Re: High CPU usage even when not syncing or indexing

Hi there megawhite, sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

Can you clarify the app's  version as shown in your system tray and send us a screenshot of where you're spotting the RAM usage?

If you could also let us know the exact OS version of your computer, I'd appreciate it.

Keep us posted!

175.4.5569

Windows 8.1

Dropbox folder contains 19,681 files, 2,545 folders

Hi megawhite, the amount of RAM and CPU usage can vary at times. 

Could you let us know what processor you're using, and the total amount of RAM on your machine?

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3740QM CPU @ 2.70GHz

16GB

It is only fairly recently that DB has been hammering the CPU every day for no apparent reason, roughly a couple of weeks ago it started.  Yesterday I ticked all Dropbox.exe processes in Resource Monitor and looked at the disk usage tab.  No files were being shown as being accessed.

I am a software developer BTW.

How many files do you have in your Dropbox folder approximately on the local machine?

Are all the files local, online-only, or some in between?

Stated previously here:
https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Apps-and-Installations/High-CPU-when-computer-idle-no-syncing/m-p/690189/highlight/true#M55438

All files local, selective sync not enabled.

Do you have any proxy, VPN, firewall, security software, or even ISP/router settings that could be restricting traffic to the following Dropbox domains?

I have not implemented any blocking on my home network or firewall.  Using Windows Defender.  Dropbox expected functionality is fine.

Thanks for the info. Could you try reinstalling the app without uninstalling it first using this link?

Will doing that retain all settings?

Yes, we're simply reinstalling it while it's installed, just to repair any potential issues in the program itself. All settings will remain the same.

Hi, I looked at all my DB settings, uninstalled, re-installed.  It's still consuming a lot of RAM ~500MB just to keep 20k files in sync:

After existing, opening and leaving 2 hours:

What on earth is it doing with that much memory?!  Outlook which has been open for days is 'only' using 160MB and that's far more sophisticated than Dropbox.

I have the same question.  I've tried the recommended steps above and Dropbox still uses 550+ MB of system memory when it's not syncing, I'm not using any of the files I have stored, etc.  I love Dropbox and have used it for years.  But the system memory issue hasn't been touched since it began awhile ago.  And this isn't the first thread about it.  Will there ever be a fix?  Or is this something that can only be solved by switching to an alternative?

aljortonwhat OS are you running?

Windows 11, but it also happened with my last laptop with Windows 10

Clearly unlikely to do with the OS then.

How many files do you have in your Dropbox folder?  For me, 20,759 files, 2665 folders totalling 21.6GB.  Considering the same app deals with quotas up to 5,000GB, my current usage profile should be no sweat.

I have 62,586 files.  It's mostly personal (lower quality) photos and scanned 1-2 page documents (both .jpg and .pdf) for my work.  So they aren't huge files and it's built up gradually since 2015.  Total space is around 170 GB.  I could go through and delete some older stuff.  But I'm far from my 2TB limit, so I didn't think it was necessary. 

If you leave Task Manager open do you see Dropbox going crazy consuming one of your CPU cores for 10 minutes plus once or twice per day?  I have 4 cores and 8 logical processors, Dropbox is consuming 20% of that right now.  There's no associated disk activity which there would be if it was hashing files or whatever.

I wonder if they're mining crypto on my computer...  The graphs are showing 4 minutes of history on the low update speed setting in Task Manager.  All that CPU is Dropbox as I was away from the computer.  That would explain RAM usage as well!

dropbox so what's the deal with why your software consumes so much RAM and CPU?

Also, have you considered how much extra CO2 emissions the processing issue is causing by millions of computers worldwide using 40W extra due to your software pinning the CPU for significant time on a daily basis, for no valid reason?  This needs fixing.  (Also something for Microsoft to think about with their heavyweight Windows Updates and ComPatTelRunner.exe nonsense that goes on every day.)

I will give this a try to see.  I'll be traveling for a month or so, but will check when I'm back at my desk regularly and can keep an eye on it.  This is an interesting thought. 

dropbox 

Friendly, but also very seriously......the Dropbox Client on Windows OS (any) is broken in many, many ways.

Ever since Windows intruced changes into the explorer with the icon handeling the Dropbox client is killing the users CPUs. So far, there was no update that solved this issue.

Now, with the most recent changes in file indexing, anti-malware protection of Windows....but also with the integration of Dropbox into Office the issues got worse.

I have about 220k files on my computer and it can run FOR DAYS with dropbox maxing out my cpu. It's either one of the Dropbox processes or like here, the tray process. My system is currently running for a couple of hours, no file added, changed or any sort of syncing.

Well......

now to the point why I say the client is broken in MANY ways:

It's a interference of Dropbox Client, Windows Explorer, Antimalware and Windows Indexer. They cycle through the files, each time triggering the other processes to look at the files again.....and after that dropbox client decides to look at the files again, sometimes changing the cloud-status icon and the cycle repeats.

Don't argue with MS has to fix the problem, they won't. They decided to change the way Win10 and W11 are working and they won't go back because of one 3rd party software issue. It would be nice if for instance you could turn off the dropbox icons on folders and files as this would remove the issues with the win explorer.

And no, this is not an issue with the number of files. In 2019 my laptop, the very same machine I'm using right now had 4.8 MILLION frequently changed files to sync and did it with ease.

Edit:

 (reinstalled this week)

dropbox so the questions get hard and so you ignore them, because the problems are not resolved with an uninstall and reinstall of your software.

We're in a climate emergency and your software is essentially turning millions of computers into mini fan heaters.  It's about time you got with the times and resolve this excessive number crunching, resulting in unnecessary carbon emissions.  Dropbox worked fine 15 years ago on single core processors running much slower clock speeds, why 15 years later doing exactly the same thing (keeping files in sync) does it require so much more CPU cycles?

dropbox 

Okay.....so I had the chance for a little experiment and it ended pretty devistating for you/your client.

I tracked down the cpu usage caused by dropbox-only processes as well as my average cpu load during working and private hours. The last 3 days I completely turned off dropbox as I had to work with another group that uses MS teams and onedrive for file syncing.

(edit: average loads and reformatted the table)

Cloud service -//- load (work)-//- load (private) -//- cloud load (work) -//- cloud load (private)

Dropbox         -//-  83 +/- 7% -//- 64+/- 19%     -//- 47%                       -//- 42%

OneDrive       -//-  66 +/- 8% -//- 30 +/- 16%   -//- 22%                       -//- <1%

Just to clarify, after my working hours no files have been added, modified or accessed on any of the cloud services.

Working hours were ~8-9h per day and on average I worked with 3-4 people on a shared drive. The funny part is, that teams and onedrive don't cause the rattle snake loop of indexing, antivirus checking and updating the cloud information. 

So I checked the idle CPU load with only dropbox and with only teams/onedrive activated. A total of 5 hours, all syncing processes were finished and I waited a total of 3 hours before measuring the idle load.

Idle w. Dropbox ~17% CPU

Idle w. Onedrive ~2% CPU

Seriously....HOW can this be. Both clients are supposed to do nothing. No files are being accessed, synced or anything and yet the dropbox client causes a high cpu load? And if it is not one of the dropbox processes, it is one of the file-inspection services from windows which than will trigger dropbox again. This loop needs to be stopped!

Hi there EvilBolzen, sorry to hear about this.

Have you taken a look at this Help Center article for possible reasons why this might be happening and how to tackle it?