Dropbox not syncing and can't find Hardlinks

[reesefaylona]

Hi! My dropbox won't sync properly. It has a grey icon on the file (instead of the green check or the blue syncing icon). It seems to have something to do with Selective Sync so I selected all my folders to try to remove the selective sync feature. I've read here that I should go to preferences > Accounts > click on Fix Hardlinks while holding spacebar down but there's no "Fix Hardlinks" button I can click. Would appreciate any leads on what else I should try. Thanks!!

[Walter]

Hi @reesefaylona; welcome to our Community!

I'll be glad to help with this so could yo forward me a screenshot of this gray icon so I can have a visual too?

If I understand correctly and you're indeed seeing a gray circle with the minus sign,note that this may appear on a file or folder when you're using the selective sync feature (meaning you've opted not to sync this file or folder on your computer).

Normally, selectively synced files and folders won't appear in the Dropbox folder on your computer, however, if you create two files or folders with the same name, the gray icon will appear, indicating that one of the files isn’t being synced.

Could that be the case here? 

While we're at it, these are the steps you need to take if you'd like to try fixing hardlinks and/or permissions on your files:

1. Make sure the Dropbox desktop application is running

2. Click on the Dropbox icon in your menu bar and then click your profile picture or initials

3. Select 'Preferences'

4. Click on the 'Account' tab

5. Hold down the 'Option/Alt' key (or ALT+H for Windows)

6. Click on the 'Fix Hardlinks' button (make sure you're still holding down the 'Option/Alt' key)

7. You may be prompted for your a username and password, this is your computer login credentials, not your Dropbox account ones

8. Give it about ten minutes to see if Dropbox resumes syncing.

If the above steps don’t resolve your issue, please repeat steps 1→5, but at step 6, this time click on the “Fix Permissions” button. 

Note that if you use “Fix Permissions” syncing will start back over so if you need to use this step, please allow for a few hours to pass and let me know the results. 

Thanks!

[reesefaylona · Accepted solution]

Hi! I understand what was going on now. It had something to do with Smart Sync keeping my files online only even if I selected it to go to my local folder. It's okay now, I followed the instructions (right-click > smart sync > local folder) so it's all syncing now 🙂

Thanks!

[amyfitz]

Hi, trying to speed up my Dropbox app on opening (as it makes EVERYTHING else stop and wait, too)-

I did these steps below, but when I hit Step 5 - no "fix hardlinks" button.  SHOULD IT BE OBVIOUS? Literally nothing changes in the window, and the only button there - before and after the option/ alt key - is to unlink my work dropbox.

Thx.

1. Make sure the Dropbox desktop application is running

2. Click on the Dropbox icon in your menu bar and then click your profile picture or initials

3. Select 'Preferences'

4. Click on the 'Account' tab

5. Hold down the 'Option/Alt' key (or ALT+H for Windows)

6. Click on the 'Fix Hardlinks' button (make sure you're still holding down the 'Option/Alt' key)

[Daphne]

Hey @amyfitz, thanks for joining the topic!

Can you try clicking in the empty space of the window before holding the suggested key to see if that does the trick?

If not, can you let me know which version of the app you have installed?

Keep me posted!