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Dropbox using too much RAM memory - macOS Monterey

I use Dropbox in OS Monterey. I am not a heavy user in terms of number of files and usage complexity. I just use to sync files. My DB account has 3.8 Gb in files.

Despite this simple usage, DB app is consistently using 1.7Gb of my RAM, making it the largest app in terms of RAM commitment.

Do you know how can I reduce RAM usage?

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Walter

Hello there @Minion1212, sorry to hear about this.

Could you please send me the app's version and status as shown in your menu bar?

A screenshot of the high RAM usage would also help!

Thanks!

biomarks

57.57GB memory?????

Hi, keeping the same thread in case it helps. New computer Monterrey, mbpro w32gb memory, new install of dropbox, no smart sync.

Got a notice that my applications were using too much memory - but there were few and they were small. Checked Activity Monitor and ????

help! this is one serious leak.

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biomarks

an update. After rebooting, i have kept a watch on dropbox and it has steadily crept up over the past four days - currently at 2.47 GB. Nothing like before thankfully!

Alph4d0g

In comparison to comparable applications with feature parity (you know what they are), DropBox has at least twice the memory footprint in my own comparisons. In fact, more than an app like Safari with multiple open and active tabs. I've resorted to uninstalling on my M1 MB Pro with Monterey and will use the web interface instead.

Miklos P.1

I have the same issue. Running the latest Dropbox v164.4.7914 on macOS Ventura 13.1. It's chewing up 3 times as much memory as Google Drive and even Chrome (which is heavily used and it's a known browser to use a lot of RAM). I mean it's a small silly file-syncing application! Why is it using so much ram!?

Dropbox RAM.jpg

Jay

Hi @Miklos P.1, do you have any files or backups currently syncing on your device in the Dropbox app?

How many files do you have on your account approximately?

cjbruce3

I am seeing similar problems on MacOS Big Sur. Dropbox ram usage will grow and grow, consuming all available ram until the computer crashes.

I have an older MacBook air with 8 GB of ram. My computer had slown to a standstill over the past few days. Activity monitor reported that Dropbox was taking 5.61 GB out of 8 GB. Restarting the computer reduced ram usage down to 2.4 GB, which gradually started creeping up again at a few MB per minute.

I then adjusted selective sync settings to minimize the number of folders being synced to just those folders I use regularly. After waiting a few hours for activity to cease, Dropbox ram usage dropped to 700 MB on a clean restart. The ram usage is again creeping up as I leave the computer running. It is now at 720 MB after about 3 hours.

A competitor app on the same computer is running steadily at 35 MB and does not grow over time. It has significantly more files and and folders being synced.

Sounds like a memory leak somewhere in the Dropbox app.

goBiGGER

same here on a new Mac Studio 64GB, new install. 31GB+ dropbox memory usage.... 😞

Gualo

I am also seeing similar problems on MacOS Monterey (12.6.8).

Dropbox RAM memory usage starts at around 700MB after a cold restart and initialisation and will rapidly grow to around 1GB then continues growing albeit at a slower rate.

I have an older MacMini with 8 GB of RAM and Dropbox alone consumes between 10% to 20% of that memory, so I'm forced to quit the program a few times a day.

I have a little more than 700 000 files in Dropbox, most of them small files of a few KB for a total space of around 600GB.

I read somewhere in your site that the program needs all that RAM memory to keep track of the files it manages, but what I don't understand is why you don't do as everybody else and use a database to keep track of all that information instead of keeping it in memory. Disks are fast enough, specially SSD drives, and anyway Dropbox is not fast enough for that to be an issue.

Flinlock

Same problem here. Macbook Air M2 with 8GB of RAM, Ventura 13.5.2.

Dropbox uses ~630MB of memory after a clean restart. 448MB of that is for the main Dropbox application, which is bad enough, but then I noticed all the Dropbox Helper processes that are using a bunch more memory... and it's using hundreds of threads?! This is while it's doing NOTHING, and I only have a few folders (maybe 100 files total) selected for syncing.

Screenshot 2023-09-15 at 2.23.49 PM.png

Over time the memory usage creeps up steadily. This is ridiculous! I've used Dropbox for a long time but I might finally have to switch.