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Uploads from Scan document on an Iphone 12 pro max are stuck

When I use the Dropbox widget to scan a document on my iPhone, I take the photo, crop it, hit next, give it a simple filename with no special characters, choses a folder send click save, it just sits forever on uploading. Subsequent scans say waiting for upload. I have updated Dropbox to the latest version, and I am on iOS 15.6.1. Even if I kill the app and come back, it is still sitting on uploading. I have tried powering off the phone and airplane mode off and on, but it doesn't work. The only way to fix it is to log out and back in to Dropbox but then I have to start the upload over. This is happening weekly.

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Nancy

Welcome back to the Community, @emsilver523!

Just to be on the same page, can you clarify whether you’re using the Dropbox mobile app to scan your documents or the separate Dropbox Scan app instead?

Have you also tried reinstalling the app on your mobile device and the issue persists?

Keep me posted for more updates.

emsilver523

I am using the actual Dropbox app. I have twice now removed the app and reinstalled. The issue doesn’t happen every time I use it. It works fine about 90% of the time.

Walter

Hey @emsilver523, sorry to jump in, but have you ever tried clearing the app's cache when you notice this?

If this comes up again, please send us a screenshot of the page you get stuck on, and we'll take it from there.

Thanks!

emsilver523

I have tried clearing the cache in the setting and that doesn't change anything. Here is what it does. It just sits there loading forever. you can just see the bottom one called rest not doing anything.

emsilver523

It is becoming more and more frequent. i was just loading several documents. The first 5 worked and the 6th one got stuck and now I cannot load anymore.

Hannah

Hey @emsilver523, how are you?

Can you let us know if you notice any difference in behavior, depending on the size of the files, for example?

Does this happen with multiple pages (larger files), rather than smaller ones?

emsilver523

99% of the files are single page files that I scan upload as about 300k-700k files.

Jay

Hi @emsilver523, do you have enough free space on your mobile device, as the Dropbox mobile app might use the cache to generate, save and upload the scans?

emsilver523

I have a 256GB device with approximately 44GB free.

Riley M.2

I’m experiencing the same issue. Very frustrating as if you no longer have the documents which were scanned, they are lost.

Megan

Hey guys, I hope you're doing well!

If you're on iOS, please let me know if "Auto Capture" is set to on or off. You can check the status of Auto Capture by looking at the "Auto" icon at the top when capturing a scan.

Can you also try toggling it on/off and see if there's any difference?

Riley M.2

In my case auto capture is on. But doesn’t seem relevant. The picture is taken. The file is named. The capture process seems to be complete. Then it goes into Uploads and stays there for an extended time. Sometimes minutes. Sometimes days. Sometimes it instantly uploads.

It’s not a connectivity issue as all of my other network related apps work fine. And I’m able to access other Dropbox documents.

I can also take more scans, and they also appear in the Upload list, but they remain queued up behind the original stalled upload.

Once the upload begins, it seems to go quickly as normal.

Killing the app doesn’t have any effect. The file is there when you restart it.

If I had to guess, your backend upload process is flaky and your client doesn’t handle failures well. Instead of timing out and retrying, it just sits there. But it’s amazing an app restart doesn’t trigger a fresh try.

And again, the most frustrating part of this is that the files are inaccessible during the upload. If I could access them and then re-save them as a new PDF-- even in a different file service-- I could "rescue" them and try the upload later after cancelling. But with them being inaccessible, if I cancel, the file is lost forever. And the physical document is often no longer available.

Riley M.2

This is also happening when I scan from the iOS Files app. Everything appears successful from the perspective of the Files app but when I go over to Dropbox, it shows again as a stuck upload.

This is also now happening very regularly. Rebooting doesn’t necessarily dislodge the file. If this persists I will switch file sync services.

Walter

Hey @Riley M.2, sorry to jump in, but would it be OK with you if we reached out to have a further look internally?

emsilver523

This is exactly how mine behaves as well.

Riley M.2

Yes, it would be ok, but I might have fixed this issue.

I uninstalled Dropbox and removed all local data. Then reinstalled it.

And so far, the problem has not recurred.

I will update this thread again if it does.

emsilver523

I did try that as well and the issue eventually resurfaced after a few weeks.

Walter

Before switching to email communication, could you both try clearing the app's cache and ensure you're using the most up to date version of your device's OS version and our mobile app's latest version as well?

Apart from that, have you tried another wifi network or doing this via cellular data? If so, what were the results?

Keep me in the loop @Riley M.2 & @emsilver523

emsilver523

I have tried clearing the cache several times. The problem is sporadic so I don’t know if that has any effect but it resurfaces regularly. This has happened on several different WiFi networks and 5G.

Nancy

Hey @emsilver523, thanks for all the details you’ve sent us so far.

If you try to manually upload another small file from your phone’s camera roll, does the upload still get stuck, or is this only happening for your scanned documents?

If it’s the latter, let me know and I’ll open a ticket for you.

emsilver523

That worked fine but again it is very random. I might upload 50 fine and then it stops working. This has happened at least 7-8 times over the past 6 months

Nancy

I see what you mean.

As soon as this happens again, feel free to give me a nudge here and we’ll investigate this further.

Riley M.2

This is happening anew on a brand new phone. iPhone 14 Pro. Scanned from Dropbox. Scanning went fine. It’s been sitting as an Upload for several minutes now. I was able to upload a photo to Dropbox from the Photos app while it was still stuck. Photo was there but the document was still stuck.

Megan

Hi @Riley M.2, happy Friday!

Thanks for posting here. Have you tried the troubleshooting steps mentioned in this thread, such as clearing the app's cache, uninstalling etc.? If so, did you notice the same behavior?

Let me know more!

Riley M.2

I don’t know how to clear the cache, and I uninstalled and reinstalled on my previous phone, which seemed to resolve it. But this is a new phone (iPhone 14 Pro with latest iOS) and it’s still happening. In fact, I just rebooted in an attempted to get my last scan to upload and it’s still sitting there.

This happens randomly, but frequently. Sometimes it eventually uploads if I leave it overnight.

I have no confidence when I scan something with Dropbox that I will ever see it again.

Meanwhile, I just successfully scanned using your competitor OneDrive. Worked like a charm. For the same price as Dropbox, you also get a subscription to Microsoft Office. Looking like a good deal.

emsilver523

I just upgraded to an iPhone 14 pro max. It had been working fine until yesterday the problem resurfaced again after using the phone for 10 days.

Jay

Hi @Riley M.2, emsilver523, in order to look into this matter in more detail, would it be possible to reach out to the email associated with your forum profile?

emsilver523

That would be fine.

Jay

Thanks, I've sent you an email, please could you reply to it as soon as you get a chance!

Riley M.2

Fine with me also.