Syncing stuck, Finder extension disappeared

[Igor78]

I have been facing serious syncing problems with dropbox (professional account) in my MacBook Air (main computer). 

The finder extension does not work. The application takes a long time to load, starts syncing - it appears to be syncing), but actually it does not sync. 

Two other minor issues: the arrow at the end of the file list (under the dropbox icon) disappears and online-only files take space in the disk. 

Here is a list of what I tried:

- Restarting

- Cache cleaning

- Updating OSX (now Big Sur)

- Unlinking other computers (only one was left)

- Disabling backups

- Deactivating and reactivating the finder extension in the system preferences  

- Uninstalling, deleting, and reinstalling (3 times) —> this works for some days and then the same problem comes back.

I use dropbox for both personal and professional use.  Please advise. Anything we can do?

[Hannah]

Hey @Igor78, and thanks for joining our Community!

Can you please clarify what you mean about the Finder extension not working/disappearing? Are you able to access the files in your Dropbox folder, but the application is not syncing your changes? 

Also, can you please hover your mouse over the Dropbox icon in your menu bar, to see the current syncing status and send me a screenshot?

Thank you!

[Igor78]

Hello Hannah. Thanks for your reply.

I spent considerable time restarting (several times) and reinstalling Dropbox to make it work again. Now I'm "afraid" of closing my notebook. The current status is "everything up to date". I'll make you a screenshot as soon as the problem happens again. Unfortunately, I think it will happen again soon.

Regarding Finder, the small icons that indicate if a file is local, online, or charging (beside each file name) appear rarely. When they appear, it's not for a long time. When I close or turn off or my MacBookAir, they go away and don't come back. The same applies to the Dropbox menu items (right-click) in Finder.  It seems that Dropbox does not relaunch properly.

Usually, when it happens I have one of the following two situations (the first is the most frequent one):

1. Dropbox takes a long time to launch. Syncing status goes to "Syncing", but the number of files to be synced is huge and does seem not to correspond to reality. The files that appear in the History are very old. The arrow at the bottom of the History also disappears. It also is impossible to follow the progress. There is no progress bar for each file and the total progress bar in the bottom gets stuck at the beginning. The files that recently modified are not synced. 

2. Dropbox gets stuck at launching. The spinning color wheel appears near the Dropbox icon. 

Best regards,

Igor

[Hannah]

Thanks for keeping me updated on your issue, Igor. 

Can you tell me which Operating System you have on your Mac computer? And has your OS been recently upgraded?