blue circle syncing icon not showing

[Ripples88]

The blue circle icon that indicates my file is syncing doesn't display at all in the Dropbox desktop app.  The green sync completed icons do appear, however.   

I tried uploading a 1.5Mb file.  Dropbox indicates that it will take one hour to upload and sync.  

To test whether upload/syncing is working at all, I tried uploading a 17Kb file.  It was fine.

Since I had experienced very slow upload/syncing speeds a few days ago, I had done the following:

1. Reinstalled Dropbox.

2. Ensured that the Bandwidth preferences, Upload Rate is set to Don't Limit.

I also re-tried uploading the file via the Dropbox web site.  The blue circle sync icon does display in the web site version.  The View Details of the file sync keeps showing varying time durations of how long the upload will take as well as what percentage of the file has been uploaded.  The file got to 50 per cent uploaded and showed that it would take less than 10 seconds left to complete uploading.  Now the file has gone back to 25 percent uploaded and has 9 minutes left.  

Interestingly, it only took less than 1 minute to upload the same file into Google Drive.

I am running Windows 10.  Using Dropbox version 44.4.58

Please help me figure out why blue circle syncing icon doesn't display in the Dropbox desktop app for Windows 10.

[Mark · Accepted solution]

The blue icon will not appear online for the website OR if you are using the mobile version of Dropbox from the app store.

It will only appear if you use the 'full' version which has created a 'Dropbox' folder.

www.dropbox.com/downloading may also help. Make sure you give it full admin rights

[Ripples88]

How do I ensure that when I reinstall Dropbox that I give it full admin rights?  I don't recall seeing this option (I'm not technical).

BTW - thanks for the link to www.dropbox.com/downloading.  I've now downloaded the Dropbox desktop app for the 3rd time.  I've unlinked and relinked the Dropbox desktop app to my computer.  I've also ensured that the Preferences are set so that the 'Start Dropbox on system startup' is checked.  

I now get another alert message that says "Please reinstall Dropbox to fix all your syncing problems".  

[Ripples88]

Unfortunately none of the solutions have worked so far.  I've reinstalled Dropbox desktop app 4 times now.   I also increased the Bandwith preference to 'No limit', in case it's a slow upload speed issue.

I guess I'll just have to accept that 'no icon' replaces the 'blue circle icon' and have faith that syncing is, in fact, taking place.

[Karina]

Hey @Ripples88 and @Mark

I just wanted to add (in case this might be a contributing factor), is to have a check on the Dropbox version you're running and make sure it's our latest Stable build, rather than one of our Beta (experimental) builds. 

Currently our latest Stable build is: 44.4.58

A Beta build is essentially an experimental version of the app which is still in the testing period, and this can sometimes lead to inconsistencies in the behavior and performance of the application.

If this is not the case, again, please write back with any updates or additional info you think might be helpful for us to know on this matter. 

Thanks and enjoy the rest of your day! 

[rishi1]

I reinstalled using the link you provided but still not working.

[Lusil]

Hi there @rishi1!

Could you please provide a bit more info? Are you able to see the Dropbox icon that’s next to your clock on your desktop? If so, what does it read when you hover over it? 

Also, any screenshots (omitting any personal info) of your concern would be very helpful in having a better understanding of what you’re seeing. 

Thanks in advance! 

[rishi1]

Hi Lusil,

Everything was working fine until my laptop crashed and I had to reinstall dropbox but now the icons don't appear as before.

Icon on the taskbar next to the date - When sync is complete, it does not show any icon on it (just the box). When syncing it shows the blue syncing icon which is good.

The folders & files inside the dropbox folder on the desktop - When sync is complete these show the tick which is good. However when syncing it doesn't show the blue syncing icon (it doesn't show any symbol on the folder / file when syncing).

I hope I have explained clearly. If you still need snapshots, I can send.

I did update dropbox with the download link you provided but it didn't fix anything.

Thank you.

Rgds,

Rishi

[Lusil]

Thanks for the swift reply, Rishi, aka @rishi1!

You mention that:

---

@rishi1 wrote:

The folders & files inside the dropbox folder on the desktop - When sync is complete these show the tick which is good. However when syncing it doesn't show the blue syncing icon (it doesn't show any symbol on the folder / file when syncing).

Could you please clarify if the green tick icon, for example, disappears from files/folders that are syncing at the point in time? Also, during this time, does your Dropbox icon show the blue syncing icon? 

Finally, could you please send a screenshot (omitting personal info) of what your Dropbox icon reads when you hover over it? Thanks! 

[rishi1]

Hi,

Below I created a new excel file in a dropbox folder. You will see the excel file doesn't show the blue sync icon but the dropbox folder at the bottom does.

Below you will see once the sync was over the file shows the green tick but the dropbox folder and the bottom doesn't show the green tick.

Below you can see the dropbox is up to date but doesn't show the green tick.

Below you can see when syncing the bottom dropbox icon shows the blue icon showing sync is in process but once sync is complete it shows a plain box without the green tick.