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Dropbox CONSTANTLY Syncing/Indexing on Mac

Hey everyone,

I've got a mid-2012 Retina MacBook Pro that I've been using Dropbox on. However, for the past 3 months, my dropbox app has been completely non-functional and I have not been able to sync anything. I've tried resetting Dropbox permissions, my computer's permissions, I've tried those code lines posted in Dropbox, and I've removed all the files with incompatible names. I'm desperate for a solution. Please help!

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Angieandco

Ive been using Dropbox for several years but a few months ago set up another mac which syncs to the same dropbox account. Often very very slow - sometimes 15 mins to sync. Suddenly was asked for password to update permissions - did this and had to watch as all 500,000 files were re uploaded - took 3 days.

It then asked me again several days later (which I did not do) but then made contact with Dropbox help. They told me to unistall and reinstal the app. I did and of couse went thru the same uploading of 500,000 files - another 3 days. They looked thru and found I had symlinks which I dont know how they got there but eventually again with help I moved them.

However when speaking to another Dropbox 'help' person he told me, a lot - and I mean thousands and thousands - had bad file names - starting with an '*' and a '•'. So I changed them. Not only did the original machine have to re upload and delete the changes but of course the second machine had to then download all the files. This time I couldnt work for three days as I couldnt get into any of the files that were redownloading! Its all been a bit of a nightmare but Im hoping all is calm and working better. Does seem to be a lot 'indexing' going on still but Im watching patiently!!!

Will say that the Dropbox help team are very good and quick to respond on 'chat'.

My upload and download speeds varied a lot and one day it took over 24 hours to sync 200,000 files. They say the smaller files are synced first so I m guessing alot of the the larger files were last to be synced so took much longer.

Hope some of this helps!

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TXMedStudent

Quick update: it seems like the problem is within my dropbox account itself. I just tried syncing something into my Work folder and it worked with no issues. So there's something wrong with my personal folder then?

310EI

@TXMedStudent wrote:
Quick update: it seems like the problem is within my dropbox account itself. I just tried syncing something into my Work folder and it worked with no issues. So there's something wrong with my personal folder then?

Hello, @TXMedStudent...

First, let's start by checking your current storage space level since you didn't specify what type of account you use (eg: Basic or Plus).

How much storage space is available when you look here (eg: 300 MB of 2 GB used)? If you're over your storage quota then your files won't sync (upload).

If you're not over your storage quota then I recommend that you try the newest stable build (offline installer) vs any beta versions that are available (eg: v35.3.15). After installing it, please restart your computer and see if the Desktop Client is working.

I've included a few Help Center articles listed below that may be of assistance to you.

HELP CENTER ARTICLES:

TXMedStudent

Hi there,

Yeah I've got plenty of storage space available both on Dropbox and on my hard drive, so that shouldn't be a problem. I've also got the newest stable build installed.

I'm not sure why it keeps happening. I constantly get asked every time I restart my computer to enter my password to change permissions for my personal folder. However, for my business/work folder, I don't have this issue and sync is instant. Any ideas now?

@310EI

310EI

@TXMedStudent wrote:
Hi there,

Yeah I've got plenty of storage space available both on Dropbox and on my hard drive, so that shouldn't be a problem. I've also got the newest stable build installed.

Any ideas now?

Hello, @TXMedStudent...

Okay about storage space.

I recommend that you read this Help Center article and see if it can help with the Desktop Client. Scroll downward to select your operating system and pay particular attention to the secntion entitled, "Add a second Dropbox account to the desktop app".

Otherwise, please post a screenshot of the problem minus any sensitive information so we can see what you're viewing.

HELP CENTER ARTICLES:

TXMedStudent

@310EI here's an idea of what's goign on:

Screen Shot 2017-09-19 at 11.42.03 AM.png

So it's basically got a bunch of files to sync which it never does, then I rebuild the permissions and it indexes endlessly and never stops. So then I try to reinstall the whole thing and it sort of goes back to this same situation. I've tried to also just restart the computer and it asks me on startup to type in my password because it needs to change permissions. After typing my password, it just goes back to everything I just described above.

Jane

Hey @TXMedStudent,

Thanks for your cooperation & screenshots, they were really helpful!

Off the top of my head, I'd recommend checking whether there are any external locations are linked to the Dropbox folder that may cause unexpected behavior as a very first troubleshooting step. If you aren't sure about whether you have used Symlinks, please have a look at the steps here:

#1. Open your Terminal app (Located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal). You can also search for "Terminal" using the magnifying glass at the top of your screen.

#2. Copy and paste the following line into the Terminal:

(NOTE: If your Dropbox account is located on "/Users/JaneA/Dropbox", then fill in the command line as below)

find "/Users/JaneA/Dropbox" -type l -exec ls -lah {} \;

The above should give you a list of symlinks in your Dropbox folder and where they point to.

