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Dropbox syncing online-only files when a third-party app tries to access a synced folder on Windows
Operating System/Browser (if using the web) (Windows 11 and Windows 10) Dropbox App Version (if using the app) (238.4.6075) Question or Issue This problem has bothered me for a while, I don't remember since when, but currently whenever I tried to save something into a Dropbox synced folder (such as a Powerpoint file or Word document) on Windows, the dropbox would start to sync all the supposedly online-only files within the folder and the syncing is really really slow. Most importantly, the syncing process would freeze the entire Save-As dialog and nothing can be done before the syncing is finished. This is not just limited to MS Office, but also other apps as well. Directly access the folder through Windows Explorer is OK. I am not sure if this is an Windows issue or a Dropbox issue. I suspect accessing the folder through an app other then Windows-Explorer would trigger Dropbox to believe you are trying to access all the files in that folder. I have updated Dropbox app to the newest version as suggested by support. And it happens on both of my desktop PC and laptop PC. Also I'd like to point out that I am accessing Dropbox through a proxy, which may explain the slow-syncing issue. Does anyone have similar experiences?How to back up my Dropbox folder on an external drive?
Running Windows 11 Pro. I recently re-installed Dropbox to retrieve files still stored on the cloud. The default install put the folder location "C:\Users\michaelmunson\Dropbox" I attempted to change the folder location by going to Preferences > Sync > Dropbox folder location. I changed the location to the external drive where I wanted it to be. After a LONG time, there was a quick pop up error message that said that not all files could be transferred. (I dont know which ones and can't find a log with details.) When I open file explorer, I am still seeing dropbox in the original location (c:\users\) AND the new location (d:\dropbox\). When I check back in preferences under sync, the dropbox folder location is still showing the original (C:\users\). When I tried to do the process again to move it to the D drive, a pop up box noted that there was already a desktop.ini file on the D drive and it could not move the files. Any idea of how I can get dropbox to show up ONLY on the external drive? I ONLY want to be able to download ALL of the content to the external drive. I dont' need it to sync and don't plan on having this as a dynamic file location with new or changing files. This is simply a back up of prior files. Thanks for any help. michael
Finder context menu missing for Dropbox files on macOS
Hi everyone — after migrating from an iMac to a Mac mini 2024 (M4, 32GB), Dropbox sync works but Finder integration is gone. I first saw this on macOS Sequoia 15.5 and I’ve since updated to macOS Tahoe 26.1 with no change. Online-only files in my Dropbox folder show as 0 KB and download/open fine on double-click, but there are no Dropbox right-click options in Finder (no “Make available offline”, no “Online-only”, no Dropbox submenu). Tried: enabling Dropbox File Provider in Login Items & Extensions, granting Full Disk Access, relaunching Finder/rebooting, and full uninstall + reinstall from Dropbox .dmg. Still missing. I even contacted Dropbox Support and they haven't given me any solutions yet. Has anyone found a fix or workaround to restore the Finder context menu actions? Thanks!
Desktop App stuck on "Updating Dropbox account..."
Hello, I logged on this morning to find that my desktop app (Windows 10) for Dropbox is stuck on "Updating Dropbox Account..." and won't budge. I even attempted to re-install Dropbox, and that didn't work. Can someone help me with this, please? Thanks, AimeeBlue sync icons appear on my Windows 10 desktop
On occasion, blue sync icons will appear on files and shortcut links that are located on my Win 10 Desktop. None of the files are related or stored in Dropbox. What is causing this. The only way to remove them is to reboot my machine. Any idea what is causing these sync issue to appear.
Unexpectedly syncing an enormous amount of files and constant crashing
TL;DR - Many files seem to be indexing for no reason, some seem to be downloading locally, dropbox app is crashing every 5 minutes, I've tried most of the troubleshooting techniques, and have no solution for what I'm facing here. For the past week or so, Dropbox has been indexing in excess of 20,000 files without any user input (and seems to be downloading some files without any instruction or input from me). It has also been unexpectedly crashing within a few minutes of starting up. I have tried just about every troubleshooting option in the book: - Advanced Reinstall + Selective Sync (did not fix anything, waste of time) - Fix Hardlinks / Permissions (did not fix anything) - Relinking Account (did not fix anything, although it did seem to go through all of my files and end up getting stuck again) - Selective Sync (which does not work at all) - Removing Some Files that were recently added (did not fix anything, still had the same amount of files indexing/syncing) - Selecting "Online Only" for the whole Dropbox folder as some files seem to be downloading for no reason at all (didn't seem to work, it did seem to make the problem worse if anything) What I am currently doing: - Checking the Windows Indexing settings to see if this will fix/subdue the issue I am yet to try: - Relinking Account in conjunction with Selective Sync and seeing if that does anything, but I am reluctant to try this again if it will just get stuck. The number of files being indexed seems to vary between 19,000 and 23,000, however, this figure has been going up recently. Every single file is showing the "blue sync icon", so finding the troublesome files are impossible at this stage, and it has been very stable with around 4 million files, so not sure what has triggered this to happen. I would usually upload around 500GB at a time, and the Dropbox app would take it like a champ and just get the job done, now, however, it doesn't seem to like anything I do with it. What has happened on my PC recently: - I had placed a small batch of files into my Dropbox folder (around 120GB or so, I am reluctant to delete my entire Dropbox directory and start again in fear of unsynced files.) [I have taken out some of these files and this did not seem to fix anything.] - Windows Updates I had a similar issue around a month ago, and somehow happened to fix it by taking files out that I had recently placed inside the Dropbox folder. It seems as though now, this solution does not seem to fix anything. I understand that I have some 4.2 million files in my Dropbox, and I have been trying to selective sync to reduce this amount to improve performance, however, it seems to be an impossible loop of crashing and indexing/syncing. I have a fairly high-powered system so I expect this indexing to be completed rather quickly, however, it has been doing this and crashing for the past 5+ days or so. Please help! (I have redacted personal information)
Copy files from iCloud to Dropbox
Hello all. I have copied all my iCloud Files & Folders, via Finder, to Dropbox. They DO show up in Finder-->Dropbox. They do NOT show up on the web. All other files show up instantly but none of those I just copied did. Does anyone know why the files aren't showing up on the website? And, how do I correct this? Thank you all!
