Syncing is stuck on a Mac. What could be the culprit here?

[robynphd]

I have a Mac Air (photo attached includes system data). I have noticed for the last two days that the DropBox desktop icon is constantly syncing three files. I have no "blue icons" in my Dropbox folders. I have tried the following:

1) stopping the sync and restarting...nothing changed

2) stopping dropbox and reloading exising app...nothing changed

3) updated dropbox and loaded it on computer...nothing changed

HELP...this is occupying valuable CPU bandwidth and slowing my computer down.

[Jane]

Perfect @robynphd, happy to hear that we got this squared away together. Happy Dropboxing ahead! 🤓

[WolfgangHaak]

Thanks, Jane!

I updated to the Stable build 84.4.170 and then followed the instructions to 'Fix permissions'. I then tried Zdravko's commands, unfortunately to no avail. The syncing problem keeps persisting...

Will now try to unlink & relink.

[Здравко]

Hi @WolfgangHaak,

To be sure we are on same "focus", can you enumerate the commands you launch (sequentially together with the results)?

Just recall - diagnostics:

ls -alRP ~/Dropbox | grep " -> "

Permissions fix:

sudo chflags -R noschg "/Users/$USER/Dropbox"
sudo chflags -R nouchg "/Users/$USER/Dropbox"
sudo chown -R "$USER" "/Users/$USER/Dropbox"
chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox

Again, if moved, replace with proper path. Point also exact steps here.

[WolfgangHaak]

Hi Здравко

Thanks, I followed your instructions and it seems there's nothing flagged as issues:

damp133121:~ haak$ ls -alRP ~/Dropbox | grep " -> "
damp133121:~ haak$ sudo chflags -R noschg "/Users/$USER/Dropbox"
Password:
damp133121:~ haak$ sudo chflags -R nouchg "/Users/$USER/Dropbox"
damp133121:~ haak$ sudo chown -R "$USER" "/Users/$USER/Dropbox"
damp133121:~ haak$ chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox
damp133121:~ haak$ 

Dropbox went to up to syncing several thousand files, but after it was done it went down to the same six files it was stuck on before. So I guess unlink/relink then, right?

[Здравко]

Oh.. i.e. You haven't readed the link pointed. Try!

Two things are clear now: 1 - you haven't permission problems and 2 - there are no wrong symbolic links.

PS: Ok, I will copy everythig here (without link):

Full application uninstall to clear everything left.

• Unlink Dropbox.
• Stop the application.
• Execute following commands:

  rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dropbox
  rm -rf /Applications/Dropbox.app
  rm -rf ~/.dropbox

• After that download & install it again (including link to the Dropbox account).

[WolfgangHaak]

Ok, after clearing with

rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dropbox/Dropbox.app

I unlinked/relinked Dropbox. After a few minutes of syncing frenzy, everything is ok now. Yay!

Thanks heaps!

[Jane]

Perfect @WolfgangHaak, have a wonderful weekend ahead! 😊 

[macgarvin]

---

@Jane wrote:

Perfect @WolfgangHaak, have a wonderful weekend ahead! 😊 

---

I've had the same issues with the same setup, and appear to have solved it for me on two MacOS 10.16.6 machines following the path (partly) suggested by Jane of repairing permissions, ensuring that v84.4.170 was installed, and then delinking and relinking the accounts. HOWEVER  when a coworker, Jennfer, logs into her account on either machine Dropbox won't start for her, indicates that there is a permissions issue, and to contact support with the error message below in italics.

Anyone have any quick thoughts on how to solve this before I try contacting support?

Cheers, Malcolm

bn.BUILD_KEY: Dropbox

bn.VERSION: 84.4.170

bn.DROPBOXEXT_VERSION: failed

bn.is_frozen: True

machine_id: 23843ba5-7737-5d6d-9bc1-b984f6d0fb7d

pid: 8030

ppid: 1

uid: 502

user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='jennifer', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=502, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='Jennifer ******', pw_dir='/Users/jennifer', pw_shell='/bin/bash')

effective_user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='jennifer', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=502, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='Jennifer *****', pw_dir='/Users/jennifer', pw_shell='/bin/bash')

euid: 502

gid: 20

egid: 20

group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root', 'jennifer', '_serialnumberd'])

effective_group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root', 'jennifer', '_serialnumberd'])

DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH: None

cwd: '/'

     real_path='/'

            mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0

     parent mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0

HOME: '/Users/jennifer'

appdata: '/Users/jennifer/.dropbox'

         real_path='/Users/jennifer/.dropbox'

                mode=0o40700 uid=502 gid=20

         parent mode=0o40755 uid=502 gid=20

dropbox_path: None

                    not found

              parent not found

sys_executable: '/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox'

                real_path='/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox'

                      mode=0o100755 uid=501 gid=20

                parent mode=0o40755 uid=501 gid=20

trace.__file__: '/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-resources/python-packages-37.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'

                real_path='/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-resources/python-packages-37.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'

                      not found

                parent not found

tempdir: '/var/folders/wn/dsl2g5x90zj3b3yfcksv097m0000gp/T'

         real_path='/private/var/folders/wn/dsl2g5x90zj3b3yfcksv097m0000gp/T'

                mode=0o40700 uid=502 gid=20

         parent mode=0o40755 uid=502 gid=20

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "dropbox/sqlite3_helpers.pyc", line 647, in conn

AttributeError: '_thread._local' object has no attribute 'conn'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "dropbox/sqlite3_helpers.pyc", line 943, in __init__

  File "dropbox/sqlite3_helpers.pyc", line 956, in _load_db

  File "dropbox/sqlite3_helpers.pyc", line 962, in _do_migrations

  File "contextlib.pyc", line 112, in __enter__

  File "dropbox/sqlite3_helpers.pyc", line 661, in cursor

  File "dropbox/sqlite3_helpers.pyc", line 649, in conn

  File "dropbox/sqlite3_helpers.pyc", line 629, in _create_conn

  File "dropbox/sqlite3_helpers.pyc", line 550, in connect

  File "dropbox/sqlite3_helpers.pyc", line 541, in load_sqlite_ext

sqlite3.OperationalError: dlopen(/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Frameworks/libdropbox_sqlite_ext.dylib.dylib, 10): image not found

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "dropbox/sqlite3_helpers.pyc", line 647, in conn

AttributeError: '_thread._local' object has no attribute 'conn'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 7725, in main_startup

  File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 3191, in run

  File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 1631, in startup_low

  File "dropbox/client/multiaccount/instance_database.pyc", line 759, in __init__

  File "dropbox/client/multiaccount/instance_database.pyc", line 153, in __init__

  File "dropbox/sqlite3_helpers.pyc", line 949, in __init__

  File "dropbox/sqlite3_helpers.pyc", line 910, in rebuild

  File "dropbox/sqlite3_helpers.pyc", line 649, in conn

  File "dropbox/sqlite3_helpers.pyc", line 629, in _create_conn

  File "dropbox/sqlite3_helpers.pyc", line 550, in connect

  File "dropbox/sqlite3_helpers.pyc", line 541, in load_sqlite_ext

sqlite3.OperationalError: dlopen(/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Frameworks/libdropbox_sqlite_ext.dylib.dylib, 10): image not found

[Здравко]

Hi @macgarvin,

Can you check the result from:

ls -l /Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Frameworks/libdropbox_sqlite_ext.dylib

If possible, post result coming from execution in context of 'jennifer' account & of your own account.

Did you ensure the local user application cache is cleared? (as @WolfgangHaak has done)

[macgarvin]

---

@Здравко wrote:

Hi @macgarvin,

Can you check the result from:

ls -l /Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Frameworks/libdropbox_sqlite_ext.dylib

If possible, post result coming from execution in context of 'jennifer' account & of your own account.

Did you ensure the local user application cache is cleared? (as @WolfgangHaak has done)

---

Thanks @Здравко for your help!

The result for the ls -l command for users 'macgarvin' and 'jennifer' are respectively:

Grey-Malkin:~ macgarvin$ ls -l /Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Frameworks/libdropbox_sqlite_ext.dylib

-rw-------  1 macgarvin  staff  52368 30 Oct 18:55 /Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Frameworks/libdropbox_sqlite_ext.dylib

Grey-Malkin:~ macgarvin$ 

and

Grey-Malkin:~ jennifer$ ls -l /Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Frameworks/libdropbox_sqlite_ext.dylib

-rw-------  1 macgarvin  staff  52368 30 Oct 18:55 /Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Frameworks/libdropbox_sqlite_ext.dylib

Grey-Malkin:~ jennifer$ 

I didn't get as far as clearing the local user application cache for account 'macgarvin' because Dropbox was working with the previous steps. I'll have a go at clearing the catche for a/c Jennifer when I have satellite access to my ISP in a couple of hours time and can see the result.

Malcolm