Files not syncing - MacBook Pro

[mbeck]

DropBox is no longer syncing on my MacBook Pro. It has been showing "syncing 1,218 files" for at least a week. I turned off my McAfee firewall, but no change.

DropBox also is using a lot of file space and the fan is blowing loudly. Activity Monitor shows it is using 107% of the CPU. If I turn off DropBox, the fan stops blowing.

How can I get DropBox working again?

Thanks

[Mark]

Which version of Dropbox?

[mbeck]

I don't know. It's not in Dropbox Info. Where do I find the version number?

[Mark]

You need to mouse over the Dropbox icon - where it tells you what its up to (e.g. indexing....)

[mbeck]

Thanks. Version 29.4.20.

[Jay · Accepted solution]

Hey there,

If the Dropbox desktop application is using a lot of CPU time, then something is affecting the way it syncs, as you're also experiencing currently.

I believe you could have a number of symlinks, which occur when folders are added to Dropbox that reference directories outside of the Dropbox folder or inside of the Dropbox folder but in a different folder.

I'll now go into details about what happens and how to remove them, so please take your time reading over my post!

As these symlinks may reference locations where Dropbox may have limited accessibility, they can cause various issues, namely high CPU usage, poor syncing performance, permissions issues and quota usage disparities are a few of the problems that often come up when symlinks are added to the Dropbox folder.

To check if you have any symlinks affecting your account, I'd like you to run the following command:

1) Open your Terminal app (Located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal). You can also search for "Terminal" using the magnifying glass at the top of your screen.

2) Copy and paste the following line into the Terminal:

find ~/Dropbox -type l -exec ls -lah {} \;

This should give you a list of symlinks in your Dropbox folder and where they point to. The list the command provides shows you the full file path to every symlink in your account.

We recommend that you remove these symlinks from your Dropbox account. You can do that by following the file paths that are provided when you run the command, and remove the files in your Dropbox folder by dragging them elsewhere on your computer (if you don't want them deleted).

After you've removed all of the symlinks you can identify from the Terminal command, please quit Terminal, open it again, and run the command again to ensure that no symlinks remain in your Dropbox folder.

If the symlink pathway is part of a single file that is visible in your Dropbox folder on your computer, this symlink may be part of a container file. Container files look like regular files if you look at them on your computer, but they're actually wrappers that contain other file types inside of them. These may include files necessary for the application to run properly and load all the components that the file requires. Some examples of these types of files are iPhoto libraries, Aperture files or iWork files. In these cases, you may want to remove the entire container file, rather than just the symlink itself, as removing just a component of the container file could damage the container file and therefore you may have problems when opening it.

In general, we recommend users move the actual folders into the Dropbox folder and then symlink back to the original locations. Please just keep in mind that we don't generally support the use of symlinks due to the issues that can arise when they are added to Dropbox.

After you remove the symlinks, it can take some time for syncing to get back to normal.

I recommend restarting your computer and then checking on the status of Dropbox. Please give the application some time to re-index and begin the sync process again.

Hopefully this should resolve your issue.

[mbeck]

AgentJay,

Problem SOLVED! Thank you so much! I appreciate you taking the time to explain what was happening and tell me how to resolve the situation. My computer is acting like its old self again! There was only one folder causing the trouble; I moved it to my desktop and problem solved. Three cheers!

[Jay]

Keep on syncin'!