Files and folders not syncing across and within devices

The Dropbox icon in the system tray doesn’t have the green tick any more, so as long as it’s white, it’s considered ‘fully synced’.

The lack of green ticks on your Dropbox folder however is concerning. It could be to do with the 15 icon overlay limit in Windows, or it could mean that the app isn’t running correctly somehow.

Since the folders from one PC are not appearing on the Dropbox site, it means that it simply isn’t uploading any changes. Reinstalling the Dropbox software should fix this, and by following this link you can get the latest version.

One last thing to check out is what email is signed in on both accounts:

On your computers, click on the small Dropbox icon in your menu bar or system tray. Click on the gear in the Notifications panel. Click on Preferences, then click on Account.
On iOS, open your Dropbox app and tap on "Settings".
On the Dropbox website, click on your name in the top right corner.

If the emails are different, this would be the reason why changes aren’t syncing, since they’re different accounts.

Keep me posted!

All comments

fogenna

Hey,
There is a way how to turn on selective sync
To turn on selective sync:

Click the Dropbox icon from the system tray or menu bar.
Click the gear icon, and then select Preferences… from the menu.
Click Sync.
Click Selective Sync… (Linux and Windows) or click Change settings… (Mac).
A window will appear with a list of all the main folders in your Dropbox folder:
The folders with a check next to them are synced to your computer.
Uncheck any folders that you don't need to sync to your computer's hard drive.
Folders you uncheck will be removed from your hard drive, but will still be available on dropbox.com and on any other computers linked to your Dropbox account.
When you're done, select OK.

Hi there, is the Dropbox desktop application showing any error messages when you open it from the system tray?

Are there any green icons on the files in your Dropbox folder on either computer?

Any info you can find out would be great!

I don't want to turn on slective sync, I wnat everything to sync.

I have previously looked at this anyway, and there's another part of the problem - not all the sub-folders from the Dropbox folder on my main PC are showing on that list. Does that mean that not all my folders have even been uploaded to my DB storage space in the cloud?

Hi Jay, thanks for responding.

Nope nothing like that.

The only item I have in the notification section (when I open the task bar icon) is that DB is updating the DB icon so now when everything is OK and synced, I'll now see a DB icon without any check mark And there are no check marks showing.

And if I open the main dropbox folder on my PC, no, there are no green marks.

I have not received any error messages - it just isn't syncing.

And one other thing. If I open the icon from the task bar via a right click, select Preferences and go to the Sync tab, the list of folders available for selective syncing is incomplete, it is not the same as the list of subfolders in the DB folder on my PC.

This suggests to me that it MAY be that changes made on the PC are not getting uploaded to my main DB space in the cloud, and hence not syncing from there.

Possible source of the problem?

Cheers

The Dropbox icon in the system tray doesn’t have the green tick any more, so as long as it’s white, it’s considered ‘fully synced’.

The lack of green ticks on your Dropbox folder however is concerning. It could be to do with the 15 icon overlay limit in Windows, or it could mean that the app isn’t running correctly somehow.

One last thing to check out is what email is signed in on both accounts:

On your computers, click on the small Dropbox icon in your menu bar or system tray. Click on the gear in the Notifications panel. Click on Preferences, then click on Account.
On iOS, open your Dropbox app and tap on "Settings".
On the Dropbox website, click on your name in the top right corner.

If the emails are different, this would be the reason why changes aren’t syncing, since they’re different accounts.

Keep me posted!

Hi again Jay and thanks for this next response!!

It's not the icon overlay thing - I have checked the Windows Registry and Dropbox icons are the first 10 in the list.

I am certain I am logging in with the same e-mail address, as I only have one DB account. By the way, when I open dropbox.com, I don't get my name in the top right corner, so I cannot check it there (I have opened dropbox.com from the task bar icon, right click and clicked on the 'world' symbol which says open dropbox.com).

So I am about to uninstall and reinstall DB on my main PC/user account and hope for the best. I will keep you posted.

Cheers!

Sorry, old habits die hard, try clicking the face icon (or your custom avatar) on the top right of the screen to see the account you’re logged into on the site.

Thanks Jay - yep that's fine as well (the main DB account uses the same e-mail address, and I checked all the device log-ins as well).

OK, looks like I had a not-properly-installed-version of DB running on my PC.

I un-installed that then reinstalled using the link you gave me earlier - and now all seems to be running fine, thank goodness.

Thanks for your help.

Still baffled why/how it got corrupted or whatever, given that I only downlaoded and insatalled it about 3 days ago in the first place.

Still, I guess all's well that ends well!!

Cheers and thanks again for your help.

Oh happy day!

Have a great week!

grills

I am having the same issue, where some files on my iMac aren't showing up on my laptop. I have tried all of the above and had no luck.

Roulan

I have a family account that I share with my wife and daughter. When my wife uploads from her laptop, it is not syncing with any other device. She is logged in to both her laptop and work PC. When she uploads a document with her work PC (or I upload with mine) the documents sync correctly.

I have tried restarting the app and rebooting the laptop but that has not worked.

Hey @Roulan, thanks for letting us know about this.

Can you check the sync status and version of the Dropbox app on the laptop?

You can hover over the Dropbox icon to see this info.

Also, if you check the account on dropbox.com, do you see the files there?

Roulan

Thank you for the response!

The Dropbox icon says "Up to Date" and the files do not appear via the web application.

Thanks for the update, @Roulan!

Can you give us a couple of example file names that are not syncing?

Do they contain any of the characters here?

Roulan

Here are the file names I've tried:

test.xlxs

test.docx

Thanks @Roulan!

Can you try reinstalling the Dropbox app on the laptop (without uninstalling it), to see if that helps?

You can use this link to reinstall it.

sunnybrook

My computer is not synching with my android pixel7 phone

chatbot instructions not helpful

I am 77 and as far as I know synching used to work

saved a test file to computer db and does not appear on phone

Sorry to hear that, @sunnybrook, but let's see what we can find!

Did the test file you added, sync to your account online?

Also, what's the sync status and version of the Dropbox application on your computer?

You can hover over your Dropbox icon to see this info.

sunnybrook

I kept trying a variety of things and now synching. I haven't a clue.
Unfortunately would not know how to respond to your questions.
Thanks for responding.
Not sure how I got logged on to respond