Dropbox wants to upload all my files

[Lawjamesq]

I got a new laptop. After a week or two I noticed that Dropbox was not initiating upon starting my computer. Once I discovered this and started Dropbox, it wants to upload all 92,000 files in my Dropbox folder. Why will it not just upload the new files? Everytime I start my computer the 92,000 file upload restarts. My files will never get uploaded at this point. What do I do?

[Jay]

Hi @Lawjamesq, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Are you referring to the Dropbox desktop application wanting to upload files in system folders due to Dropbox Backup?

Or, do you mean you have multiple files already in your Dropbox folder are trying to upload?

Any other info or screenshots would be helpful!

[Lawjamesq]

Here's what's happening as best I can tell. I got a new laptop a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately I did not notice until a few days ago that Dropbox was not initiating upon startup of the new computer. When I initiated Dropbox manually, it tried to upload (not index) 94,000 files - everything in my dropbox that I've added for many, many years since I've used Dropbox. Further, when I tried to be patient and left the process running keeping my computer awake for more than 24 hours, the status was that it was still uploading 94,000 files, and I did not see any dropbox files change from the blue "uploading" icon to the green checkmark icon - even the very small files that I was told Dropbox checks first. Initially they thought it was a "permission" problem, and I did get some errors stating that about 62 files could not be accessed by Dropbox. Further, every single time I initiate Dropbox, it asks me to enter my computer password to grant access to the dropbox folder, which I of course do. I removed the "problem files" from the dropbox folder and now I do not get any errors stating that certain files could not be accessed by Dropbox. However, whenever Dropbox is initiated (either automatically or manually) the upload process seems to restart and it tells me that it's uploading (not indexing") 94,000 files. It's like an upload process starts and restarts for every file in the dropbox folder and never completes or even progresses. Also, even if there were "permission" problems with certain files, I was told those files would just be skipped and the upload would continue. So I am very frustrated and no one at Dropbox that I've communicated with via chat or email seems to know what's going on at all. I just need to understand WHY all 94,000 of my dropbox files over many years are attempting to upload every time dropbox initiates. I could understand if I had to live through the upload process again if I could see that if was actually progressing, but that's not the case. I just need to know why Dropbox is attempting to upload all 94,000 files when only a very few were added or changed, and how in the world I can fix this. With the files I have, it could literally take weeks to upload 94,000 files and I'm not sure how to accomplish that. As you can tell I am very frustrated and perplexed and in the meantime I have to manually upload any changes I make, since any new changes simply apparently go into the "endless" and not moving upload que for 94,000 files. I just need to have my dropbox files restored to the green checkmark and for Dropbox to not try to upload 94,000 files every time it initiates. Sorry for the rant.

[Megan]

Hi @Lawjamesq, don't worry about the rant, it's more than okay and I can understand where you're coming from. 

Now let's try to understand why this might be happening, and get to the bottom of this. You mentioned that you got a new laptop. 

Is it safe to assume that you downloaded the app from scratch to the new device? If so, that would explain why all the files are syncing. Upon the initial installation, all the content needs to sync to the device.

Unless you had already copied your Dropbox folder from your old device, to the new one. Let me know how you went about this.  

Even if you had newly installed the app to your computer, it's a bit odd that the number of files isn't decreasing. Could you check the app's precise syncing status, and version that you're using?

You can do this by locating your Dropbox icon on your task bar, next to your WiFi and hovering your mouse there. Let's make sure that you're not using a beta version, and we'll go from there.  

[Lawjamesq]

When I got my new laptop I left the old one at the Apple Store and they transferred all of the content from the old one to the new one. As far as I know I didn’t download anything from scratch. So the Dropbox desktop app and my Dropbox folder were transferred to the new laptop. It was several days befroe I noticed that the Dropbox desktop app was not initiating upon stating up the laptop and when I noticed that I manually started the desktop app. That’s when I noticed that all 92,000 files were syncing and also that no process was being shown. My Dropbox folder and desktop app were both transferred from the old laptop to the new laptop. If you can tell me how to upload pictures I’ll upload screenshots of what I see when the cursor hovers over the Dropbox icon.

[Hannah]

Sorry to jump in here as well, @Lawjamesq.

Can you please confirm that you've followed these steps?

And once you do, does it help at all?

Also, you should be able to send us a screenshot, by clicking on the camera icon right above the reply box, after clicking on "reply".