Syncing is stuck on my Linux devices, what can I do?

[holf]

It seems I have the same problem as mentioned in above posts. I am running Dropbox on a pc and laptop, both having Linux-Lubuntu as the os. After a "one time update" on both systems, Dropbox is stuck indexing/uploading/downloading a small number of files. In addition, I noticed that when I rename a file on my hard disk, the name of that file is not always changed in the cloud. I tried the two fix options and did a complete reinstall of the dropbox client, but no success. I would appreciate any help.

[Здравко]

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@DokterChaos wrote:

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(IFS=$'\n';for i in `ls -R1 ~/Dropbox`; do if [[ "$i" =~ ":" ]]; then cd `echo "$i" | sed "y/:/\//"`; echo -n "In folder: "; pwd; dropbox filestatus; fi; done) | grep -vi "up to date" | grep -vi ".dropbox:" | grep -vi ".dropbox.cache:"

this won't run because "dropbox" isn't a valid command on my Debian install. 

...

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Hi @DokterChaos,

🙂 If particular command isn't installed using appropriate package, ... it's just not a valid command (of course). Only restricted set of command are embedded in the used shell (they vary according selected shell), all other command have to be installed (some command are preinstalled of course). Dropbox isn't preinstalled, that's why you have to install it using appropriate package or by hand (put the control script named "dropbox" in an appropriate place - take a look on your PATH variable). Then, the command would get valid. 😉 That's it.

By the way, there are many different ways you can use to install Dropbox application as a service, but you should be careful. This is NOT officially supported yet! I don't know what exactly you are doing, but you should place the daemon in the same condition like in usual user context, otherwise only troubles could be expected. There are many right and many wrong ways, just be careful.

Hope this sheds some light on the matter.

[barefootcoder]

In case this might be helpful for others searching like I was:

I modified Здравко's most recent command to look like so:

find ~/Dropbox/ -name .dropbox -prune -o -name .dropbox.cache -prune -o -type d -print0 | xargs -0 -l dropbox filestatus | egrep -v 'up to date|syncing'

This has the following advantages:

* doesn't barf on directories with spaces

* doesn't barf on files with colons

* works on other shells besides bash

To be fair, it also has the following disadvantages:

* doesn't list directories that don't have any "interesting" files

* which also means it will go for long periods without outputting anything at all

* doesn't sort the directories

This can provide some really interesting info, so thank you @Здравко for providing it.

For those looking for quick solutions and who thought to look at the last post, the tip for increasing `fs.inotify.max_user_watches` is really the most likely solution.  The suggestion of 100,000 is good, but figure out how many files you actually have:

find ~/Dropbox/ -name .dropbox -prune -o -name .dropbox.cache -prune -o -print | wc -l

 and make sure when you edit `/etc/sysctl.conf` (to add or increase it) that the number you put is bigger than what you get out of that `find`.  If you're worried about making it too big, I did find one reference that suggested that Dropbox will use about 1k for every file it has to monitor (i.e. the number from the `find` just above).  I've set mine to 500,000, which would use about 0.5Gb of RAM if this source is correct.  My total Dropbox process is taking up about 5.4Gb, but this is a pretty beefy machine and it can tolerate that quite easily, so make sure you take your machine's total RAM into consideration.

[antonio_petricca]

The following instructions word for me:

sudo chown -R "$USER" "$HOME/Dropbox"
chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox

[Jaidan B.]

Hey fellow Dropboxers!

I've been a happy customer for as long as I can remember. Lately though, I've struck troubles with Linux getting stuck syncing. Here's what I've done so far. If anyone could please lend a hand, it would be much appreciated.

