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

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

Shawn B.14
Helpful | Level 6

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).

165 Replies 165

gformenti
Helpful | Level 5

I unliked my account from my team and relinked again.. now waiting to see if this does any good.  Im havign to dl every single thing from the website and then sending tru wetransfer for a coleague to post on our dropbox work folder.Working like this is total **bleep**...

Matt F.16
Collaborator | Level 9

How do you downgrade?


@DarseZ wrote:

@Exis, I think that's the issue, not having clarity around this yet.  If the new version has issues I'd rather just know, so I can backgrade to 87.4.138 for the time being until everything is worked out.




DarseZ
Collaborator | Level 9
I wrote that after downloading a previous build but haven't tried it to know if it's possible. Based on other research, it may not be.

Daphne
Dropbox Staff

Hey everyone, thanks for your patience here!

Thanks for joining us here @marcoross83, as a first step please just try the steps here.

For those who already tried "Fix permissions/hardlinks", could you check that you don't have symlinks within your Dropbox folder? You can use the steps in point 7 of this article.

Symlinks can cause syncing issues, along with high CPU usage like you mentioned seeing @Matt F.16. Can you try removing the symlinks or replacing them with the actual file and restart Dropbox?

To see if there is indeed a common root cause, then we need to drill down the possibilities as syncing issues can be caused by a number of instances.

I wouldn't recommend it, but you can try installing a previous version of the app from here, as the newest versions have the latest security enhancements etc. Also, the app would automatically update to the latest version.

I've reached out to your email @tonyskate, please check your inbox when you have a moment and we'll go from there.

Last but not least, I'm very glad to hear that those steps helped resolve your issue with the conflicted copies @PatWard! I'll be following up with you in a moment on your thread.

Thank you all for your ongoing cooperation, it's very much appreciated.

Keep me up to date! :white_check_mark:


Daphne
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


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user2891
Helpful | Level 6

Hi @Daphne, I do not have the Fix Hardlinks or Fix Permissions options in the account section of my dropbox preferences.

What can I do?

DarseZ
Collaborator | Level 9

@Daphnethanks for your reply.  Regarding this:

 

"I wouldn't recommend it, but you can try installing a previous version of the app from here, as the newest versions have the latest security enhancements etc. Also, the app would automatically update to the latest version."

Really appreciate you being in the trenches with us on this!

1) Dropbox seemed to work well (and invisibly) for many of us before the last update, so the 'security enhancements' thing doesn't sound credible.  Many of us are pretty savvy here, it would be worth considering starting to begin giving us solid info.

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

 

Matt F.16
Collaborator | Level 9

Hi @Daphne  - I cannot remove the symlinks because they are part of a production application in use (with users). Furthermore, Dropbox officially came out and said that Symlinks are "okay" to have in your Dropbox, they just won't be "followed":

 from Dropbox's official statement regarding this most recent update: "Symlinks are similar to shortcuts that let you have 1 folder in 2 places on your device. For example, if you have a symlink in Dropbox that links to another folder in Dropbox, you’ll now see a symlink and 1 folder—not 2 copies of the same folder."

Further further more, symlinks are unique to Linux, and we have many people in this thread with the exact same problem who are on Windows. My symlinks were not causing any issues prior to the most recent update from Dropbox.

I just tried the new beta and same problem: "Syncing..." (no numbers), until it eats all 32GB of RAM and dies.

When is Dropbox going to stop blaming the users for being the source of the problem and realize that everything worked fine for us up until the last update? They need to fix their code and do better testing going forward. This is an embarassment. 

gformenti
Helpful | Level 5

This is ridiculous, depending on how long this takes to solve Im going to suggest our studio to migrate to another file handling /cloud services, .Its not only worse because im the only one affected out of 14ppl.

marianemes
Helpful | Level 6

@Matt F.16 Exactly! If they don't acknowledge it I'm off Dropbox. Not worth a penny if I cannot trust the company I pay 20 euros a month. Their support, their policy is nothing but just copy-paste, polite but meaningless empty convo.

gformenti
Helpful | Level 5

I managed to get my dropbox working. Its not an ideal solution, I had myself deleted from my Dropbox team account, all files erased then reinvited. Im slowly beeing shared our work folders, however the DL rate is pitiful 500kbps (where it should have been at least 10.000 kbps.... yes it is on unlimited b4 anyone in the support has the never to ask this.

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