Dropbox starting thousands of instances until PC grinds to a halt

[Deeek5150]

My fully updated Windows 10 PC ground to a halt a few days ago.  Task manager showed 100% CPU and memory usage.

I discovered thousands of dropbox.exe instances under "Background Processes".  This number was increasing.

Reboots would see the pattern repeat. Un-installing Dropbox had to be done as soon as the PC was started otherwise the uninstaller failed, I assume due to the number of active processes.

Re-installing is giving the same trouble, whether or not I sign in to dropbox.

Dropbox had been on this machine for years with no trouble.

Any suggestions?

[Daphne]

Hi there @Deeek5150, I hope you're well today!

Since you're having issues with high CPU usage, can you check out this article and let me know if any of the steps there help at all?

If you're still having issues, can you let me know what the sync status of your desktop app shows when you notice the high CPU usage?

Let me know how it goes!

[Deeek5150]

Since you're having issues with high CPU usage, can you check out this article and let me know if any of the steps there help at all?

If you're still having issues, can you let me know what the sync status of your desktop app shows when you notice the high CPU usage?

Hi Daphne,

Thanks for your reply.

I had largely been through the factors in that article.

There aren't many files in my dropbox and it had been working fine prior to this issue.  I hadn't made any changes to files before the issue started and the sync status was synced.

The high CPU and memory usage are definately caused by the multiplying dropdox.exe (32 bit) processes. 

On my laptop which is fine, there are 3 dropbox.exe processes. 

On this PC there were nearly 4 thousand prior to me rebooting...  The number of processes went from around 150 to 800 to 4000 in around 5 minutes.  Most of them were dropbox.exe

Cheers

Richard

[Daphne]

Thanks for getting back to me @Deeek5150!

As a first step, can you try the following to fix any incorrect permissions to see if that does the trick:

1. Click the Dropbox icon in your system tray.
2. Click the profile pic/initials icon in the top right of the window.
3. Choose "Preferences..."
4. Go to the "Account" tab.
5. While holding the Space bar key, click "Fix permissions".

I'd also suggest to try the "Fix Hardlinks" option from the last step.

Once you've done this, you'll get a pop up prompt to let you know that this has completed. If you can then reboot your device, let me know if you see any difference then.

Keep me posted!

[Bjarne1]

Hi,

I have the exact same issue with Dropbox as @Deeek5150.

A short while after boot, many-multiple instances of Dropbox starts and forces the cpu usage to a high level.

I've been running Dropbox trouble-free for years on my Win10 pc (and earlier) until recently, when i discovered the issue by the high cpu usage that gets the fan going.

I have tried the 5-point procedure mentioned above with no luck.

Any further suggestions?

BR,

Bjarne

[Deeek5150]

Hi Daphne,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

I hadn't tried your fixes as I needed to have enough time to re-install dropbox and deal with it grinding the machine to a halt while I tried them; and time's been in short supply!

I have now re-installed dropbox and this seems to be a different version to the one that had been installing, as the install process and screens were much different to what I had pevously experienced.

And... it is no longer replicating itself indefinitely and grinding everything to a halt, even after reboot, which is great!

I haven't made any other changes to my machine so I'm chalking it up to a bug in that version of dropbox.

As an aside, in this version there is no option to "Fix Permissions" or "Hardlinks" under preferences/account so that may also have changed.

Thanks for your help!

And to @Bjarne1 I'd try un-installing and re-installing using a freshly downloaded installer.  The current version definately seems different to the one I was having issues with.

Cheers

Deeek5150

[Daphne]

Thanks for your updates here peeps!

I'm glad to hear that resintalling the desktop app resolved the issue for you @Deeek5150!

Thanks for taking the time to get back to the topic too to let us know, I'm sure this will be helpful for those with the same issue.

Just to note, the options to see the "Fix permissions/hardlinks" should be visible when holding the Space bar key. If not, then you might need to click anywhere on the window and try again.

Would you mind trying to uninstall and reinstall the desktop app as Deeek5150 suggested @Bjarne1, to see if that does the trick for you too?

Let me know if this helps!

[Bjarne1]

Hi Daphne,

I replaced my present version of Dropbox with the newest version, as @Deeek5150 did - and as you also suggested.

Now I have only the usual three Dropbox processes in Taks Manager and my pc is again running nice at a low cpu pace.

Thank you for the solution to you and @Deeek5150.

BR,

Bjarne

[yatested]

I recently started having this issue (screenshot attached below).

I uninstalled Dropbox and reinstalled the latest version - 94.4.384

The issue still occurs though. I've never had an issue with Dropbox which is why I've paid for it for years despite not needing all the space. This makes the service (and my computer) useless when enabled so will likely lead to me seeking an alternative solution.

Edit: I've had to remove Dropbox from my computer as it makes it unusable - so it will be pretty quick to cancel my subscription as well if there is no proposed solution.

Thanks,

Ted

I

[Daphne]

Thanks for joining us here @yatested!

Since the reinstall didn't do the trick for you, can you please try the steps here to try an advanced reinstall to see if that helps?

Looking forward to hearing back from you!