MacOS 'bird' daemon looping on Dropbox even after uninstall

[crashmeister]

the bird daemon is used by MacOS to sync with iCloud. It was looping badly on Dropbox access, so I uninstalled dropbox. It is still looping, but not quite as badly.

How do I fully get rid of dropbox from my computer ?

Sample console output when asking for log entries:

Craig-iMac:~ Craig$ brctl log -w -t
[dbg 2024-04-25 10:14:21.183-0400] fileproviderd[515] com.getdropbox.dropbox.fileprovider/0{34}7 Going full rescan for pending items after 22453.630559
[dbg 2024-04-25 10:14:22.280-0400] fileproviderd[515] com.getdropbox.dropbox.fileprovider/0{34}7 Going full rescan for pending items after 22454.728244
[dbg 2024-04-25 10:14:23.263-0400] fileproviderd[515] com.getdropbox.dropbox.fileprovider/0{34}7 Going full rescan for pending items after 22455.710738
[dbg 2024-04-25 10:14:24.277-0400] fileproviderd[515] com.getdropbox.dropbox.fileprovider/0{34}7 Going full rescan for pending items after 22456.724444
[dbg 2024-04-25 10:14:25.262-0400] fileproviderd[515] com.getdropbox.dropbox.fileprovider/0{34}7 Going full rescan for pending items after 22457.709824
[dbg 2024-04-25 10:14:26.263-0400] fileproviderd[515] com.getdropbox.dropbox.fileprovider/0{34}7 Going full rescan for pending items after 22458.710699
[dbg 2024-04-25 10:14:27.278-0400] fileproviderd[515] com.getdropbox.dropbox.fileprovider/0{34}7 Going full rescan for pending items after 22459.725494
[dbg 2024-04-25 10:14:28.263-0400] fileproviderd[515] com.getdropbox.dropbox.fileprovider/0{34}7 Going full rescan for pending items after 22460.710760
[dbg 2024-04-25 10:14:29.263-0400] fileproviderd[515] com.getdropbox.dropbox.fileprovider/0{34}7 Going full rescan for pending items after 22461.710898
[dbg 2024-04-25 10:14:30.282-0400] fileproviderd[515] com.getdropbox.dropbox.fileprovider/0{34}7 Going full rescan for pending items after 22462.729761
[dbg 2024-04-25 10:14:31.262-0400] fileproviderd[515] com.getdropbox.dropbox.fileprovider/0{34}7 Going full rescan for pending items after 22463.709646
[dbg 2024-04-25 10:14:32.263-0400] fileproviderd[515] com.getdropbox.dropbox.fileprovider/0{34}7 Going full rescan for pending items after 22464.710538
[dbg 2024-04-25 10:14:33.278-0400] fileproviderd[515] com.getdropbox.dropbox.fileprovider/0{34}7 Going full rescan for pending items after 22465.726158
[dbg 2024-04-25 10:14:34.282-0400] fileproviderd[515] com.getdropbox.dropbox.fileprovider/0{34}7 Going full rescan for pending items after 22466.730321

[Nancy]

Welcome aboard the forum, @crashmeister!

To clarify, before we troubleshoot further, would you like to keep the Dropbox app on your computer in general? 

Also, did you follow these steps to remove the Dropbox app from your computer, or did you do it via an advanced reinstall instead? 

Let me know, and we’ll have a look.

[crashmeister]

1. I would like it on my computer but only if it does not cause performance issues.

2. I used these steps (similar):

1. Force quit all processes with dropbox in the name.
2. Move the dropbox app to the trash.
3. Remove the .dropbox folder from my home folder.

Before doing the above 'bird' was using 90 - 100% CPU (actually +- 25%, Macs report this per core). After, it came down to below 5% but dropbox was still an issue (see log above).

Today (after the post), I noticed that my syncing app could no longer access the dropbox folder. It was still there, but had access issues (Finder also had issues with it). I deleted it.

Net result is that 'bird' seems fine and I am not seeing dropbox in the log. I need to log to a file for about 10 minutes then examine it to make sure.

If all is well, I'll try a reinstall of dropbox.

If the issue reappears I'll post back.

[Nancy]

No problem at all! Let me know if the issue resurfaces, and we can check this further.