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

The Hard Link permission solution appears to be a Windows fix. I am on Mac OS Sonoma 14.4.1.

If I sign out of DB from the app, it will stop my backups, I think. I went to sign out and sign back in last night and got a message about it. I wasn't sure what was going to happen, particularly with the HD backups I have.

So, I am also using DB Backup to back up an external HD along with some of the folders on my Mac HD. I signed out DB (turned off the auto-backup scheduling first).

After I signed out, I went into Sys Settings and turned off both of the privacy settings and removed them from the picklist. Next, restarted and signed back in (turning on both settings in privacy). 45 minutes later, all looked good and no messages. Next, I turned on Backup and relinked the external HD. DB Backup on the web says it's updated, but the indexing is still going. I haven't turned on the HD backup yet as I want to see if the external is the issue or not.

Could the issue be related to the DB Backup app taking forever to index? 

Is there a way to determine this for sure? It's taking a lot of resources on my Mac. This was never an issue until the backups went to a separate App within DB.

When that happened to me, it was some files with special characters in the name. When I moved them out of the Dropbox, the error disappeared. I managed to find them, but it would be much easier if the app showed which files when I clicked on the "Updating 11 files" instead of just the "pause sync" options.

Quick update- DB backup successfully backed up and indexed the external drive (all wifi, no hard connection) after signing out and signing back in. I still need to do my HD backup. That will happen later this week.

DB support- it would be a really nice feature to see what it is actually indexing- if it's a DB Backup or DB itself and some sort of log you can access in case a problem file is hanging up the system.

Sonoma 14.5 - Macbook M1

I tried everything, but nothing.

I cannot copy files from the computer. I will not log off and on because I cannot lose any files.

Hi Megan,

thanks for your fast reply!

I upgraded from macOS Monterey via Ventura to Sonoma 14.5 more or less in one go.

Before, I already had Dropbox installed using the File Provider (Folder stored under ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox instead of ~/Dropbox)

Then the sync got stuck for several hours on a 4 kb text file.

Then I logged out and logged in again as suggested in the thread above, leading to a new sync, firstly at the old location. Everything was fine there.

When asked to relocate to the File Provider location, I confirmed and got stuck with indexing, including the missing many of the files that were there before the relocation.

Now I started over (log out, login in, sync to old location) but am afraid to start the relocation process again.

Is that sufficient for the beginning?

Best,

Lion

Oh and the Dropbox Version is v201.4.5552

Hi Jay,

There were several folders where there were just no files inside across the whole dropbox. Some top-level folders were missing, too.

It looked like the transfer from ~/Dropbox to ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox was still in progress, but there were no visible changes over hours. Furthermore, the Dropbox app told me the moving was successfully completed. And also the previous location ~/Dropbox was replaced by a Link to the new location.

they were private folders. I didn't check wether there were also shared ones in the group.

and no, nothing changed in the dropbox site

maybe some more info for clarification:

by now i logged out again and logged in again, making dropbox download all folders again to the old standard location: ~/Dropbox

Here everything is present and no folders of files are missing as far as i can see. 

Also, no indexing problems exist.

However, I would like to activate the File Provider and use the new location ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox

The only thing I fear now is to run into indexing problems again, since this is what happened the last 2 times i tried it.

I hope I could clarify the problem 🙂

Hi Jay,

I had to find a time slot to do what you suggested which was yesterday. After less than a minute a dialogue was shown which informed me that the transfer was completed, but checking is in progress now in the background. However, since then nothing has changed and the status below the Activity tab still shows "Indexing".

When I open the Dropbox folder on my mac with Finder, every single file and folder shows the cloud icon, giving me the text "Uploading" when I hover my mouse over them. Online, all the files I had in the Dropbox before the migration are there. Newly added files do not appear online.

Is there any place on my mac where I can see in more detail if the dropbox app is actually doing something or if it's just stuck in some loop or hanging due to a corrupt file or so?

Thanks a lot for your help and kind regards!

Lionade

Hi Jay,

I think I have solved the issue.

Thanks to this article: https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Create-upload-and-share/Having-problems-syncing-with-File-Provider-on-Mac-OS/m-p/761818/highlight/true#M83684

I checked all network filters (also nicely described here: https://help.dropbox.com/de-de/sync/files-not-syncing#:~:text=Check%20that%20the%20file%20isn,properties%20and%20uncheck%20that%20option.  )

I had to create a new allowing rule for DropboxFileProvider in LittleSnitch (see screenshot, it's a network filter software). Now everything works fine.

Somehow I must have missed the popup notification by LittleSnitch to ask for this new process to allow outgoing connections.

My apologies for not checking earlier!

Kind regards,

Lionade