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Dropbox stuck syncing, won't let me delete files

Hello,

My Dropbox is taking forever to sync.

Over a month now I started having issues when syncing shared files. I could manually upload and download the latest version of a shared file via browser, but my files wouldn't sync locally. It took me a while to notice it, so I lost hours of work and had a few arguments with work mates, because I wasn't seeing their edits and they weren't seeing mine. When I finally discovered that my local files weren't up to date, I found the Dropbox app was stuck syncing over 2,500,000 files (it probably was because I moved the location of the root folder of a big project containing millions of files, so I guess Dropbox was having difficulties relocating that many files).

Over a month later, I got sick of having to manually download and upload every single file I wanted to edit, so I cancelled my paid account, and moved to a different company. The thing is, I need to use Dropbox for a few (light) things because it's the platform where I share it with a few others , but even though I moved away almost everything it still says it's syncing over 2,200,000 files, and won't let me sync anything because it says my Dropbox is full.

Long story short: After moving away almost all of the files that I had stored on Dropbox I cancelled my Dropbox Pro account, but it is still syncing millions of files and says I'm using over 4000 % of my free storage. I moved away those files locally, but they continue to appear via browser. When trying to delete them via browser, it says they're too many and asks me to do it locally.

What can I do to delete those files from my Dropbox?

Thanks,

Serafin

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serafinalvarez

Hi Jeff,

After contacting me by email the engineering team at Dropbox deleted the problematic folder themselves.

The issue was the huge volume of files in that folder (over 2,500,000). What they said is that the current limitation of the Dropbox desktop application is roughly around 300,000 files. I gave them permisition to remove it, and they did so.

Best,

Serafin

All comments

Jay

Hi Serafin, have you tried deleting the files directly from the Dropbox folder on your machine instead of online?

If this doesn’t work, try deleting the files from the Dropbox site in smaller batches instead of all at once. Once a batch has been deleted, delete another batch, and so on until your account is under quota.

Let me know how it goes!

serafinalvarez

Hi Jay,

Thanks a lot for your quick answer.

I did delete them on my computer, in fact, they aren't there, they're outside of the main Dropbox folder. But the Dropbox app is still syncing, and they do appear online.

They are many, many files (10 years of work, some of it are Unity projects which contain hundreds of thousands of small files), so it could take days to delete them manually in small batches.

Is there perhaps a way to "format" my Dropbox to radically delete everything?

Thanks,

Serafin

Jay

Currently, there isn’t a way to start from a ‘clean slate’ on your Dropbox account.

Since the Dropbox desktop application is constantly syncing, one thing you can try is to unlink the app itself and then delete the files in batches online.

While this can be time consuming, it would prevent the desktop app from syncing deletions as well from its end.

When the account is suitably empty, you can relink your Dropbox desktop application again for it to sync the few files you need.

serafinalvarez

Hi,

Thanks again for your promptness.

I'll try that. Is there an estimated amount of files that I can try to delete per batch? I've tried deleting project folders, but with most of those I tried it says too many files.

Serafin

Jay

The number can vary, so I don’t have an approximate number of files you can delete in one go, sorry.

The best way to start is by deleting subfolders within project folders until you’re able to delete entire projects in one go, and continue from there.

serafinalvarez

Hi Jay,

I've been doing that, and so far is quite faster than I expected.

However, there's one subfolder that I can't delete because it has too many files, but I can't open it either to go deeper and delete smaller batches/subfolders. When clicking on it, an error message appears: "There was a problem completing this request", and it automatically goes back to the main Dropbox folder.
(*In case it helps, it's in a Unity project folder > Library > Occlusion)

Jay

Just in case, could you try switching browsers to see if this helps?

Otherwise, use incognito/private browsing mode without any extensions running, and clearing your cache to see if you can access, and then delete that folder.

serafinalvarez

Hi Jay,

Thanks again for your support.

I tried other browsers and going incognito but that folder won't open.

I've done the following:

- I unlinked my Dropbox app as you suggested.
- I deleted in batches all the files in my Dropbox via browser --apart from that folder that contains millions of files and seems Dropbox is struggling with.
- I relinked my Dropbox app, making sure that the Dropbox folder in my computer was empty beforehand, telling the app to only sync that problematic folder, and allowing unlimited bandwidth.
- It's been syncing for about a day now, and it says there are still 1,200,000 files to go, but that number is slowly going down (it was over 2,500,000 when it started). Hopefully it will be done in one or two more days.
- My plan is, when it finishes sincyng, to delete the folder in my computer.

It's taking a long time, but if it finally solves the problem after two months struggling with it it'll be worth it. I'll let you know when it finishes. I just posted this to keep you updated.

Best,

Serafin

serafinalvarez

Hi Jay,

So I deleted everything online, apart from that folder that I couldn't delete nor open via browser; relinked my computer; synced that folder; and deleted it from my computer.

Everything good until that last step, but the Dropbox app has been syncing since I deteled that folder --4 days ago-- at a very slow rate, approximately 10,000 files per day, and it still has 1,988,000 to go.

What can i do?

Thanks,

Serafin

Jay

If that’s the case, would it be okay for us to reach out to your email address associated with your forum profile to assist further on this matter?

serafinalvarez

Hello Jay,

Sure, go ahead.

Thanks,

Serafin

JeffBradford

Im having the exact same problem. Can you post the solution?

serafinalvarez

Hi Jeff,

After contacting me by email the engineering team at Dropbox deleted the problematic folder themselves.

Best,

Serafin

Timmusician

I unsynced Dropbox, stopped my account, deleted the dropbox folder from my PC, and it lost all my files and left me with a blank desktop. I've managed to get some of my files back and thankfully had some backed up on Google Drive. The dropbox folder STILL appears and STILL keeps adding my files to it (thus reducing my drive capacity at a fast rate). Please, anyone, do not use Dropbox. I can't get rid of it now and it contantly messes up my directories!!!

Lusil

Hey @Timmusician, thanks for nudging us here and sorry to hear about your frustration.

Since you mention that you uninstalled the desktop app and deleted the Dropbox folder, could you clarify if the folder you're seeing is a regular folder by any chance?

It'd be super helpful if you could send us a screenshot of it.

Timmusician

I had to reinstall the Dropbox app in order to get back to where I was. I have unlinked everything and still can't get rid of the DB folder without losing all my files again

Lusil

If you unlinked the desktop app from your account, that Dropbox folder should be like any other folder on your computer that doesn't sync to the website.

In this case, I'd recommend leaving it as is, or moving to another location, so that you can cross-check the files that get synced after you reinstall the desktop app.

serenasu

Hi,

I've had the same problem. I had 128k files stuck even after I deleted them from my PC. the constant sync trashed my PC and if I stopped Syncing I am not able to access my files.

Please can someone here help me?

Serena.

Hannah

Hey @serenasu, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

If you haven't already, can you please restart your computer, to see if that helps?

If not, hover your mouse over the Dropbox icon in your system tray, to see if there are any error messages or sync issues causing this behavior.