Dropbox is stuck syncing after an update, what can I do?

[Shawn B.14]

I have the "Dropbox Plus" subscription and I run the client on 4 computers.

Yesterday (Monday, 13-Jan-2020) I signed onto my desktop (which is always on) and has a full local sync of my dropbox that a number of new files added Saturday had big red Xs on them -- JPEGs I had scanned Saturday and which were in sync to my laptop on Sunday morning.

I checked my other workstation (also always on) and Dropbox wasn't even running.  I launched it, and it pretty immediately ran a "one time update".   Once this completed, it appeared to go into a full-on sync mode, indexing thousands of files and downloading thousands more (my total dropbox footprint is ~17k files, 600 GB of data).  This has been running for 24 hours without making any apparent progress, despite the drive being materially in sync with my first workstation (using BeyondCompare to check).  Plus not enough system activity to indicate any actual indexing or download was taking place.

I paused workstation 2, uninstalled dropbox on workstation 1 and reinstalled it.  Just prior to this, workstation 1 was "stuck" uploading 2 files and downloading 7 files, which it had been on since last night.

Workstation 1 now shows "indexing" for around 8k files and "downloading" for 9k files.  Trouble is, Resource Monitor doesn't show disk activity or network activity for that kind of activity.

What's going on?  I was perfectly in sync as of Saturday morning and over the last 24 hours it's gotten bad.

Oddly, my laptop ("laptop 1") is apparently fine, showing more or less normal sync status as far as I can tell (and is on build 88.4.172).

[s4ndman]

@DarseZ

I'm considering using Onedrive because I'm already an Office365 user and I think the Google interface is hooooorrible LOL

[JohnGoatstream]

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@DarseZ wrote:

2) What would be the point of installing a previous version if it updates to the latest version anyway?

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Exactly, this. My only hope for fixing this issue right now is downgrading, but after I install an older version it immediately upgrades back to the latest (non-working) version.

[Bartjeeh]

So here at the studio the whole **bleep**show is going down aswell. 

• selective sync issues around the board
• everything suddenly started resyncing, 
• massive cpu load makes computer unusuable
• they've been on 24/7 for the past 3 days in the hope that it would fix, but its sloow
• talking about slow, it seems all servers are loaded because of this, because sync is switching between 5h,17h,2d every second.

So i did fix permissions and hardlinks, but still problematic... 

Oh yeah indeed we have 2 or three symlinks running, but they are a fraction of the data and indeed have always been supported...

[DarseZ]

@Daphne"I didn't want to rule out reinstalling another version of the app"

But it wouldn't make a difference because the app would immediately update!  It seems as if you might be making things more convoluted by suggesting things that aren't possible.

[tonyskate]

It is actually not that complicated. They **bleep**ed up and they don't want to admit it. Fix hardlinks now only works for a few hours and then the issue is back on.

[DarseZ]

@gformentiI tried Google Backup & Sync which has been problematic.  OneNote has been seamless so far, research continues

[Ronald H.]

I've tried downgrading to Dropbox 87 and 86 and nothing changed.

I've tried fixing permissions and fixing hardlinks and neither works. 

My only hope is that Dropbox fixes this SOON SOON SOON!

[DarseZ]

@Ronald H. Daphne confirmed later that backgrading doesn't do anything because the app will just update again.  So I'm puzzled why it was even brought up.

[s4ndman]

Miraculously, it appears that there has been progress in sync. Of more than 3000 files pending for some time, only 17 now.

[Fiona]

Hello everyone! 

Our latest stable is out and you can give it a try. 89.4.278 Let us know your feedback under the stable version post.

This is a long discussion, so to assist all of you the best way possible, having all the information we need, I encourage you to create a ticket with us here and provide us with the ticket number in your next comment. 

If you do have a case with an agent of ours already, we can add helpful notes for them or event take over your case, if possible. 

Super important note.

Please first make sure to try the steps @Daphne has offered here. 

Thank you!