Photos on web but not syncing to my PC

[stephenkjohnson]

Hello,

I have a server running Win 10 with the Dropbox Windows app installed (v 85.4.155). I have a little over a thousand pictures that are on dropbox.com, but are not syncing to the PC. New photos and changes to photos are syncing from the PC to dropbox.com, but not from dropbox.com to my PC.

I have shut down and restarted the PC app several times. After restarting the app, it appears to start downloading the images, but the status shows a download speed of 0. Despite it having a download speed of zero, the status counts down from 1496 images remaining to zero images remaining. None of the 1496 images end up on the PC.

I appreciate any suggestions.

Steve

[CodyG]

Have you tried signing out of (and back in to) your dropbox account on your PC? I know it sounds like an insultingly-simple solution to a frustrating problem, but it's important not to discount it immediately (I've had a similar issue as yours resolved by doing this, but on a Mac).

[stephenkjohnson]

In the app there is no "Log out" option, so I tried uninstalling. Now I cannot get Dropbox to recognize the folder I have been using for Dropbox for 6+ years. It is on the root drive of a 16TB drive pool (F:\). However, it will recognize sub folders on this drive pool (F:\MyNewFolder\). So F:\ is no good but F:\MyNewFolder\ is ok with the new version. Moving to a sub folder would not be good as I would likely lose a lot of info associated with older image/videofiles that is not embedded in the file.

My guess at this point is that I am getting the "benefit" of smart sync. I am quite sure I had the app preferences to "Local" before uninstalling so I am not sure why the app would not work as intended. I am trying to work on restoring my server to before the install of the new version of dropbox to see if that might fix the issue. If that fails, I will try to find an older version of the app to install.

[stephenkjohnson]

I love updates.

Looks like a "benefit" of dropbox is that I am forced to use the most recent version of the desktop app. I installed an old version, but it will not let me sign in since it is not the latest version of the app.

If I am FORCED to use the latest version, it looks like I may be facing a situation that all the work I did with old files will be lost.

[Rich]

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@stephenkjohnson wrote:

Now I cannot get Dropbox to recognize the folder I have been using for Dropbox for 6+ years.

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Uninstall Dropbox if it's installed. Rename your existing Dropbox folder to Dropbox_OLD or similar. Reinstall Dropbox and select the location that you want for the Dropbox folder. When the installation is finished, Dropbox will immediately start to sync. Pause syncing or exit Dropbox. Move the content of Dropbox_OLD into the newly created Dropbox folder. When the move is complete, and not before, resume syncing or re-launch Dropbox.

At this point Dropbox will begin indexing all of your files. This process will take a while, especially if you have a lot of data to go through. During this time it may say that files are uploading or downloading, but it's only transferring comparison data and any changes that it find. Be patient and LET IT WORK.

[stephenkjohnson]

I ended up doing similar to what you describe, however, in preferences, it will not allow me to select the location I previously used for the Dropbox folder (F:\). I had to do it in F:\MyNewFolderName. If I selected F:\ as the location for the Dropbox folder, I got an error message saying the drive was not NTFS. When I select F:\MyNewFolderName it works fine and allows me save that new location. Apparently the app does not like root drives of drive pools but it is ok with sub folders on drive pools. I had used F:\ as the location for the Dropbox folder with the app for 6+ years or so.

After uninstalling and reinstalling, confirming it is set for local storage, not 'on-line only', waiting for the app to do it's thing, I still have the same problem. I kill the app in Task Manager, restart it, and the app appears to start downloading the images, but the status shows a download speed of 0. Despite it having a download speed of zero, the status counts down from (now) 1808 images remaining to zero images remaining. it completes teh countdown from 1808 to zero in about one minute with a download speed of zero. None of the 1808 images end up on the PC.

[Lusil]

Hey @stephenkjohnson, thanks for keeping us in the loop with this and sorry to hear that you're still having trouble syncing your files. 

Could it be that there's a third party app, like a security app, that's blocking the file from syncing?

Could you try temporarily disabling your antivitus and make sure that you have configured your firewall to work with Dropbox? Maybe that will do the trick. 

Let us know what you find!

[stephenkjohnson]

I moved my Dropbox folder to the internal C:\ drive and it is downloading fine (so far). I created an entirely new Dropbox folder on the drive pool and set the app to download in that location and nothing happened. However, as soon as I set it to download in a new folder on the C:\ drive it started going.

While I will wait to celebrate until it finishes downloading tomorrow, it appears the new version of the app does not like drive pools (I am using Stablebit DrivePool). I have used the drive pool with dropbox for 6+ years so this is new with the updated app.

Something I noticed with the Dropbox folder on the drive pool, the dropbox.cache/new_files folder would fill with 1800+ missing files I have been unable to download, but that's all it would do. So it appears the process starts when on the drive pool, but it does not complete.

[Lusil]

Thanks for all the additional information, @stephenkjohnson - much appreciated. 

Although I can't exactly pin-point how the desktop app should work with your drive pool, have a look at this link (if you haven't already) in case it gives you some helpful ideas. 

Let me know how it goes!

[stephenkjohnson · Accepted solution]

All files have successfully downloaded.

I asked Dropbox support on Twitter to submit a request to re-enable support for NTFS drive pools on their Windows Desktop App. We'll see what happens. Drive pools have been supported for years, but appears to have recently been deprecated. Until then, I will get around the path issue by using symbolic links.