Slow Upload Speeds

[RogueXLR]

I am experiencing very slow upload speeds even though I have recently upgraded by internet connection (100mbs down and 40mbs up). I am a videographer who needs to upload gigabytes worth of footage online after every shoot and dropbox isn't even coming close to saturating my provided internet speed. Below is a list of what I have tried to no avail. Bear in mind that I do not have these upload speed issues with Google drive. 

- Restarted system and dropbox app multiple times

- Disconnected and reconnected internet connection (both wifi and physical ethernet cable)

- Uninstalled and reinstalled dropbox app on Windows 10

- Tried uploading directly to dropbox via website 

- Tried uploading in different browsers, private tabs and different computers with no success

- Clearing both dropbox app cache and browser cache

- Tried adjusting bandwith settings in desktop app 

- Tried restarting router

I haven't had issues with dropbox upload speeds up until the past few weeks so something has clearly changed on Dropbox's side and not sure what is going on. 

[Hannah]

Hey @RogueXLR, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Generally, syncing is a more complicated process than just transferring data.

Each file is divided and compressed into hashed components, transferred via secure data transfer, and then encrypted and stored on our servers.

It also depends on how fast your computer can process and compress the files, etc.

Have you just recently started facing this issue?

And is it possible that you might have more than 300K files in your Dropbox folder?

Keep me posted.

[RogueXLR]

Yes I do have just over 300k files in my dropbox account and have only started encoutering this issue recently

[Nancy]

Hi from me as well, @RogueXLR! 

Please keep in mind that the Dropbox app’s performance may decline if it tries to sync more than 300k files. 

What I’d like you to try, in case you have any large folders you don’t need to be synced locally, is to use selective sync and remove them from the desktop app, so that they only appear on www.dropbox.com. 

Let me know if this seems to help.

[RogueXLR]

@Nancy 

Ok I have just removed some files that way the total is under 300k and upload speed is now up to my max plan speed. I still don't understand how if there are more than 300k files and if nothing has changed on say 250k of them, why it drastically slows down the upload speed. I get that it has to check every file one by one but making it slow down upload speed is odd.

[Nancy]

I’m glad to hear this seems to have solved the issue, @RogueXLR!

If you’d like to check more info on this, please take a look at this Help Center article, as well. 

Hope this helps.

[RogueXLR]

Hello I am back with experiencing more slow upload speeds despite the total file count being below 300k. My upload caps out between 5-10Mbps compared to the usual 40Mbps based on my plan speed. I have even gone to the lengths of completely uninstalling and reinstalling the desktop app and even tried uploading directly to the website and still have the same slow upload speed. I don't know what is going on and why this has changed suddenly in the past 6 months.

[Jay]

Hi @RogueXLR, if you're experiencing this issue on the Dropbox desktop application and the website, then it sounds like a proxy, VPN, firewall, security software, or even ISP/router settings could be restricting traffic to the following Dropbox domains.
 

[James M.58]

Hi There, 

Are you based in Australia? I'm having similar issues with Dropbox due to the fact that Dropbox stores Australian user's data in Singapore. There is quite a bit of international upload congestion right now so uploads are typically less than 10mbps or 1/4 of my upload bandwidth as I have a similar plan to you (100/40). 

I noticed this https://help.dropbox.com/security/physical-location-data-storage but it doesn't apply to professional plans. 

Until Dropbox fixes the issue there is always Google drive or One Drive. I've found both have much better performance for Australian users. 

[James M.58]

I had a look at your Dropbox domains article and noticed that some of your au domains e.g. dl-web-au.dropbox.com actually resolve to Singaporean servers. This would explain my problem and possibly the original poster's issues (assuming they are the same as mine). 

Is this a policy change by Dropbox or a technical error? Please fix it ASAP. It would be a shame to leave Dropbox a year before my 10th anniversary as a paying customer.