Slow upload speeds on Windows 7

[Soonjas]

I am experiencing the super slow upload speed via Dropbox desktop App ( v 120.4.4598 ) and I am running Windows 7. It used to be good and only recently noticed super slow upload speed. Funny thing is, upload via chrome browser works and utilizes my bandwidth to the max which is great. I have tried reinstalling the app, playing around with settings, rebooting router and modem, speed tests, tried that fix by merk. Also have tried installing Dropbox onto a laptop (win7) and get the same upload speed around 250KB/s. It seems like there is hard limit on the upload speed set by Dropbox.

I have wasted too much time on this. It is not my internet, as upload speeds are great to Google Drive and other speedtests, even the dropbox browser upload is fast.

Conclusion is the desktop app upload is slow. Definitely something wrong with the desktop app. So tempted to try the Filezilla Pro option, have to pay though =( 

Please fix this Dropbox!

[Megan]

Hi @rootsandculture, happy Monday! 

Have you tried adjusting the app's bandwidth as shown here? Also, how long has this been going on? 

Keep me posted, and we'll take it from there.

[rootsandculture]

Hi Megan, yes I already tried configuring the bandwidth.

[rootsandculture]

I noticed the same limited speed downloading my files from the Dropbox page too. It stuck at 1.5MB aprox (same speed as client).

[Hannah]

Sorry to jump in here, @rootsandculture.

The thing is that Dropbox doesn't put any caps on the syncing speeds, however syncing is a bit more complicated process, than just transferring data.

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

So, this might take a bit more time, than just uploading/downloading files from the internet.

I hope this gives some insight on the situation.

[Insane5656]

Nothing to do with my internet speed it app and Dropbox system is slow, anyother back up system moves faster upload and viewing. System management needs fix and do more for system.

[rootsandculture]

This happens only in Windows 7, not in Windows 10 or Linux in the same machine and connection setup.

[scunningham]

So @Hannah,

Has something changed in the way that Dropbox processes files on their end or is all that processing dependent on my machine? I have been using Dropbox for video production for almost 10 years and on various connections with results that were predictable based on my connection. Work office was 200Mbps down and up. Home was 200Mbps down and 5Mbps up. Obviously there was a difference when I would upload at home versus work. Night and day, but at work I would get significantly better speeds (around 9MB/sec) than home (around 650KB/sec). This was pre-pandemic and working from home. By the end of 2020 I was working at home full-time and I still am. I just recently upgraded to gigabit fiber which should be 200x faster upload speeds (not exactly but you know what I mean), yet I only get about 1200KB/sec on average if I'm lucky. That's only 2x! Please stop referring everyone to this page. It's insulting to our intelligence to think that we didn't check a few buttons in the preferences before reading through tons of forum pages that go in circles. Also, you can assume we know the difference between kilobits and kilobytes and such.

Me and ton of other people here would sure like to get a straight answer about this situation. You say there is processing on Dropbox's servers that make the uploads seem to take longer. Is this processing something new? More intense than in the past? I didn't have upload speed issues in the past. With this processing time on the Dropbox end, what can we realistically expect as a maximum overall upload speed even if we theoretically have unlimited upload bandwidth on our end? Maybe there isn't a "cap" imposed by Dropbox but this "processing" sure is acting like one. As a Dropbox Business Advanced user can I opt out of this processing and allow by files to flow freely? If a Dropboxer can give us a straight answer regarding this, that would be amazing!

[scunningham]

I tried something recently and had an interesting find. I also have really slow upload speeds to Dropbox over my Gigabit connection. I usually get about 1200KBps up on average through the app and the website. I took 2 different, large video files and uploaded them simultaneously to the same file directory on Dropbox. One went through the app and the other through the website. I monitored the speed of my outgoing data through the Activity Monitor on my Mac and it essentially doubled.

What this tells me is that my upload speeds could be significantly faster if the Dropbox app was coded to upload multiple files at once and utilize my full upload bandwidth. Am I wrong? I would have tried uploading simultaneously through multiple browsers as well but it wouldn't let me login to more than one at a time.

I've read through this entire thread and gone through all the hoops to make sure it's not something other than a Dropbox issue. My ISP isn't blocking anything, my router's firewall and all other security settings are turned off, no VPN, no proxy, no firewall on my computer, settings in the Dropbox app have been checked so it doesn't limit the speed, no anti-virus software is installed. Pretty much any hacker could easily come invade my Mac right now because it's so open (just for testing of course). I also don't have any conflicting software running. As a video editor, I keep it very lean. But for this test I even closed down basic things like outlook and iMessage. Nothing else is running except Dropbox, Chrome (to upload via the web) and necessary system services.

FYI @xerkon you might find this interesting.