On my OS X 10.9.5 system I'm seeing Dropbox consume CPU whenever anything on the file system changes, regardless of whether the changed files or folders are in the Dropbox synced folders. The CPU usage is proportionate to the rate of file system changes. When I'm running an installer that takes a long time and has high disk activity (e.g. installing a documenation update in XCode), then the Dropbox CPU usage goes through the roof and I see the Dropbox sync status change from 'up to date' to 'indexing'. For less sustained activities with less intensive file system changes, I see Dropbox just popup briefly in the list of top CPU consumers -- but it shouldn't be showing up at all (or certainly not at double digit CPU use and not for the duration of the file system activity. My guess is that Dropbox is simply listening for file system events and reacting to each one as if it might be change in a synced file or folder. It should be ignoring fsevents that are for items outside the Dropbox folders -- but it seems not to be the case. :-( :-( I'm on 3.0.3, but have been seeing this problem since the 2.* days. -- Dave Hein

I don't have any symlinks in the folder. I have very few files (less than 1000). Note: I've reported this before and gotten similar responses -- basically, the Dropbox support folks don't believe me. I'm giving up. My workaround now is simply to avoid running Dropbox at startup and to only start it when I want to sync and then keep it stopped otherwise. Eventually I'll move my Dropbox into some other cloud sharing/syncing system and stop using Dropbox entirely.

My iMac is always running at least Google Chrome, Apple Mail, Google Drive and DropBox but Activity Monitor shows DropBox consuming more CPU time than any other app and about 10x as much as Google Drive. I'm losing faith too!

I have a 2015 MacBook Pro with a 2.8GHZ processor that turbo boosts to 4.0GHZ, 500GB of flash storage and 16GB of RAM. The DROPBOX CLIENT IS CRUSHING MY MACHINE!!!! 150% of my CPU? That is obscene. That should never come to be. I am a software developer and know this is poor coding. You should be using a queuing structure or more manageable work units. I am currently a paying client of Dropbox and syncing is a critical part of cloud storage. There are too many competitors in the market for this to be even remotely acceptable.

I have the same problem, dropbox is simply eating most of my CPU usage all the time. I have running OS X, 4GM Ram, i7 (DropBox Team, 35,280 files). I re-install dropbox and re-installed my Mac, and nothing improved. What is bothering me more, that even my files are "up-to-date" DropBox's CPU usage is 20-40%.

I have the same issue: Every time I make any operations which modify a lot files anywhere outside the Dropbox directory Dropbox just consumes 100% CPU. I can reproduce this issue easily by just extracting a very large tar file (e.g. the Linux kernel sources) somewhere outside the Dropbox directory: Even with a completely empty Dropbox directory (that obviously contain no symlinks) I get a very high CPU use of the Dropbox process even though not a single file in the Dropbox directory was modified. I attached DTrace to the Dropbox process and can see it making thousands of system calls per second when I extract the tar file somewhere outside the Dropbox directory: Dear Dropbox developers, are you *sure* you're not listening to *all* filesystem events which happen in my user's directory? Because to me it completely looks like that and is the reason I get such a high CPU use when I make heavy filesystem operation which shouldn't bother Dropbox at all.

(OS X) Dropbox consuming a lot of CPU whenever any file or folder is changed anywhere

63 Replies

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Christopher N.1
Dropbox Staff
11 years ago
Hi Dave!

The Dropbox desktop client will only monitor changes to the Dropbox folder. Do you have any symlinks in your Dropbox folder, by any chance? If so, I'd recommend removing them, as this could be causing the high CPU usage.

Also, do you have a lot of files in your Dropbox folder? The performance of the Dropbox desktop client starts to decline when you have more than 300,000 files synced to one computer, as outlined in this Help Centre article:

https://www.dropbox.com/help/39

This is a soft limit, and depends highly on the hardware specifications of the computer running the Dropbox application. If you think this might be part of the problem, I'd recommend using Selective Sync (https://www.dropbox.com/help/175) to sync only the folders you need to work with to your computer.

Hope this helps :)
Dave H.
New member | Level 2
11 years ago
I don't have any symlinks in the folder. I have very few files (less than 1000).

Note: I've reported this before and gotten similar responses -- basically, the Dropbox support folks don't believe me.

