Forum Discussion

slan2718's avatar
slan2718
Explorer | Level 3
3 years ago

Why is Dropbox locking up files?

I have Dropbox on my Mac and I am getting several warnings a day saying that Dropbox is locking up files. My choices are to terminate or allow. What is going on?

9 Replies

  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    3 years ago

    Hey slan2718, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

     

    Can you please send us a screenshot of this message?

     

    And also, what is the sync status and version of the Dropbox application on your computer?

     

    You can hover over the Dropbox icon in your menu bar to see this info.

     

    Thanks in advance!

  • slan2718's avatar
    slan2718
    Explorer | Level 3
    3 years ago

    The version number is 164.4.7914 and the drop down item says it is up to date.

    Attached is the error message I keep getting. 

    Do you have any idea what is going on?

    Thanks!

  • Megan's avatar
    Megan
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    3 years ago

    Hi slan2718, thank you for your screenshot! 

     

    Very interesting one. Do you have any antivirus programs running, or firewalls that could be causing this, because it doesn't look like a Dropbox error, as far as I am aware. 

     

    Get back to me, and we'll have a closer look into this!

  • slan2718's avatar
    slan2718
    Explorer | Level 3
    3 years ago

    I have MacScan running in the background. 

  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    3 years ago

    If you temporarily disable this, slan2718, does the error go away?

  • slan2718's avatar
    slan2718
    Explorer | Level 3
    3 years ago

    Disable what exactly? I keep terminating the operation but it always comes back in a couple of hours. 

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    3 years ago

    Hi slan2718, is it possible the Dropbox desktop application is temporarily locking files during the syncing process?

     

    From the file path, it appears that it's related to log files in the Dropbox settings, which would be considered normal for most logs as they get edited frequently.

  • slan2718's avatar
    slan2718
    Explorer | Level 3
    3 years ago

    So, it would be okay to allow this process to continue instead of terminating it over and over again?

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    3 years ago

    As I'm not aware of what this app does, I can't be certain of why it's trying to prevent locked files. 

     

    However, the Dropbox desktop application is only affecting files within its own folders, so it might be best to whitelist these folders to prevent further messages in the future, if that's possible.

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