Syncing without syncing

[mazatov]

My dropbox has been in "sync" mode for the last two days without actually doing any changes to my files. 

I have a desktop with Windows 10. It stays on all the time connected to the internet with Dropbox always running. My dropbox folder is quite big (~ 1.5 Tb) with lots of files but most of them are not changed regularly and just stay there. Two days ago, my dropbox went into 'Sync' mode and absolutely all files in it have a blue syncing sign. As far as I can tell, it actually has not made any changes to files in the last two days and it has not noticed the latest files that were put in it today. It does not say indexing, just syncing. 

Tried restarting the computer, restarting dropbox, pausing and starting dropbox and it's still the same. Not sure what else I can try. 

[Lusil]

Hey @mazatov, 

Welcome to the Dropbox Community - I'd be more than happy to help!

As a first step, could you please check if by any chance the syncing process is being hindered or blocked by a third party app, like a security app?

Could you also temporarily disable your antivirus and make sure that you've configured your firewall to work with Dropbox? 

Let me know how it goes!

[mazatov]

Hi Lusil, 

I've had dropbox working on this computer for a few years now with no issues with firewall but just in case I disabled firewall. So far no changes. 

[PolkaDot]

I have the same 3rd party apps for protection I have had for many years. It may be a W10 issue as it has greatly changed, and wants to control everything on the computer, and blocks things that are not malware. I try to turn it off, and it goes back on. 

Plus, your web version does not allow me to upload to a specific folder, just the general dropbox. The option disappears. But prior I never had syncing issues, although your new version kept asking me when I wanted to delete, if I knew it was deleting it not just from dropbox, but everywhere. I was afraid to try to get it out of dropbox. Now it's not asking me that, but it's not syncing. A mess.

[mazatov]

Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure what else I can disable besides Firewall. I don't even have an antivirus on my computer. 

Today a new error popped up on dropbox though. Now I'm regularly getting these "Dropbox unexpectedly quit, Your files are safe. Restart Dropbox to resume sync and other features." 

[Lusil]

Thanks for checking that out for us, @mazatov!

In order to have a better look into this matter with you, I'd recommend moving this discussion to email. 

As such, I was able to locate your support request and can see that a member of my team is reviewing it for you.

I made sure to pass your comments along to them and they've replied to you via email. When you have the chance, please check your inbox for their latest message. 

@PolkaDot, I'm sorry to hear that you're having trouble with syncing your desktop app. I can see that you're investigating this with Fiona on this thread so I'd recommend continuing there to ensure troubleshooting.  

In the meantime, let me know how it goes, peeps!

[mazatov]

Thanks for passing the comments @Lusil ,

I'm waiting for their response 🙂

[Lusil]

No worries, @mazatov. Keep me posted! 

[Walter]

Sorry for the nudge here @mazatov; were you able to resolve your concern and in the end and if so, how exactly?

[mazatov]

@Walter , no worries. It was a very frustrating week. In the end, the issue was with the version. Looks like the last stable build was well, not as stable as they thought. At least for me. I ended up reinstalling the  Beta Build 83.3.140 and that worked. I would try different versions until you find the one that worked. Then opt out of version updates in the settings. 

Also in the process, I ended up completely erasing dropbox from the computer, uninstalling dropbox, erasing dropbox folder, and all associated files, etc.. Not sure if that was necessary, but I tried so many different solutions that I ended up deleting everything which was frustrating as I have about Tb of files...