Dropbox causing screen flickering / no response in Windows 11

[MethylOrange]

I have a fresh installation of Windows 11 which after a few weeks' use has started flickering and not responding for a few seconds, and this happens every few minutes. On occasion I get a beep then flickering. 

Windows task manager doesn't flicker, which means (according to MS) it's not a display driver issue but an application.

So all day today I've been closing down each application in turn, and it turns out Dropbox was the culprit. As soon as I shut it down, Windows behaved normally.

I started it back up again, and found a 5 year old forum post here that turning off the Dropbox badge in Preferences would help (on a previous version of Windows of course). So far this seems to have done the trick.

I am wondering if this is a known error or something that anyone else has noticed?

[Megan]

Hi @MethylOrange, welcome to our Community!

Interesting behavior there. Can I ask what version of the desktop app you have installed? 

You should be able to hover your mouse over the little Dropbox icon next to your WiFi and find it there. 

Also, does the flicker happen on your entire screen?

Let me know, and we'll take it from there.

[MethylOrange]

Both screens flicker (apart from Taskmgr) and the whole PC is unresponsive for a few seconds.

Since yesterday when I disabled "Badge" it has been good as gold.

[Megan]

Hi @MethylOrange, how was your day? I hope you're doing well!

Would you mean me to reach out via email in order to look into this more closely? 

[Maik W]

I confirm this behavior and observe the same. 
After finishing the task bar icon and after some seconds / minutes it stops flickering.

WIN: Windows 11 Business 21H2 22000.469

Dropbox Version: 140.4.1951

I deactivated "Start on system start" (now so that I can continue working)

Affected seems to be editors, browsers, eclipse. ProcessExplorer from Sysinternals doesn't flicker.

It appears long after system start/login (up to hours) not immediately after login or at beginning of work. Logout and login helps. Lock/Unlock doesn't help. 

My System has 32GB RAM but only 16GB are used. => seems not to be caused by swapping or memory issue.

Docker and ubuntu is running via hypervisor. LSF2

[MethylOrange]

Did you try "Never show" on the Dropbox badge?

It's been working for me for 2 or 3 days now

[MethylOrange]

@Megan  Feel free to reach out - I'll be there.

[Megan]

Heya @MethylOrange, I just sent you an email! 

I'll be happy to see you there.

Cheers!

[joemseid]

Hi There, I have a similar but different issue.  I have screen flickering when using Chrome (this is the only way I use DB) to interface with DB.   It only happens on specific folders and files.   Most areas are unaffected.   The screening flicker is very frustrating, but it doesn't seem to limit the ability to interact with the page; other than not being able to clearly ready documents and issue selecting the right button due the flickering. 

[joemseid]