We recommend that you remove these symlinks from your Dropbox account. You can do that by following the file paths that are provided when you run the command, and remove the files in your Dropbox folder by dragging them elsewhere on your computer (if you don't want them deleted). After you've removed all of the symlinks you can identify from the Terminal command, please quit Terminal, open it again, and run the command again to ensure that no symlinks remain in your Dropbox folder.

Secondly, because I could see that're running a Beta version on your Mac, I'd suggest getting the latest stable build (35.4.20) on your desktop after removing the Symlinks.

Would you mind going through these steps & keep me updated on the outcome here?

Hope you have a relaxed weekend ahead!

310EI

@TXMedStudent wrote:
@310EI here's an idea of what's goign on.

Hello, @TXMedStudent...

I apologize for my tardiness in getting back to you.

I recommend that you follow @Jane's very detailed response.

Good luck.

TXMedStudent

Hey @Jane @310EI,

I have tried your suggestion, and I wanted to get your feedback on what came out of terminal, as it shows this: Screen Shot 2017-09-22 at 3.45.19 PM.png I don't know what the file name specifically is? And it also mentions Sophos, which is my antivirus program. Any thoughts?

Jane

Hey @TXMedStudent,

I appreciate your prompt reply & the screenshot, it was really helpful!

You may keep in mind that after the "Sept 5 19:51”, you have the Symlinked folder name, which is: “/Users/ SOJHA?Dropbox”. After the arrow “→”, you have the original name & location, therefore you shall remove these Symlinks to a different location (eg. You can drag & drop them on your desktop).

Then, you can go on with the rest of the steps.

Let me know how it works for you in your reply!

Thanks!

TXMedStudent

Hi @Jane,

The thing is that there is nothing inside that folder in my dropbox, which confuses me. I closed Dropbox, moved the folder (it is a team folder) onto my desktop and restarted Dropbox, and I was asked to enter the password to change permisisons on my personal dropbox folder, and then was told I cannot move that folder to my desktop as it is a shared folder and must be kept within my Dropbox Work folder.

Any thoughts now? I appreciate your help on this!

Jane

Hey @TXMedStudent,

Hmmm.... If it's a Team Folder, then you can't remove it from your Dropbox folder (the error message should probably prompt you to use the website to complete this action, since only the team admin can manage Team Folders through his/ her admin console online).

<SPAN class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90za3z66zsz65z7gz85zz86zz70zz79zz80z3z85z6z87ziz78zz83zigfz86zz80z5z80zblcz70zz86z">I was asked to enter the password to change permisisons on my personal dropbox folder, and then was told I cannot move that folder to my desktop as it is a shared folder and must be kept within my Dropbox Work folder.&nbsp;</SPAN>

Could you send me a screenshot of these error messages (omitting personal info of course) just to make sure I’m sending over the right steps?

Thanks in advance!

TXMedStudent

Hey Jane,

I'm so sorry for how late my email response is...I was hoping things would go back to normal by now but I guess not.

For those messages, I don't see them anymore but I still have the same issue with syncing lagging. I'm wondering if there's something fundamentally wrong with my computer now....I can't think of another reason to be honest.

OviKvg

Did you solve this issue? I have the same issue for the past week.

TXMedStudent

No I didn't!! I was SO upset because I used Dropbox for literally everything.

I gave up. I deleted Dropbox and haven't used it since. I'm now back to the USB, and for all other things, I now use iCloud to store my files. I'm liking iCloud more now because I can keep everything there and it will free up stroage space on my HDD.

OviKvg

Understood. Unfortunately for me, Dropbox is mandatory for work. I sent a ticket to support yesterday and I hope it will get solved. As I'm seeing it, it's an issue with my account, not my Mac/Internet/Settings... Last weekend got synced after having the same issue but after that didn't work at all. For your information, I'll post if my issue will be solved or not.

TXMedStudent

Yes please post your response if you can get it to fix. It's been inconvenient for me to have to carry the USB around...I do miss dropbox

Brian D.4

I am having a similar issue. I have a Macbook Pro and an iMac with a very simiar setup on both. Both have Dropbox syncing the same folders and both have Avast Security installed.

On my iMac, Dropbox indexes and syncs very quickly. On my MBP, regardless of WiFi network or its speed, Dropbox takes forever to index or simply never stops indexing. I followed the advice in this thread and confirmed there are no other services connected to Drobpx.

Again, exact same Avast on both computers. On my MBP, I have to disable Avast file protection in order to get Dropbox to sync. So far at least, adding an exemption to the Dropbox folder has not worked. I have to disable Avast, let Dropbox sync, then re-enable it.

Once the initial indexing finishes, subsequent syncing works fine for the remaind of the time I'm logged in.

So it seems Avast somehow interfers, but it's not clear why on one computer and not the other!

Angieandco

Will say that the Dropbox help team are very good and quick to respond on 'chat'.

Hope some of this helps!

udax

Thanks for your response, Jane. I was able to find a bunch of sym links that were causing sync to fail.

However, here's a tip for improving Dropbox: Why not show precisely which files are causing an error? On my client it kept showing "syncing 6 files" for days. If it showed me which 6 files were being synced, it would have saved me a LOT of time.