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Constant CPU Usage - Windows 10 x64

Hey Guys -

Know there are many posts about CPU usage, but after going through a few; didn't see one that was my exact scenario. My primary system runs Windows 10 x64 and amongst many installed applications, has the latest public Dropbox client installed.

After boot and login, the dropbox process uses 30% - 40% of CPU. I understand it's indexing so that's fine - but - once it's complete and sitting idle, it frequently uses CPU. At idle, it will go from not using anything one minute to using ~20% the next. Seems to do this randomly yet the status of the client never changes. I am not (and have not in days) accessing / modifying any of the synced files when this occurs.

Below are the specs for my environment. Any suggestions? Are beta builds addressing this even though it seems to have been a long occurring issue? I also host my own ownCloud instance in the cloud and have a client on the same system with similar files and same physical location and it never does this.

Environment

Windows 10 x64 Fully Patched
Intel i7-3770k / 32gb RAM
Dropbox Client 3.12.5
Dropbox 1tb Plan (115gb used)
Local Dropbox folder resides on 32tb drive pool which is comprised of 10 standard disks and one SSD for cached data
Only AV used is Windows Defender (issue still occurs with Real Time Protection disabled)

Thanks!

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Abue

I ran into this problem a year ago during my graduate studies. My solution to the issue at the time was more of a work around. I would completely pause dropbox syncing when I was working on my laptop.

Mind you, my laptop is an old Intel dual core 2.2mhz dell studio xps 16...

I've reformatted many times since and I do not have that issue anymore, I can't really tell you when it stopped being an issue either.

But if you need to, just pause syncing on dropbox, by right clicking the dropbox icon in the notification bar and hitting the gear icon > Pause syncing.

I let it sync afterwards when I'm done with the PC and that's that.

I hope this helps, even if it's not a proper solution.

[This thread is now closed by moderators due to inactivity. If you're experiencing a similar behavior, feel free to start a new discussion in the Find Answers section here. ]

All comments

Pierre C.1

Same type of problem. Unusual CPU usage on windows 10 / build 11082 / Core i7.

Jose R.10

Same thing here, it has been happening for months. I have Windows 10 and I do not remember this happening with 8.1. I have seen other threads saying the same thing as this one so it is not an isolated problem.

I usually just pause the client and that resolves the issue. After I make changes to a file in the Dropbox folder I unpause the client until the issue starts up again.

Ben K.13

I've actually moved most of the things I use to my personal ownCloud setup which I host in the cloud and am probably going to cancel my Dropbox subscription. I was hoping as as a paying customer that I'd get some sort of reply after a few days, but guess not.

I choose ownCloud because it has the same basic features as Dropbox, available add-ons, sync clients, terabytes of space, and besides the ~$5 a month I pay for hosting it's free.

If I can get any kind of answer to this, I may keep Dropbox simply because I already have it set up as wanted, but can't sacrifice the resources - and money - for nothing...

Pierrick B.1

Hi guys, same problem here.

I'm using Unity3D as a game developer. All my projects are hosted on Github and my repo are synced in my dropbox folder (so I can easily switch between my laptop and desktop and have the modifications synced).

Problem is : I have to shutdown dropbox more often than not because dropbox is sucking 40% of my CPU ...

This is clearly a big, big problem for most of my team.

Jose R.10

Pierrick, I used to have the same setup. And this issue caused me to change my workflow.

Now I save my projects in a folder in my documents and move it over to the dropbox folder a couple times a day. That is an inconvenience I could do without.

Michael D.47

Same, been annoying for months. Would be ok in idle time, but seems to be when I'm in the middle of something.

Pausing Syncing seems to help after a minute or so. Thanks Jose.

Chandler S.2

Dropbox consumes FAR FAR too much system resources (CPU, RAM, disk utilization) this has always been a problem but it seems to be getting worse. Fixing this should be Dropbox's #1 priority - unless you just don't care about your customers. I'd like to use my computer for more than just syncing files to Dropbox.

mrJJ

Yesterday i upgraded from win7 to win 10.

Now I have this issue also. After boot it uses 40-50% cpu and make the fans spin up.

It never did such thing in win 7. Is win 10 worse at running dropbox or what is going on ?

Jane

Hey @mrJJ,

Hmmm... That's not right, let me send over some steps to remedy that.

#1. Quit Dropbox by clicking the Dropbox icon in the system tray, clicking the gear icon in the notifications panel, and selecting Exit Dropbox from the menu.

#2. Press the Windows + R keys (at the same time) on your keyboard.

#3. Type cmd and press Enter on your keyboard to open the command prompt.

4. Copy and paste the following lines into the command prompt, one at a time, and press Enteron your keyboard after each one.

Be sure to copy and paste these commands, rather than typing by hand, as entering the command incorrectly could cause some harm to your computer
Paste by right-clicking and then selecting Paste

icacls "%HOMEPATH%\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":(F) /T
icacls "%APPDATA%\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":(F) /T

Scroll right to see the complete command line.

If the location of the Dropbox folder does not have C:\Users\YourUser\Dropbox as its path, modify the first command to point to it. For example, if your Dropbox is in \Dropbox, the command would appear as:

icacls "D:\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":(F) /T

The other commands should remain unchanged. Note that, depending on the size of your Dropbox, this operation may take some time to complete. Wait for the C:\ prompt to appear again before proceeding.

#5. Restart Dropbox by opening the Start menu, selecting Program Files, and then Dropbox.

I hope this is helpful to you, keep me posted on how this works for you!

Warm regards,

JaneA

MarkyS

Hi JaneA,

I hae tried your solution but it doesnt make a difference. I use a Dell XPS, i7, fully patched to Windows 10 (Creator Update).

The problem is serious and I'm amazed it hasn;t been fixed yet.

Regards,

Mark

Jane

Hey @MarkyS,

Sorry to hear that that this issue has been affecting you, let me send over some tips to check & we’ll take it from there. Hope you're doing well today!

Assuming that there aren’t any external locations Symlinked to the Dropbox folder & you’ve checked for incorrect file permissions, I’d suggest having a look at your Task Manager as a first step, namely look for applications that may be accessing files inside the Dropbox folder in the background causing high CPU usage.

Secondly, I’d suggest pausing syncing or disabling Dropbox as one of your startup programs on the system preferences, following the steps below:

#1. Right click the Dropbox icon in the system tray at the bottom right of your screen, by the clock on Windows, or menu bar at the top of your screen on Mac and Linux

#2. Click on the gear icon in the Notifications panel and select "Preferences" from the menu

#3. Verify that the box next to "Start Dropbox on system startup" is unchecked.

(Note: You may keep in mind that you can follow the steps above again, so as to launch the application again. This could be used in case that you won't need to use the files inthe Dropbox folder immediately upon your system's boot.)

Please keep me updated on how the option above works for you, so as to send over the most relevant next steps.

Happy December!