files to sync first?

[g v.]

Hi, 

I don't mind dropbox taking a long time in the morning syncing all my files, but there are a couple files of less than a MB each that I'd like it to sync first. They are in the Apps folder. Is there a way to tell dropbox to sync these first, maybe by putting them into a special "sync first"folder?

thanks

[g v.]

both, it is indexing and syncing, indexing down to 82 000 from 99 000 and syncing down to 162 000 from about 235 000 ( I know it gets slower above 100 000 files but it used to work fine). No, I've had this dropbox for a long time and also the big shared folders were there and been doing fine. Then yesterday something hung itself up. I did reorganize a few folders yesterday and let it run over night. My laptop dropbox (sitting next to me) is all done, just the office computer is doing this thing. 

oh and I upgraded both computers to Sierra yesterday (10.12, not high) (sorry completely forgot). Maybe that's why it needs to index all new. Maybe indexing 250 GB takes two days not one, I had it run over night already. so I'll let it index another night.

But it does look like something is wrong in addition because it is still uploading this one 900 KB file that I moved out of dropbox now a few hours ago. I'll post back if this is still there tomorrow. thanks for now!

[g v.]

now it's at 130 000 syncing and 60 000 indexing, not much has happened over night. this could mean that the computer fell asleep and stopped syncing. I'll run it on Caffeine. Maybe that's also why sync was so slow yesterday - I wasn't constantly at the computer and it might have stopped as soon as the display went to sleep. (but it worked fine when initially syncing the shared folders over night? not sure I understand. maybe indexing needs it to be awake.)

[Chris_J · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the update.  I was thinking earlier about some experiences that I have.  It might be possible that you have permissions issues.  Check this article out: 

 https://www.dropbox.com/help/syncing-uploads/stuck-syncing

https://www.dropbox.com/help/syncing-uploads/files-update-issues

 Mac

• Quit Dropbox by clicking on the Dropbox icon from the menu bar, clicking on the gear icon, and selecting Quit Dropbox from the pop-up menu.
• Open your Terminal app (located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal).
• Copy and paste the following lines into the Terminal, one at a time, and press Return after each one.
  • Don't type commands by hand.
  • You'll be prompted for your computer user's password (not your Dropbox password) after entering the first command. Keep in mind that the password field in the terminal will remain blank as you type your password. After you type it, just press Return.
  • Important: We assume that your Dropbox folder is in the default pathway. If you have placed your Dropbox folder in a custom location, replace all ~/Dropbox with the full location of your Dropbox folder in quotation marks. For example, if you have your Dropbox folder in the path /Volumes/DifferentPlace/Dropbox, you need to replace ~/Dropboxfrom the following instructions to "https://www.dropbox.com/Volumes/DifferentPlace/Dropbox".

sudo chflags -R nouchg ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox
sudo chown "$USER" "$HOME"
sudo chown -R "$USER" ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox
sudo chmod -RN ~/.dropbox ~/Dropbox
chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox

Windows

1. Quit Dropbox by clicking on the Dropbox icon in the system tray, clicking the gear icon in the notifications panel, and selecting Exit Dropbox from the menu.
2. Press the Windows Key + R (at the same time), then type cmd and press Enter to open the command prompt.
3. Copy and paste the following lines into the command prompt, one at a time, and press Enterafter each one. Please make sure you copy and paste these commands (don't type them by hand), as getting them wrong could cause some harm. Also, you can only paste them by right-clicking and selecting Paste.
   

   icacls "%HOMEPATH%\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":(F) /T
   icacls "%APPDATA%\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":(F) /T
   icacls "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":F /T
   icacls "%PROGRAMFILES%\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":F /T
   

   
   If the location of Dropbox folder is not C:\Users\YourUser\Dropbox path, please modify the first command to point to it. For example, if your Dropbox is in D:\Dropbox, the command would look as follows:
   

   icacls "D:\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":(F) /T			
   

   
   The other commands should remain unchanged. Please note that, depending on the size of your Dropbox, this operation might take some time to complete, so wait for the C:\ prompt to appear again.
4. Restart Dropbox by going to the Start menu and selecting Program Files, then Dropbox.

Note: If you don't see a Dropbox option under Program Files, you will need to restart Dropbox by entering %APPDATA%\Dropbox into the Windows Explorer window and double clicking Dropbox.exe

[g v.]

okay, thanks - I disabled symantec endpoint protextion Virus and Spyware and Network Threat protection. (I dont surf anywhere weird). No gain in speed. Can enable it later.

I checked for files with incompatible characters - they do exist but I have no control over them and sync has worked well before. There are only macs here, so it's not such an issue. 

Even though index was down to 30 000 and sync to 60 000 I did the chmod ... set of terminal commands. (I think I have done that before once and it helped). since it started syncing and indexing anew, I then also unlinked the dropbox and relinked it once more so everything is new. 

Now it's syncing 340 000, indexing 230 000, and - weirdly - uploading 3 000 files. I didnt make so many new files. I'm always scared it would upload some older versions to a shared folder when unlinking and relinking which could cause real trouble for everyone else. I can't find a way to tell which files it is working at. 

well now let's see what happens over night. 

Do you have an idea what has caused this problem? If it was running fine for months before?

no need to answer if you're taking off for a few days. 

[Chris_J]

Have you updated your OS recently? Did you update to High Sierra OS (Mac)?   and what version of Desktop client are you using?  You can see the version number when you place your cursor slowly over the Dropbox icon in menu bar.  

Are you using the latest MacOS release, 10.13.1, (this is a known version to work with High Sierra OS)

For the answer to your questions..  I think when you fixed permissions, it changed the metadata thus the need to send updates.  I could be wrong here

You might want to send an email to Dropbox and send a ticket.  I would strongly suggest you give them this thread url so they can follow along and get more info.  https://www.dropbox.com/support

[g v.]

okay, thanks - yes I installed Sierra (10.12.6 not high) right around the time it got slow. Not sure if it was slow before. I think I would have noticed if I installed Sierra and then Dropbox didn't work right after. I installed Sierra on the laptop simultaneously and didn't have Dropbox problems there. 

Dropbox client is 40.4.46. 

sync was 2 hours ago 400 000 now 377 000 files

index was 2 hours ago 230 000 now 180 000 files - that's much faster now. 

what could change my permissions? 

ok, I'll go home now and let it run over night and when it isn't done tomorrow I will make a ticket. Not sure if it makes sense to make a ticket now while things are still running. 

thanks!

[g v.]

bad luck - imac apparently rebooted somewhen. syncing and indexing is starting from the beginning. 

[g v.]

for this it would really, really be nice if one could uncouple syncing of a few choosable essential things from the large things that hardly change but block everything in case things go wrong. This is a large disadvantage of having a big dropbox, as convenient as it may be if it works. 

[g v. · Accepted solution]

Hi Chris, 

Happy 2018. 

sync was done the same evening at 9 pm. Dont know why it got off initially, but hope it was the Sierra installation. The things done are changing the permissions (sudo chmod... set of command lines in terminal), unlinking and relinking the dropbox, having dropbox at default location, and keeping the network open in Systems Prefs > Energy Saver > Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when display is off. It took 6 hours on 800 Mbps up and download speed with everything already being there in dropbox and dropbox having 335 GB to sync or re-link with already downloaded documents. Next time I'll get a ticket right away. 

thanks for helping out!

[g v.]

it happened again, did the chmod... series of terminal commands, let it sync over night, all good.