My Mac is stuck at "Syncing" after updating my OS.

Hi ryofurue, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Does the issue go away after rebooting your device or quitting and relaunching the app by any chance?

Could you confirm where your Dropbox folder is currently located on your machine?

Feel free to also hover your mouse over the little Dropbox icon on your menu bar, next to your WiFi and clarify the version you're using, along with the app's current syncing status.

I’d also like you to right-click on your local Dropbox folder directly, select “Get info” and send me a screenshot of the next window you’ll see. 

Keep me posted!

1. I started the machine. Dropbox is launched. "Starting..." -> "Syncing..." --- Dropbox was stuck here. I waited for 10 minutes before going to the next step.
2. I then quitted Dropbox and launched it again (from /Applications/). "Starting..." -> "Syncing 11 files..." -> "Syncing..." --- Dropbox was stuck here. I waited for 10 minutes before going to the next step.
3. I then quitted Dropbox, restarted the machine, and logged in when the machine got up. Dropbox was automatically launched. "Starting..." -> "Syncing 11 files..." -> "Syncing 19 files..." -> "Syncing...". I waited for 10 minutes. Nothing changed.

In the above, my reports about "Syncing XX files" may not be accurate. It's possible that I just missed those temporary messages.

During the above experiment, I was working on another Mac.  When I altered some files on it, they are synced on the problematic machine. So, the basic mechanism of syncing seems to be working.

Could you confirm where your Dropbox folder is currently located on your machine?

`~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox/` . . . I confirm that none of the directories is a symbolic link.

Feel free to also hover your mouse over the little Dropbox icon on your menu bar, next to your WiFi and clarify the version you're using, along with the app's current syncing status.

Dropbox 217.4.4417

Syncing...

I’d also like you to right-click on your local Dropbox folder directly, select “Get info” and send me a screenshot of the next window you’ll see.

I don't know how to paste the screenshot here. I'll try to send it you if I find a way to do so.

I initially formatted the above message of mine using some quoting, but this website complains

Content Not Published
Your post contains invalid HTML. Remove the following invalid tags before publishing: a, span (style)

So, I copied the text and pasted it and posted. That's why quotations don't have any indication of quoting.

Megan wrote:

I’d also like you to right-click on your local Dropbox folder directly, select “Get info” and send me a screenshot of the next window you’ll see. 

I haven't been able to find out how to send you the image.

Hey ryofurue, thanks for the heads up and added info! 

You should be able to copy and paste your screenshot when replying to me. Alternatively, you can click the camera-like icon and attach it that way.

Do you have any proxy, VPN, firewall, security software, or even ISP/router settings that could be restricting traffic to the following Dropbox domains? 

If you do, try temporarily disabling those, to see if that helps.

You are right. I don't know why pasting didn't work when I last tried. Here is the "Get Info" screenshot.

Megan wrote:

Do you have any proxy, VPN, firewall, security software, or even ISP/router settings that could be restricting traffic to the following Dropbox domains? 

The problematic machine is my personal one without any additional security software. I don't use VPN on that machine. How can I check whether macOS's firewall or my router or ISP is blocking traffic to the Dropbox domains?  Can you think of a simple test?

Is it possible to tell which files Dropbox is currently trying to sync?  The "sync issues" is still empty.

Hi from me as well, ryofurue! From your screenshot, it looks like your device was in the process of calculating the size of the files in the Dropbox folder. If you give it a bit more time, does the size appear or does it keep calculating still? 

Other than that, I’d like you to restart the Dropbox app with these steps: 

1. Open your Dropbox desktop app if it isn’t running already.
2. Click the Dropbox icon in the menu bar at the top of your screen.
3. Click your profile picture or initials in the upper right of the window that appears.
4. Click Quit.
5. Open a new Finder window.
6. Click Applications.
7. Double-click the Dropbox icon.
   
   

If this doesn’t make any difference, please check whether you have a copy of the Dropbox.app file on your computer in these locations:

1. /Applications
2. ~/Library/Application Support/Dropbox
   
   

Let me know what you find once you’ve tried the above.

Nancy wrote:

it looks like your device was in the process of calculating the size of the files in the Dropbox folder. If you give it a bit more time, does the size appear or does it keep calculating still?

My machine has been up for more than 23 hours. There is no change. In the "Get Info" pane, it's still "Calculating Size" in gray. Dropbox keeps saying "Syncing..."

Nancy wrote:

Other than that, I’d like you to restart the Dropbox app with these steps: 

Open your Dropbox desktop app if it isn’t running already.
Click the Dropbox icon in the menu bar at the top of your screen.
Click your profile picture or initials in the upper right of the window that appears.
Click Quit.
Open a new Finder window.
Click Applications.
Double-click the Dropbox icon.

Dropbox didn't launch. Then I typed

ps -ef | grep -i dropbox

and found that there are some Dropbox processes. I killed one of the processes using the `kill` command.  All Dropbox-related processes were gone then. (I didn't use `-KILL` option.)

Then I launched Dropbox from /Applications/ and then Dropbox has been "Syncing..." for 10 minutes or so.

The "Get Info" pane has changed. The calculation of the size has been finished:

Nancy wrote:

please check whether you have a copy of the Dropbox.app file on your computer in these locations:

/Applications
~/Library/Application Support/Dropbox

/Applications/Dropbox.app exists.

~/Applications/ doesn't have Dropbox related things.

~/Library/Application Support/Dropbox/ exists. It's a directory.

None of these directories or files is a symbolic link.

Hey ryofurue - thanks for the additional information and clarifications.  Could you please send us a screenshot of the app's exact status as shown in your menu bar at the moment? 

Walter wrote:

a screenshot of the app's exact status as shown in your menu bar at the moment?

Do you mean this?