Updating to File Provider API has made my Mac unusable

Hi all,

I'm joining the "File Provider API broke my computer" dance and sure wish I had read more in this forum before attempting to update. Dropbox had consistently been using 600-800MB RAM even when idle, so I was hoping the update would fix the issue (it did not). The update initially ran smoothly, and I left the computer to index and the files to repopulate overnight.

The next morning, after indexing, I restarted my computer, upon which Dropbox would hang on the “Connecting components” message during startup. All files in the newly-constructed Dropbox folder in the user CloudStorage library appeared correctly (all there and showing the correct amount of storage used), but none of the files could be opened (double-clicking or right click+open yielded no result). Even worse, when attempting to relaunch finder to resolve the issue, my computer would freeze until a forced reboot.

This rendered my computer totally unusable, so I booted in safe mode, disabled Dropbox on startup, and followed these instructions to revert to the pre-updated dropbox library structure, including a clean reinstall: https://help.dropbox.com/installs/dropbox-for-macos-support .

The folders repopulated correctly and I can open and save files in the original [User]-dropbox library, but now I am facing several other peculiar and crippling issues:

1) saving files works, but attempting to save-as or export-as any file located anywhere on the computer crashes whatever program is trying to execute the task (tested in preview, textedit, excel, and word so far)

2) Dropbox fails to launch about 50% of the time, hanging on “Starting…”. I can navigate through the desktop dropbox interface, but I am not logged in nor able to log in. The issue persists until the program is relaunched.

3) when I select the option to delete the now-unconnected dropbox folder under [User]->Library->CloudStorage->Dropbox and confirm my selection, nothing happens.

4) The finder interface no longer shows any Dropbox options when right clicking on a file that’s stored in dropbox. I tried to follow the these instructions to resolve the issue: https://www.dropboxforum.com/discussions/101001012/sync-icons-missing-in-the-dropbox-folder-in-finder/596014/replies/599554 . However, finder crashes whenever I attempt to relaunch in. After restarting the computer with Finder Extension privileges rechecked, the buttons do not appear.

I am running my laptop on OS Ventura 13.7.8 (22H730) on a 2017 Intel MacBook Air and using dropbox version 241.4.4853 on a plus account. Dropbox is using 350-400MB of RAM whenever it is open, regardless of login or sync status. fileproviderd is operating at 50-100% CPU usage regardless of whether Dropbox is open. Files appear to sync correctly when Dropbox launches successfully, and files that I remember are saved online-only (because I can’t see this when right-clicking on them) redownload correctly when opened.

Any other troubleshooting to try? I've obviously spent far too long on this already, and I'm not hopeful that the issue can be fixed. I'll leave the computer on to think overnight and hopefully rebuild whatever libraries are causing this issues, but otherwise I'm mostly hopeful that I will be able to uninstall Dropbox far enough that my laptop works again. I understand the API quagmire is partially Apple's fault, but dropbox has had multiple years to address these issues and appear to be having the same issues as at the initial launch.