How long does it take to sync?

[vin1]

Hi, I just downgrade my plan from advance to professional plan, how long it will normally to sync all my files? lets say the files in my Advance plan is 500gb, is it normal that it takes too long?

Thank you

[Daphne · Accepted solution]

Hey there @vin1,

We can't really estimate the time it should take due to syncing being limited by your internet speed for example, and your device capabilities may also be a factor too.

Since you are moving from what I’m assuming was a Business Advanced subscription to Professional, the sync may take some time as it will need to change the folder structure a little (eg. the personal purple folder is only on Business accounts).

As long as you see that the sync is progressing you should be okay, and you can see that by clicking on the Dropbox icon in your menu bar/system tray. However, as you mentioned it may be around 500 GB, this may take a while to sync. As long as you keep the computer and app open and running then it should complete as soon as possible.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns about this - Thanks!

[ExDragonUser]

Hello @vin1 ,

It's normal for Dropbox to take forever to do anything.

I am about to cancel my plan completely, because the guys and gals at Dropbox cannot seem to get something as simple as an app startup sorted. I have over 3.5 million files in my dropbox, and it happily synced until Dropbox decided to incorporate all sorts of useless functionality, and oh yes, now you are limited to having approximately 500k files in your dropbox.

Nice, so how do I get my files back? Oh, you have to use the same useless app that sits at Startup forever and a day, and never seems to get finished with what ever it is doing.

Useless!! Useless!! Useless!!

I'm done with Dropbox.

[Daphne]

Hey @ExDragonUser,

I'd be more than happy to help where I can with the issue you're having. What you mentioned is indeed correct, that the desktop app has a soft limit of syncing around 300,000 files. However, this is indeed a soft limit and it depends highly on your device's specifications, so this is probably why you had success with syncing such a large number of files previously.

We do suggest that you can use selective sync to reduce the overall load on the desktop app which should decrease the startup time that you seem to be having an issue with.

Let me know if you'd like me to assist any further with this by just giving me a nudge here and we'll see what we can do.

Thanks!

[hsingh78]

I have the same issue. The dropbox used to work fine until they added new features.

You cannot do the selective sync anymore to speed things up. You have to wait for everything to sync for selective sync to work. 

dropbox should add back the functionality where when I m starting dropbox again I can use selective sync up front rather than waiting for more than a week to let everything sync first. 

When I reinstalled dropbox, I lost a week's work thinking everything was syncing and apparently it was not. It said syncing for a week and nothing synced.

I am now trying their smart sync - online only and if it does not sync today, I might well say goodbye to dropbox forever. I always used to say I prefer dropbox over google drive any day, not anymore. Simple was better - more functionality has ruined what was a dream cloud storage.

[Daphne]

Thanks for joining us here @hsingh78.

When you do a fresh installation of the desktop app, you can choose which folders you would like to sync before the initial sync starts.

There is an option for "Advanced settings" within the first few steps which allows you to choose the location, and selective sync settings.

I hope this helps to some extent, please don't hesitate to give me a shout if you have any issues or questions!