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Re: Slow Upload Speeds. Why?

Dropbox not uploading/ uploading v slow

jeanzbeanz
Helpful | Level 5
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I have dropbox installed on multiple devices and they all work fine, except it has suddenly stopped uploading on my windows laptop.

I moved a load of photos off my phone onto dropbox on my laptop last week and only a handful have uploaded.  The icon in my tray says it is syncing 405 files and has 36 minutes left.

It's definitely not a problem with my bandwidth and I have checked the settings to make sure that dropbox isn't set to a low upload speed.  

I have tried pausing sync and restarting, I have tried closing dropbox and re-opening.  I have also tried restarting my laptop and it uploaded 5 files then stopped again.

I am a pro user and have only used 50% of my available space.

Can anyone help?

214 Replies 214

Encore P.
New member | Level 1
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Here we are on the same forum months or years after the first "problem" comments.

Most of having already searched through the help files; all the comments; contacted customer service only to receive (at least in the first instance) computer-generated automatic replies.

But then we persist and get a real person on the end of an exchange re: technical help.

What does Dropbox tell us? What they do is complicated and that some users might experience slow uploading.

Yes, and, so, what?

From this discussion forum we may read of the same problems encoutered by people from all over the world. Most are technically "intelligent" enough to try to find solutions to these problems. But apparantly solutions cannot be found because the service - as is - seems to have major flaws. Either that or Dropbox has found the solutions and not told anyone about them. 

Does your computer slow down dramatically when using dropbox i.e. slows down by 75%?

Dropbox doesn't have a solution for that.

Dropbox takes 45 minutes of processing time to establish a file list every time you restart your computer? "this is normal".

Dropbox uploads files massively slower than any other test I have tried? Dropbox answers to this question go from ridiculous to uncool.

So... now that I got roped into trying to "save time" by implementing a dropbox system accross several of my computers. Now I'll have to waste time finding and testing another solution before moving all the files accross.

All Dropbox does as a company is store and sychronize files for people and businesses. If they cannot do that to a certain degree of effectiveness, what justifies their existance as a business let alone a 10 billion estimated market cap?

Seriously, Dropbox. You do one thing. Read the comments on this forum. Are you proud of your work? Do you want your paying customers to be totally frustrated (and tell everyone else about this frustration)?If Starbucks served bad coffee with bad service how long do you think they'd still be in business?

Do you still want to be in business in 2016?

Fix Dropbox. Please. Before your customers all turn elsewere.

 

Jocelyn R.1
New member | Level 1
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I myself opened a couple of tickets problems with Dropbox for this issue and pointed them to this thread (a thread on their own forum!!!).  They never acknowledged the issue.  They kept telling me I was having problems, not them.  I showed them crazy fast speedtest results with ultra low latency... nope, I was the only one complaining.

They shut down Carousel and Mailbox recently... Guess their business was growing too fast for them and they were not able to capitalize on this but instead were suffering.  Not sure what is going on at Dropbox but I smell revenu loss.

That being said...Happy 2016 everyone!!! (Even you Dropbox people who are not reading this thread!!!)

Cheers

Ed
Dropbox Staff
Go to solution

Nicole,

If the troubleshooting steps shared on this thread are not working, I'd kindly ask you to open a ticket with our support team so they can investigate it further. Unfortunately there's not much more we can do unless the team looks at what could be causing issues and slowness on your uploads.

Jocelyn,

Did the support team try to run additional troubleshoot steps to identify where the issue lies? Could you share which steps were taken to identify if the issue was on your end or not? (if they can publicly shared) - if you prefer, send me your ticket number and I'll have a look.

Encore,

I'm sorry to hear the answers sound like 'computer-generated' - I see you have dealt with our team already. May I ask if you always had issues with slowness or if that's something that started in the last few months?

Also, does it happen to be slow in all computers you got Dropbox installed? (I'm assuming other accounts, not the same account on multiple devices)




Ed G
Community Manager @ Dropbox
https://dropbox.com/support


Heart Did this post help you? If so please mark it for some Kudos below. 
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Questions asked in the community will likely receive an answer within 4 hours!)

Bennett H.
New member | Level 1
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Ed, if there has any troubleshooting step that has ever solved this problem under these conditions (specifically, where we have already verified normal upload speed on our Internet connection and already disabled throttling in the Dropbox client), then presumably it should be posted here, so other people can find it.

However it's a moot point since 100% of the evidence points to the problem being Dropbox's slow servers, and if that's the case then no amount of troubleshooting will fix it.

If you think I'm wrong, then tell us: What's one troubleshooting step that has ever fixed this problem for any user, ever? ("Fixing" the problem does not include trying a couple of things until the upload speed randomly fluctuates upward for a few seconds.  The upload speed has to go up to a usable speed, and stay there.)

richard s.87
Explorer | Level 4
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Ed

could you please explain why speeds are so slow even with a direct connection to an institutional internet line that normally uploads 2 to 3gb files in under a minute? It's time for Dropbox to become fully transparent about whatever is going on. 

Jocelyn R.1
New member | Level 1
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Ed,

the steps to "troubleshoot" where very simple and basics.  The most advanced thing I did was a traceroute to Amazon.

At the end there was no answer.  My upload speed is superfast (was 300Mbps at the time) and apparently Dropbox has plenty of bandwidth and other required ressources to pu my data on your disk very quickly.

Now it's too late.  Unfortunately I moved on.

thansk

Joe

Nicole V.9
New member | Level 1
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Gotta love when you say, "I have tried all the troubleshooting suggestions and nothing has worked" in your ticket and then the tech helping you suggests you try one of the troubleshooting suggestions that is listed within the help section.  I told him he should actually read the whole ticket and copied and pasted my original message.

Ed
Dropbox Staff
Go to solution

Hi Benneth - different people posted suggestions (e.g: Alexander mentioned that he changed Dropbox's Bandwidth Preferences: Download Limit set to 150 kb/s.  Upload set to "No Limit" and it has worked for him) and some links to help center articles too.

Jocelyn - I see. I'll pass this on again to our dev team and see if I can get more info on what can be done. It's very likely that they will need to discuss it through a support ticket so they can fully diagnose your account.




Ed G
Community Manager @ Dropbox
https://dropbox.com/support


Heart Did this post help you? If so please mark it for some Kudos below. 
:white_check_mark: Did this post fix your issue/answer your question? If so please press the 'Accept as Solution' button to help others find it.
:arrows_counterclockwise: Still stuck? Ask me a question! (
Questions asked in the community will likely receive an answer within 4 hours!)

Bennett H.
New member | Level 1
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Ed, my question was specifically about whether any suggestion from tech support has ever fixed the problem, for people who have tried that step already (I wrote: "where we have already verified normal upload speed on our Internet connection and already disabled throttling in the Dropbox client").

I think the answer is obviously no, nothing that tech support says has ever fixed it, because the problem is caused by Dropbox skimping on the bandwidth & server resources on their end.

Again, if you think I'm wrong, then is there any suggestion from tech support that has fixed this problem, for anyone in that situation, ever?

Jean-Jacques P.
New member | Level 1
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Painfully slow ! Not a viable option. I have 257 photos to upload and it is taking ages. I am uploading directly on my iPhone. Please help. 

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