High CPU usage even when not syncing or indexing

[fort]

For the past couple of days, Dropbox has been consistently using around 30% of my CPU, when not syncing or indexing anything (i.e., the menu bar drop down says `Up to date`). Any idea why this might be happening, and what I can do to get Dropbox to idle properly?

I'm on a MacBook Air, running macOS 10.13.6 and Dropbox 58.4.92.

Thanks.

[Allen D.]

I noticed that DB was using excessive power and CPU constantly even though it claimed to be up to date, so I checked for linked files and found none.   

I remembered, though, that I use a DB folder for QB backup files, assuming those files are inert and I also now remembered that QB has a server that tracks all QB-related files and wondered if there was some sort of loop happening.  So I cut the backup directory out of DB and pasted it into Documents.

Almost immediately DB went back to almost no CPU usage and very low power consumption -- and remained that way.

As a longtime subscriber, I am with the users who remember when DB was just simple and reliable cloud storage, and just worked. 

When my subscription runs out, I'll likely move to a simpler and less 'helpful' and ambitious cloud storage solution, something like DB classic if it existed.

[jacanterbury]

my oldish asus windows 10 laptop kept getting 100% cpu/disk acces and regularly crashing. uninstalling Dropbox seems to have fixed all the problems.

[dalbarran]

I found another cause for high CPU use. I had some very large Outlook archives (pst files) that were stored in Dropbox and used by my Outlook application. Dropbox keep trying to sync them but couldn't as they were always in use by Outlook when it was open (which it tended to be quite often). I moved the Outlook archive copies locally and out of the Dropbox folders. Problem solved!

[V P.1]

This fixed it for me (after years of trawling, trying fixes and finding out that the "symlinks" are presumably, in english, shortcuts and that bug was fixed in 2019).

Windows

1. Quit Dropbox by clicking the Dropbox icon in the system tray, clicking your profile picture or initials in the notifications panel, and selecting Exit Dropbox from the menu.
2. open the command prompt.
3. Copy and paste the following lines into the command prompt, one at a time, and press Enter after each one.
• Be sure to copy-and-paste these commands, rather than typing by hand, as entering the command incorrectly could cause some harm to your computer
• Paste by right-clicking and then selecting Paste

icacls "%HOMEPATH%\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":(F) /T

icacls "%APPDATA%\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":(F) /T

https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/desktop/move-dropbox-folder - permissions

(I tried this first, got "file not found", not sure if it had any effect)

Windows

1. Press the Windows + R keys (at the same time) on your keyboard.
2. Type cmd and press Enter on your keyboard to open the command prompt.
3. Copy and paste the command line below and press Enter on your keyboard.

dir "%HOMEPATH%\Dropbox" /a:l /s

https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/desktop/high-cpu-usage

Don't thank me, Dropbox, for doing what your (Edited per Dropbox Community Guidelines) "community moderator" failed to do,  (WHO MARKED THIS PAGE SOLVED???) but do feel free to pay me. 🙂

[dropstubox]

Thank you @V P.1 

Having tried everything else in this thread, your suggestion of changing permssions seemed to have done the trick and dropbox has gone from 30%+ of CPU to negligble.

Thank you

[olaf_]

Hello,

Thanks for your tenacious attempts to solve this problem.

Does this also work for W8.1

Regards,

Olaf

[A M.13]

Thank you so much @V P.1  - dropbox had crippled my machine until this fix. 

One point though, these commands assume that dropbox is in your personal folder.  If you have moved dropbox, you have to run them on the location dropbox has been moved to. so if your dropbox folder is in e:\drobox, replace %HOMEPATH% with e: .  Someone please correct me if I am wrong

BTW does this have to be done every time dropbox or the computer is restarted?  It's just the effect seemed to disappear after some time and I had no choice but the force stop dropbox from Windows task manager.  Is it better to set dropbox not to startup on logon?  Or is it time to ditch dropbox?  The app is so bad that even right clicking the icon in the tasbar displays the horrible logo doing a dance.  What a waste of a once great app.

[A M.13]

I have just noticed a dropboxupdate task that runs every hour on my machine.  Is it really necessary for Dropbox to check for updates every hour wastin precious resources?  It would also explain why after exiting dropbox, dropbox was still hogging my CPU. 

I have disabled the task and will see how I get on.  Would appreciate guidance from the collective.

[megawhite]

Hi, in the last few weeks on Windows I notice Dropbox on a daily basis will pin a CPU core to 100% for around 5 minutes.  No new files added, no syncing taking place.  Also uses in excess of 400MB of RAM.  Why is this software so resource intensive?

[Walter]

Hi there @megawhite, sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

Can you clarify the app's  version as shown in your system tray and send us a screenshot of where you're spotting the RAM usage?

If you could also let us know the exact OS version of your computer, I'd appreciate it.

Keep us posted!