2025 sparked some incredible conversations across our community 👩💻. Discover the highlights and see what’s ahead in 2026.
Forum Discussion
msheppard
2 years agoNew member | Level 2
The desktop app on my Mac has been stuck indexing files. I can only access some of them.
I installed the mac dropbox update and the application began indexing my files. It has now been stuck for the last few days. I can only access some files. Many are now only available through dropbox....
- 2 years ago
Hi Everyone,
Thanks for your patience while we investigated. We have confirmed that the problem with resyncing has been resolved with macOS Sonoma 14.1. Users should not experience a resync when upgrading to 14.1.
Upgrading to 14.1 will prevent resyncing, but it will not resolve this issue for users who have already become 'stuck' on the resync upon upgrading to 14.0. We can help, but we're asking that users contact support for individual assistance.
Regards,
Ben
Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
1 year agoHi Lionade, could you clarify where you saw that files were missing? Were they from random locations in your Dropbox folder, or from a specific folder?
Lionade
1 year agoExplorer | Level 4
Hi Jay,
There were several folders where there were just no files inside across the whole dropbox. Some top-level folders were missing, too.
It looked like the transfer from ~/Dropbox to ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox was still in progress, but there were no visible changes over hours. Furthermore, the Dropbox app told me the moving was successfully completed. And also the previous location ~/Dropbox was replaced by a Link to the new location.
- Jay1 year ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Were the folders that didn't transfer over private or shared folders?
Are they shown as deleted files on the Dropbox site via the events page or deleted files page?
- Lionade1 year agoExplorer | Level 4
they were private folders. I didn't check wether there were also shared ones in the group.
and no, nothing changed in the dropbox site
maybe some more info for clarification:
by now i logged out again and logged in again, making dropbox download all folders again to the old standard location: ~/Dropbox
Here everything is present and no folders of files are missing as far as i can see.
Also, no indexing problems exist.
However, I would like to activate the File Provider and use the new location ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox
The only thing I fear now is to run into indexing problems again, since this is what happened the last 2 times i tried it.
I hope I could clarify the problem 🙂
- Jay1 year ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Could you try activating the File Provider migration with all other open apps closed (to prevent any conflicts) and let it run to see how it progresses this time?
- Lionade1 year agoExplorer | Level 4
Hi Jay,
I had to find a time slot to do what you suggested which was yesterday. After less than a minute a dialogue was shown which informed me that the transfer was completed, but checking is in progress now in the background. However, since then nothing has changed and the status below the Activity tab still shows "Indexing".
When I open the Dropbox folder on my mac with Finder, every single file and folder shows the cloud icon, giving me the text "Uploading" when I hover my mouse over them. Online, all the files I had in the Dropbox before the migration are there. Newly added files do not appear online.
Is there any place on my mac where I can see in more detail if the dropbox app is actually doing something or if it's just stuck in some loop or hanging due to a corrupt file or so?
Thanks a lot for your help and kind regards!
Lionade
- Lionade1 year agoExplorer | Level 4
Hi Jay,
I think I have solved the issue.
Thanks to this article: https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Create-upload-and-share/Having-problems-syncing-with-File-Provider-on-Mac-OS/m-p/761818/highlight/true#M83684
I checked all network filters (also nicely described here: https://help.dropbox.com/de-de/sync/files-not-syncing#:~:text=Check%20that%20the%20file%20isn,properties%20and%20uncheck%20that%20option. )
I had to create a new allowing rule for DropboxFileProvider in LittleSnitch (see screenshot, it's a network filter software). Now everything works fine.
Somehow I must have missed the popup notification by LittleSnitch to ask for this new process to allow outgoing connections.
My apologies for not checking earlier!
Kind regards,
Lionade
About Apps and Installations
Have a question about a Dropbox app or installation? Reach out to the Dropbox Community and get solutions, help, and advice from members.
The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.
If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X, Facebook or Instagram.
For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.
If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!