The desktop app on my Mac has been stuck indexing files. I can only access some of them.

Any updates on this? Still having this issue even after updating mac OS. Tech support was zero help and unresponsive.

Sorry to hear about this, MMKDG.

Can you send us the ticket number for your communication with our support team, so we can look it up in our system?

Hello again fellow Dropbox sufferers,

I now have Dropbox working perfectly on two Mac’s and have overcome the “stuck indexing” problem and also have successfully upgraded to File Provider. 

This is what I did.

• Started with a clean install of Sonoma 14.1  (I know doing an erase and clean install is a lot of work so if you wish to do this, backup your Mac and all your files before you do this).

• After the clean install, make these changes in System Settings to prevent your Mac from sleeping as you will need it awake to perform the indexing, which depending on how many files you have in Dropbox, could take several days)

• Battery>Low Power Mode> changed to "Never" to prevent the Mac from going into sleep mode
• Lock Screen>Start Screen Saver when inactive> changed to "Never" to prevent the Mac from going into sleep mode
• Lock Screen>Turn display off on power adapter when inactive> changed to "Never" to prevent the Mac from going into sleep mode

• Connect your Mac via Ethernet if possible (this is optional, I did it to give a more reliable connection, preventing any possible WIFI dropouts)

• Log into Dropbox via the website and download the Mac app, which should be the latest (as at 2nd December that is v187.4.5691)

• Follow the default Dropbox installation process

• Select to selectively sync one of your smaller folders or files to be "offline" (locally stored) on your Mac

• Dropbox should then start "indexing" just let it continue to do this, depending on how many files you have, this could take several days (in my case I have 1.6TB and over 500,000 files in Dropbox and it took 3.5 days)

• When Dropbox has finished “indexing” you can click on the notification to upgrade Dropbox to File Provider, follow the default Dropbox process, your Dropbox folder will be moved to the new location on your Mac under “Locations” and it will start indexing again, this will take the same amount of time that the first “indexing” took (as I stated above, it took 3.5 days for me)

• When Dropbox has finished “indexing” you are done and it should be working fine.

I hope this can help some of you!

Teddy73     Thanks a lot for posting your constant updates.  I have been out of town for the past 3 weeks so only had to use one laptop.   Now I am back and ready to do your method.   I wanted to ask you is everything going fine now for you and you did not encounter any further issues?    And one more question if you do not mind, when you say clean install I know what you mean but wanted to make sure since it is a lot of work, you mean wipe out everything from the Mac and install the software correct?    Just want to be sure since its not an easy thing to do.    Thank You

OceanSunrise I have been using the first Mac I did this with for 2 weeks and the second for one week and Dropbox has been working perfectly on both.

By perfectly, I mean all files sync between both Mac's and I have no troubles uploading or downloading files stored in Dropbox.

One piece of additional advice I give yourself and everyone is if possible, do what I do about backups, this is:

• I have always had all of my Dropbox files stored locally on one or both of my Mac's
• I run Time Machine backups overnight, in addition to Carbon Copy Cloner backups overnight

So when all of the troubles with Dropbox hit us, I was inconvenienced because I couldn't sync files between my Mac's. However, I was never in a position where I was going to loose anything.

What we must all learn from the recent troubles is have a backup strategy, because one software update from MacOS or Dropbox could easily cause similar troubles all over again.

Worth mentioning for others as I was struggling to find how to sign out, as clicking on your account in the app offers only Quit, not sign-off:

1. click on the Dropbox  account on the Mac top bar

2. click on the account icon (top righ circle)

3. choose Preferences

4. choose @ Account

5. Click on Sign-out 

OceanSunrise Yes, I did a clean install (erased everything).

Here is a link about how to do it: https://www.macworld.com/article/668644/how-to-clean-install-macos-on-your-mac.html

I've been following this thread for weeks now (as I'm in the same boat). I'm really not excited about having to reformat and re-install MacOS from scratch. I'm hoping someone from DB support will contact me. Best part is I opened a ticket on Sunday night. Their response (Monday afternoon US Mountain time) was that someone else would contact me to help sort it out. Here I am 2 days after I open a ticket and no real response from DB. I'm really surprised they are handling the support of this as badly as they are. I really hope to hear from someone to sort this out.

effinsyv I experienced the same lack of support, as did many others.

I have been a loyal customer for over 11 years and I thought perhaps I would be given a few months free subscription, or some additional storage space for all the inconvenience. I didn't even receive a message with any clear acknowledgement of the problem.

Ultimately, I had to spend a lot of time working it out myself with pieces of information gained here from others experiencing the problem and my own abilities.

All I will say is that Microsoft One Drive and Google Drive are worth considering. They had no problems with macOS Ventura and Sonoma and the upgrade to File Provider, have most of the functions that Dropbox has, appear to be rock-solid, plus are less expensive.