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Why is my download speed slow?

Why is my download speed slow?

Josi B.
Helpful | Level 5
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Hi, I don't understand why I'm having such a big problem downloading a movie from my Dropbox file onto my MacbookPro laptop. The file is only 1.2GB, I'm connected to my router with an ethernet cable, with a fibre-optic connection of 50/50Mbps uncapped and unthrottled. I've tried many times already, but the download is either ridiculously slow or stops altogether. I'm on Dropbox Pro, I have plenty space on my laptop hard drive, and I'm not doing anything else on the laptop at the same time. Am i doing this incorrectly or what? Help help please!

23 Replies 23

Dominick R.2
Helpful | Level 5
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I have new computer and am trying to download my Dropbox onto it. I get at least 50 Mbps download.

1 GB = 1000 MB = 8000 Mb

Therefore 1 GB should take 2.7 minutes; lets say 3 minutes.

200 GB should take 600 minutes, or 10 hours.

TWO DAYS LATER, I have downloaded 100 GB... it will take at least FOUR DAYS to download 200 GB and God forbid I ever fill up to 1TB, I can expect almost A MONTH to download from Dropbox to a BRAND NEW COMPUTER with an i5 8th Gen Intel processor????

I don't even know what to think about this.  Dropbox had been working for me despite its horrible iOS interface.

Do people have better experiences with One Drive?

This & the fact that there is no real time support and no one on weekends - why would anyone stay with Dropbox?

Maybe someone FROM DROPBOX can answer instead of leaving it their hapless CUSTOMERS to take care of each other.

 

Tom H.
Super User
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Don't forget your data is transmitted encrypted and must be decrypted. That happens on the drive, along with checks to make sure the enitre file reaches you. It will take some time.

 

Dropbox will never use the complete full download bandwidth.  It also is affected by you using other things, like mail, web etc during those times Dropbox may slow the process to allow you to continue working. It could be affected by things like you allowing the computer to sleep. 

 

Have you checked your bandwidth settings ? https://help.dropbox.com/syncing-uploads/faster-sync

 

Many, many, factors can contribute to each users individual experience. 

 

----



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Jay
Dropbox Staff
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As Tom said, whenever files are uploaded or downloaded, the computer needs to encrypt or decrypt the files, which depends on the processor. Naturally desktop devices fare better than laptops and netbooks.
 
Other things that can affect syncing are ISP issues, router problems, or strict security or bandwidth settings in either of these, or any software that scans network data.

 

 

[This thread is now closed. If you have a similar or new question, you can ask here.]


Jay
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


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Rich
Super User II
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And just for completeness, remember that the speed you see reported by Dropbox is not simply the transfer speed of your data. Tom and Jay have already mentioned the encryption, but also, each file that you upload is hashed, compressed, then transferred, encrypted, and stored on the Dropbox servers. That entire process is included in the aggregate speed that's displayed in the Dropbox sync status. In other words, the speed reported by Dropbox is not just a transfer speed, but the speed at which the entire process is being completed. It can never be compared to the advertised speeds from your ISP.
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