I'm giving up. My workaround now is simply to avoid running Dropbox at startup and to only start it when I want to sync and then keep it stopped otherwise. Eventually I'll move my Dropbox into some other cloud sharing/syncing system and stop using Dropbox entirely.
Mustafa J.
New member | Level 2
11 years ago
I have the same problem, dropbox is simply eating most of my CPU usage all the time.
I have running OS X, 4GM Ram, i7 (DropBox Team, 35,280 files).
I re-install dropbox and re-installed my Mac, and nothing improved.
What is bothering me more, that even my files are "up-to-date" DropBox's CPU usage is 20-40%.
John H.7
New member | Level 1
11 years ago
My iMac is always running at least Google Chrome, Apple Mail, Google Drive and DropBox but Activity Monitor shows DropBox consuming more CPU time than any other app and about 10x as much as Google Drive. I'm losing faith too!
Pascal H.
New member | Level 1
11 years ago
Hi to you all,
I also have a problem with high CPU usage and temperature using dropbox.
iMac 27" i7 OSX 10.10.1, with on dropbox less then 50 files.
Seems dropbox gets stock in a loop. When I close dropbox the CPU usage/temperature comes to normale.
When I start dropbox again, slowly the CPU usage/temperature get higher. Even if I don't open any files.
Looks like a bug. Or something like a stack-overflow? Hopefully the dropbox-team will solve this soon.
Greetings from Holland,
Pascal
Don M.11
New member | Level 1
11 years ago
I have a 2015 MacBook Pro with a 2.8GHZ processor that turbo boosts to 4.0GHZ, 500GB of flash storage and 16GB of RAM.

The DROPBOX CLIENT IS CRUSHING MY MACHINE!!!!

150% of my CPU? That is obscene. That should never come to be. I am a software developer and know this is poor coding. You should be using a queuing structure or more manageable work units.

I am currently a paying client of Dropbox and syncing is a critical part of cloud storage. There are too many competitors in the market for this to be even remotely acceptable.
- jpjd
  Helpful | Level 6
  9 years ago
  Same here and they have had over a year to fix it. Issue is still present on my new MacBook Pro.
  - jpjd
    Helpful | Level 6
    9 years ago
    My New Macbook Pro's fans are so loud when Dropbox is syncing and my CPU is bouncing between 100% and 150%. The minute I pause the syncing process everything goes back to normal. Fans drop and CPU goes back to normal! This is nuts. I don't have anywhere near 30,000 files. Dropbox are you fixing this issue or will I be forced to cancel my pro account and warn my friends about this isseue! Google Drive is sounding very tempting right now.
David S.293
New member | Level 1
11 years ago
I have same problem
MacBook Pro 10.10.3 i7,2.5 16GB
Dropbox using 100%+ of CPU.
Running crazy hot and drawing 15-20+ amps.
I have cleared cache and reinstalled.
Problem will not go away.
So far have burned hours trying to fix this.
Love Dropbox - but now have to move to another solution.
Simon S.28
New member | Level 1
10 years ago
Same for me. New notebook (13MBP, newest generation, completely fresh install). Dropbox consumes the most energy of all tools. It is also always constantly showing in the "Apps consuming significant battery" menu: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1776128/battery.png.
Currently I'm not changing any file, but dropbox is downloading one (big) changed file. This is enough to boost Dropbox CPU consumption to 44%. Common guys, this is ridiculous. We are using Dropbox business and are all traveling a lot. But I also had to shutdown dropbox when traveling and hoped this will be gone when installing on a clean system. But it's not. This is an issue and somebody please take care instead of just ignoring.
Simon S.28
New member | Level 1
10 years ago
Activity-Monitor Screenshot: Dropbox is downloading one (1!) file, otherwise nothing currently changes in my dropbox folders. Result: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1776128/activity.png
Please also note the "CPU time" column.
Wassim J.
New member | Level 1
10 years ago
I have a 2015 MacBook Pro Retina 13 inch. I have been seeing very high temperatures. So Apple advised me to fresh install Yosemite and then start adding 3rd party software one at a time to test what is causing the high temperatures. First thing I installed was Dropbox and immediately, I am getting >100% CPU usage and temperatures shooting up to 95C!! I have about 30,000 files on Dropbox. Just downloading them should not be so stressful on the CPU!