v142.3.4187 Native M1 Silicon?

...maybe the better question would be: which file contains the settings for what is saved locally and which files are online-only?

When I submit the Dropbox app to be uninstalled completely by AppCleaner, I get this...any idea which of these I should not uninstall or back up to keep at least that sync setting?

Dropbox dependencies

...to make some progress, I decided to start from scratch and deleted everything related to Dropbox, including the 335GB of synced data.

Upon installing the latest stable build (148.4.4519), I decided to set the Dropbox folder location to /Users/till/Library/Cloud Storage/Dropbox, since that was the location that the newest beta expected...since this appears to be the location that Dropbox will expect when I do upgrade to the latest version, I am hoping that such a version will *not* have to sync all files again, as it did yesterday.

It is now syncing the offline-only folders, saying that it will take about an hour...seems like a long time for nothing but an empty directory structure, don't you think?

What makes me a bit concerned is that the Dropbox folder and all of its content do *not* show any Dropbox icons, no right-click menu options for Dropbox either...will those not appear until after all folders are synced, or is something already not working correctly?

Let's see where this process takes me.

After about an hour of counting down from my ~420k files, it went all the way down to "45 files, 1 sec", but then jumped back up to "487 files, 13 sec", then "5 files, 1 sec", then "1327 files, 40 sec", and so on, and so on, for the past half hour...it just keeps cycling through what appears to be random numbers of remaining files, and won't finish syncing.

Another 3,5 hrs wasted, so far. Pffffff.... 😕

What is it with Dropbox that makes it so unreliable?

well, since Dropbox was obviously in a mad cycle of not wanting to finish the last 5 files (or is it 45 or 1327, or 328, or... ?!), I restarted my computer, logged out of Dropbox and back in, and now it behaves as if I have just installed it, starting from scratch at ~420k files to sync...this is ridiculous.

Half a Sunday wasted 😞

...it's been hung up on just "Syncing...", with no other information. Back to square one.

I don't think I can handle any more of this...but my workflow is invested in Dropbox, sharing folders with tons of clients and collaborators.

And now, 3hrs later, when I just looked at it again...it says "Your files are up to date."...Heureka!

jlaguna Thanks again for your instructions...bumpy ride it was, but with redemption at the end 😄

However, I still don't have any Dropbox icons or controls in the right-click menu, so what could be causing that?

tillkrueger Wow, what a journey, I hope you are truly at then end of it! FWIW, since my own reinstallation a couple of months ago, Dropbox seems to be exhibiting the speed and reliability that we'd gotten used to and that justified the comparatively steep monthly cost. As for the iconography, a couple of Dropbox techs that I communicated with claimed that it is Apple's doing, that the mandated switch to Apple's File Provider framework (part of which was the required move to ~/Library/CloudStorage) meant loss of control over the iconography. But, as I noted in another post, that's bullsh*t — Google Drive has recently switched to the File Provider framework and they managed to preserve their iconography. (I should note, too, that Google's update to the new framework was utterly seamless, but for having to give some new permissions to the Drive app when requested. It is mystifying why Dropbox's update has been such a dog's breakfast.)

As for the loss of the context-sensitive menu options, have you tried relaunching the Finder (accessible via the Force Quit option under the Apple menu icon to the far left of the menu bar)?

No, I mean that I have zero control over my Dropbox folders and files in Finder now...no icons at all for what is offline and what is local, no context menu at all, and no way to sync anything.

Yes, I have force restarted the Finder after switching off all other Finder extensions in my System Preferences. Dropbox is not really running, right now. I have rebooted my computer as well, but Dropbox is dead, atm.

Aargh, what a nightmare. What happens when you try to restart Dropbox manually? Do you get any error messages when you click on the Dropbox icon (if it even appears…)?

Yeah, Dropbox has been about as far from "set-it-and-forget-it" as one can get.

When I manually quit and restart the Dropbox client, it changes nothing...tried a few times, including restarting the MacBook Air, but Dropbox is just a dumb folder now, like all other folders (except my other cloud storage folders, which behave as they should).

A real problem, too, as I rely heavily on it working...and now I have no way of syncing down all the project files that I have to work with...will have to copy them manually from my backup, which will take hours, again, and is just super annoying, as versioning will not work, then, which I also rely on heavily.

Thanks for continuing to do what you can to help me figure this out, but this just seems like one for Dropbox support, which could take a bit.

That is really weird behavior. I suspect if you got a live chat with them going you'd get to a reasonably competent tech pretty quickly. Good luck!

The troubleshooting ticket I created was answered by one of Dropbox support staff, but nothing new:

• disabling all Finder Extensions but Dropbox, then force-quitting and restarting the client (even if that was the "solution", why should Dropbox be the only app that gets to use its Finder Extension? I don't get that.)
• Force-quitting everything containing "Dropbox" from within Activity Monitor, then relaunching Finder

Still dead in the water...hoping for better troubleshooting instructions.

To see whether Dropbox is at all aware that it is running and has work to do, I changed the Sync settings on one folder in Dropbox preferences, and it now started to resync all 420k files from scratch again.

I’ve just about had it with Dropbox, thinking about how many times in the past 15 years I have been forced to waste valuable hours and days of my life with issues like these…so frustrating.

I wish I had more suggestions but I have to say the problem you are experiencing is not one I've seen, so I don't have anything to draw on. Let me make sure I'm understanding you, Dropbox is running — you can see it in, e.g., Activity Monitor — but it is non-functional: if you make a change to a file, it is not sync'd to your Dropbox folder and thence to your other computers. Is that correct?

Yes, that is correct.

Since I am dead in the water, I just reinstalled the Apple Silicon Beta 149.3.4541, and now I am getting the sync icons and context menu items in Finder.

Since Dropbox deleted all of my subfolders during a recent experiment, could you tell me the steps to resync all folders and subfolders, empty (Online-Only), again?

Right now it is saying that is resyncing all 420k files again, so maybe, just maybe, the subfolders will be back, at the end of this...if it's anything like the first time I tried this, a few days ago, it will take the better part of today.

I followed your original instructions with the latest Apple Silicon beta 149.3.4541, and so far so good...Dropbox icons are showing, as is the Dropbox context menu, and all folders are syncing in Offline-Only mode. Not sure what is different, this time around, but I am hopeful that this complete re-install from scratch might do the trick.

Syncing appears to have finished (of all the empty folders only, mind you), but just like the first time around that I tried this, it is hung up on “Syncing…”, but I have a feeling that this is a condition that we can figure out how to recover from, where the other situation of no icons and no context menu items was much more dire.

Whaddayaknow!? Syncing is finished, including two project folders that I set to be downloaded Offline, and they even show green checkmarks! After days of work on this, I may actually be back in bizness 😄

Thanks for your help!

Glad to hear this, Till! And relieved that your experience (hopefully) didn’t indicate further problems with the Apple Silicon beta. I’m guessing something simply went awry with your previous installation; I’m glad you had the fortitude to give a full reinstall One More Try.

Good news about the green checkmarks! I haven’t gotten the courage to rejoin the beta program (still on 148.4.4519) so hopefully will be seeing them myself in a forthcoming public release.

so, if I opt out of experimental builds now, I wouldn't get upgraded until there is a stable public release that is further along than my current beta?

I believe you'd actually get downgraded to a stable release if you opted out. If I were in your shoes and the beta were working for me, I'd just stick with it. It seems the developers are finally getting their sh*t together re Apple Silicon.

aight, I'll stick with the betas then...thanks.