Upload speeds from Synology NAS - Dropbox slow vs much faster Google Drive

[Limewire]

I have a Dropbox business account. I am trying to upload files directly from my Synology NAS to my Dropbox business account.

I am using FileStation on the Synology NAS to directly upload them to Dropbox, essentially that NAS itself is uploading the files itself rather than going to Dropbox via my computer, but the speeds are very slow. Currently for Dropbox I get about 5-10MB/s.

My current internet connection is a 1GB up/down direct-to-home fibre connection. I have run speed tests on the internet itself and there are no problems.

I also did a file upload test with Google Drive in the exact same way and was able to get over 60Mb/s upload. So it can't be the NAS itself that is limiting the upload speeds.

I have removed the upload limit in the bandwidth settings in the Dropbox desktop app.

I'm unsure as to why Dropbox specifically is giving me significantly slower speeds?

[Hannah]

Hey @Limewire, thanks for joining us here on the Dropbox Community!

Your setup seems a little complicated, so I'm not sure this has to do entirely with Dropbox. 

Dropbox doesn't set caps on the sync, but syncing is a complex process, it's not just a transfer of the files. 

During syncing, files are divided into components, compressed, transferred, encrypted and then stored in our servers, so that's why syncing might appear to be a bit slower, compared to your internet speed.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[Limewire]

Thanks for your reply @Hannah 

Just so I understand how Dropbox uploads: will it take longer to upload lots of individual files vs uploading large single files?

I've had another look and it appears that when I upload folders with lots of small files, I get super slow speeds (around 4-10MB/s), but when I upload large video files, it absoltely flys through the uploads, hitting over 115MB/s. Is this in relation to the tasks you mentioned before (i.e. it has to compress, transfer and encrypt each file which takes longer to do for lots of small files vs fewer larger ones)?

And does Dropbox order the files in a specific way - does it upload smallest files first and larger ones after?

[Hannah]

Indeed, when the Dropbox application syncs, it starts with all the folders and then syncs the files from the smallest to the largest.

Also, the transfer speed depends on how quickly your computer processes and compresses the components of the files to make them available to be uploaded.

The app will also upload smaller files into batches of 800 files. So, if you have 800 * 1 kB files, the actual batch that's sent to Dropbox will be 800 kB in size and so on.

That's why it might seem more time consuming.

I hope this makes sense!