Ubuntu 18.04:

1. Approx 19 files "Syncing" but no indication of speed or time.
2. Rebooted
3. Changed permissions recursively using the post from "Hello" earlier in the thread.
4. Changed the file watch count (I had ~220,000 files in Dropbox and changed the watch file setting to 300.000)
5. Checked for symbolic links, there are none
6. Removed Dropbox using the offical instructions
7. Contacted help desk to install the latest version and followed their instructions.
8. Tried everything at this post
9. Deleted entire Dropbox program and Dropbox files (to stat from scratch).
10. Installed dropbox using install instructions on website and built from source. This took 2 days to arrive back at "Downloading 219 files"
11. Double checked all items at this post
12. Deleted dropbox
13. Deleted all Dropbox files (yes all 200,000 of them again)
14. Deleted operating system
15. Installed a fresh Ubuntu 18.04
16. Installed Dropbox
17. Changed file watch value to 400,000
18. Started first dropbox sync
19. Waited two days to arrive at "Downloading 83 files"
20. Followed all instructions at this post again
21. Looked for every type of illegal character according to here
22. Changed those illegal characters that I could through the web interface. Changed the rest of these bad characters from my computer (and the Dropbox website reflected the changes)
23. Reduced long filenames as much as possible, but from a script I ran, my longest was 165 characters (inc path and filename)
24. Removed all the files that MacOS made with `._` at the front (11,000ish).
25. Attempted to use `dropbox filestatus` but it shows some directories as `syncing` but the files inside that directory are `up-to-date`.
26. Attempted to search for illegal characters through the Dropbox search feature as the Dropbox support line suggested however I get "no results" for every combination I can think of.
27. I don't have Windows or Mac computer with enough storage to attempt a new sync with that.
28. I've tried starting Dropbox with `sudo` also and no change.

Can anyone please provide some guidance as to what to do next? I'm over a week into sussing this out and I've run out of ideas.

[Здравко]

Hi @Jaidan B.,

You did really hard troubleshooting work! That's truly strange. 🤔 After OS from scratch install and application install from scratch too (including without data),... nothing should be able stop the initial syncing at lest.

The only part of your troubleshooting you can pay a little more attention is:

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@Jaidan B. wrote:

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Attempted to use `dropbox filestatus` but it shows some directories as `syncing` but the files inside that directory are `up-to-date`.

...

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Here 'syncing' directories means something inside has not completed yet or hasn't started at all! All files in that directory 'up to date' means existing files are ok, but may be others aren't there yet. Did you check content matching of one such directory locally (on the disk) and remotely (on the cloud; using web browser)? 🧐 Is there some difference?

Once you know such details, you would be able direct your attention further in correct direction. What is the result of just stop and start the daemon anew? In  sequence run "dropbox stop; dropbox start". Does the sync process make some steps further?

Good luck!

[Jaidan B.]

Thanks Здравко for your prompt response.

There are 5 folders which say "syncing" but all files inside are "up-to-date". I did a file count and found there are files missing. One folder, it is all photos taken on 1st Sep 2008 which appear on the web but do not appear on my computer. However, when I download one and try to save it to the dropbox location on my computer, it is labelled as a sync conflict. I have used `ls -lah` to show me hidden files and the missing ones do not appear. I can open them OK in the web browser.

I have not checked the other folders yet as I need to sleep (it is late here). I will look into this further in the morning.

Restarting the daemon in the manner you described has not made a difference. It usually takes some time to "index" then stalls again at 83 files.

I'll report back either way as these diagnostics may help others.

Regards,

J

[DokterChaos]

another obscure thing that could fail syncing: avoid symbolic links, hard links, bind mounted folders,....   in the Dropbox path

[Jaidan B.]

Thanks Здравко for your prompt response.

There are 4 folders which say "syncing" but all files inside are "up-to-date". I did a file count and found there are files missing. These filesappear in the web browser but not locally. However, when I download one and try to save it to the dropbox location on my computer, it is labelled as a sync conflict. I have used `ls -lah` to show me hidden files and the missing ones do not appear.

I have tried copying these files in the web browser to another location. Then my "Downloading X file" increases by 1 but the file does not appear on my PC. I've also tried renaming which makes no difference either.

Restarting the daemon in the manner you described has not made a difference. It usually takes some time to "index" then stalls again at 83 files.

What information can I look at for the files which will not sync?

Regards,

J

[Jaidan B.]

The forum is marking my posts as spam 😞 and is deleting them. I still require help. Can an admin person please remove the spam mark?

[Jaidan B.]

Thanks @DokterChaos for the information. I have checked for symbolic links, hard links and bind mounts and haven't found any. This is something I was aware of from a few years ago and have tried to avoid them in Dropbox.