaid on program icons and, instead, in their own neat little column carved out for themselves.
Yes, my Dropbox updated today to version 227.4.4774. ππ
So, in the process, it apparently had to "re-sync" my files, which took some time. It gave me the whole "you can have your files "Offline," "Available," or "Online Only." I always opt for "Offline." While I love Dropbox, I do not fully trust my files to be resident on your servers and not on my own drive. I just want it for sync. If I want more room, I'll upgrade my hard drive.
Anyway, I let Dropbox finish up its little sync party, and I came back to see what you see in the screen capture shown at the following link:
(For some reason, this forum wouldn't let me submit my post by using the "Insert Link" option in the editor, which is weird...your developers might want to look into that, too.)
The tray icon seemed to indicate that the "sync" was complete, and that my files were "up-to-date."
That doesn't appear to be the story my new-found little "column status icons" tell. Some of those indicate that a "sync" is "pending."
I gave it some time, I restarted my computer to make sure that any hiccups or belches might otherwise be resolved through that. No dice. It's still showing the same thing.
So now I'm confused. Are they synced, or are they not synced?
If they're synced, why does it show "sync pending"?
If they're not synced, why does the tray icon indicate that my files are "up-to-date"?
Help a brother out.
I feared this would be a mess.
33 Replies
I'm sorry, Megan. I don't have time for this. After all this back-and-forth, you're just now realizing that I got an update?
This update has worried me since I saw it in beta, and now that it's been released to production, it's still very woefully not ready for prime time.
I have tried everything. Quitting and relaunching. Rebooting. Updating to the next production release after the one that initiated the problem in the first place. Running in compatibility mode. You name it.
They couldn't leave well-enough alone, could they?
I'm ending my Dropbox subscription and have begun migrating to a new provider.
It's an awful shame, as I liked the service, but if there's so much as an inkling of a question as to whether or not I can control the residency of my data, all bets are off.
It would seem to me that, given the painstaking detail I've employed in describing the nature and symptoms of my issue, there really isn't much left to the imagination if someone is saying "I'm having that exact issue."
You would think so, right?! :)
I too would also make an assumption that this update isn't properly checking nor displaying the actual sync status of files.
Even after updating to 228.4.5567 (Windows 10), restarting the app, and restarting, the tray icon is stuck at "Syncing "Public"" folder.
Upon checking the contents of "Public" folder, only one folder (let's call it Folder A) among the rest has a "Sync Pending" status.
Upon checking the contents of Folder A:
- Folder B (which was already set to "Make available offline" multiple times) has a status of "Sync Pending" instead of "Always available on this device"
- Checking the contents of Folder B - all items are synced and with status of "Always available on this device"
- Right-clicking on Folder B shows an option of "Make online-only"
- Folder C (which was already set to "Make available offline" multiple times) has a status of "Available when online" instead of "Always available on this device"
- Checking the contents of Folder C - all items are synced and with status of "Always available on this device"
- Right-clicking on Folder C shows an option of "Make online-only"
Given the above examples, it's pretty clear that even if you set the correct modes on folders (and supposedly their contents) it will get randomly stuck at a status that is inconsistent with its supposed sync state. The contents of the folders mentioned in the example above don't even contain large files, they're just mostly a dozen or so small office documents.
I even went ahead and exited the app, stopped DbxSvc as well, deleted the contents of .dropbox.cache, restarted DbxSvc and the app after clearing the cache - still the issue described above persists.
- Folder B (which was already set to "Make available offline" multiple times) has a status of "Sync Pending" instead of "Always available on this device"
- Hannah
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey everyone, since the issue described on this thread is similar to what's on this thread, can you take a look at Vlad's response, to see if it helps?
I literally left my computer on since the update took place. It's been days. If it takes that long for the app to play nice with Windows, I don't feel confident in the longer term cooperation.
Like I said, I'm migrating away from Dropbox. If I cannot have control over where my data lives, it's no longer the solution for me.
I'll try the other workarounds (options 2 and 3) listed.
Honestly though, the "give it a bit more time" option (1) seems kind of "outrageous" at this point given that a day or so has passed and it's still showing those inconsistent statuses for folders mentioned in the example that total to only around 22MB in size all in all.
On a related note, what's frustrating is that this only started when the new "Dropbox for Windows" update that uses "Cloud Files API" got installed.
Is there an option to have a more extensive or exhaustive log (like verbose log files) of what's actually happening with the app rather than just activity log when you right-click on the tray icon? It feels like guesswork when troubleshooting this issue based on just what the UI is displaying.
Anyway, moving the "affected" child folders in and out of Dropbox changed their status to "Always available on this device" - which is great, as that was the intention.
However, the parent folders still did not change their status from "Sync pending" even when the child folders were moved out, nor when they were moved back in.
Frankly, if the last resort is to opt out of the "Dropbox for Windows updates" which disables the purpose of this new update then I guess that just eliminates the need for having the said update in the first place.
I would have preferred to have been able to troubleshoot this issue more thoroughly with actual verbose logging and not just relying on what's displayed in Windows Explorer or the app's Activity Log when you right-click on the tray icon.
On another note, the said update itself should have even respected all the existing sync settings for all folders and items when it installed but instead it re-downloaded to disk all folders and items that were originally marked as "Online-only". Fortunately, there was enough physical disk space to accommodate what happened and had to redo granular sync settings, but it shouldn't have been necessary.
This shouldn't necessitate any material movement of folders from their original locations to function correctly. With as long as this update has been in beta, that's a facet of this production that should have been worked out prior to release to the wild.
While I won't mention publicly the solution to which I'm migrating, it doesn't offer an "online-only" option, which is precisely how I want it. I just want something that syncs across devices. I accept full and complete responsibility for ensuring that sufficient disk space exists to accommodate the data I want synced.
