Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨💻? Find out how to check here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
Why is the Dropbox desktop app running so slowly?
Why is Dropbox smart sync terribly slow? I have 1GB/sec up and down for speed, with a hard connection into an iMac Pro and it takes forever for large files to download when I switch them from online to local? I have a plane to get on tomorrow morning and was looking to take some videos with me to edit, now I can't because dropbox is painfully slow. I was told you do not throttle speed, but I find this "extremely" hard to believe. All of my files were "up to date" already sync'd and then I switched one 70GB file to local so I could transfer it to my portable SSD, its been 4 hours and its at like 2%. This is absurd for a paying customer. Between this and your infamous storage issues with Mac that you continue to blame on Apple, I keep asking myself why I continue to use you? You never work when I need you the most.
Hey there bmallon - sorry to hear about this.
First of all, note that the Dropbox servers do not set caps on the upload/download speeds from the Desktop client, but file sync is a complicated process that includes more than just the transfer of the data. Bear in mind that each file is divided and compressed into hashed components, transferred via secure data transfer, and then encrypted and stored on our servers.
Now, to have a better look into this, can you let me know your app's status at the moment? Also, can you change your bandwidth settings to boost the syncing process?
Another source that could be helpful is the following Help Center article (especially step 7 about symlinks): https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/high-cpu-usage
Let me know of any updates!
15 Replies
Replies have been turned off for this discussion
- Walter
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey there bmallon - sorry to hear about this.
First of all, note that the Dropbox servers do not set caps on the upload/download speeds from the Desktop client, but file sync is a complicated process that includes more than just the transfer of the data. Bear in mind that each file is divided and compressed into hashed components, transferred via secure data transfer, and then encrypted and stored on our servers.
Now, to have a better look into this, can you let me know your app's status at the moment? Also, can you change your bandwidth settings to boost the syncing process?
Another source that could be helpful is the following Help Center article (especially step 7 about symlinks): https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/high-cpu-usage
Let me know of any updates!
- I am to let the file sit overnight to finally download by morning. I am assuming it took just over 8 hours for 70GB file. You need to fix your complicated smart sync process. Apple iCloud Drive does it in less than 10 mins.
- This solution should not be listed as Accepted. It’s not fixed. All of my settings where already correct per your instructions above and your file transfer is still slow. I have 1GB/sec up and down, and it still take 4-8 hours to upload and download Final Cut Pro library files which are usually 100+GB. You have some type of coding issue or throttle. I don’t not have this problem with other services. Maybe this is related to storage issues with Apple and your smart sync services that Dropbox has yet to fix or even admit as an issue, while continuing to charge me and other customers monthly.
- Walter
Thanks for getting back to me and sorry to hear you feel this way bmallon!
If you'd like us to look into this with all of our tools available (in this way we'd be able to provide account and device specific assistance), you can log a ticket with our team providing more information about the matter at hand.
If you'd like me to reach out from my end instead, please let me know.
bmallon wrote:
This solution should not be listed as Accepted. It’s not fixed. All of my settings where already correct per your instructions above and your file transfer is still slow. I have 1GB/sec up and down, and it still take 4-8 hours to upload and download Final Cut Pro library files which are usually 100+GB. You have some type of coding issue or throttle. I don’t not have this problem with other services. Maybe this is related to storage issues with Apple and your smart sync services that Dropbox has yet to fix or even admit as an issue, while continuing to charge me and other customers monthly.You're not alone. I have Dropbox tech support looking into the problem for me, but I had to use Box.com for a 22GB delivery to someone because there was no quick fix. Uploaded to Box in 15 minutes. Dropbox was going to take 6-8 hours. For me, it either works soon, or I'm out. It was great until about a week ago.
This has been going on for months. i have 5 business licenses and dropbox's speeds are unacceptable at this point. I'm uploading 6TB of footage and it's taken weeks to get it uploaded and I have google fiber. not my internet connection at all
- Walter
Sorry to hear that and thanks for the report Benjamin Accine - I appreciate it.
At this point, would it be OK if I reached out via your Dropbox email address to work on this together?
Let me know here and we'll take it from there. Thank you!
I'm having the same issue, the sync with dropbox is very slow compared to other file movement... Dropbox you have an issue.. it is clear...
What is going on here? I haven't experienced this before, but today my dropbox is only downloading at 1-3mb/s?! This is aboslute garbage. It's a 160gb file and I need to have it in the next hour and a half, it's telling me it's going to take 2 days! I am on a 300mbps connection, this is atrocious.
