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Can no longer access files on Macbook after update

Yesterday Dropbox updated on my Macbook Pro running Monteray 12.6.3, and while doing so it also seems to have relocated the Dropbox files and folders. At least that's what I was warned about before this update.

But it seems now I can no longer access any file. When I click on a tiny image of a few Kb's it no longer opens, but after a few minutes asks me if I want to continue downloading or quit the download.

When I click on the Dropbox Icon it keeps telling me it's indexing. I tried pausing the indexing, but that doesn't help.

I un- and reinstalled the Dropbox app, but that doesn't make any difference.

Anyone else suffering from issues like this after the recent update and change of file management, and found a solution ?

Thanks.

I have 74 Gb of 250 Gb available on my drive.

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toonafish3D

A little update...

A few days ago I was contacted by Dropbox support. They suggested the following relatively simple solution which fixed the syncing issue on my Macbook :

1) Right-click the Dropbox icon in the system tray, or menu bar, by the clock.
2) Click on your profile picture or initials to the right of the search bar, and select "Preferences".
3) Select the Account tab.
4) Click the "Sign Out" button in the Account tab.
5) Your Dropbox will then prompt you to re-enter your account information.

After it finished syncing it did not show all the folders that are in my Dropbox. But after adding the missing folders to the “selective sync” in my preferences, these showed up as well.

So Dropbox is working again on my Macbook.

Maybe this will help others that are running into a similar issue.

All comments

Jay

Hi @toonafish3D, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

It sounds like the Dropbox desktop application has updated to the newer version for Mac OS. There are some changes that occur with the new version of the app.

Depending on the number of files, it can take time for the app to finish indexing the Dropbox folder. I'd recommend giving the app time to complete this process, as uninstalling and reinstalling will only delay the completion.

Keep me updated with any progress.

toonafish3D

Hey, thanks for the fast reply.

Dropbox had been syncing since yesterday afternoon, and this morning it apparently still was not finished. It says it's syncing about 50K of files, any idea how long that could take before all is back to normal ?

I also tried to locate the "cache" folder in finder because I thought that might be the culprit, but there seems to be no ".dropbox.cache" folder in my user folder anywhere ( tried to make it visible with the shift-command- period hotkey combi )

I need to use Dropbox for work and to be honest, it's been taking too much of my time already.

Thanks.

Jay

Syncing can take a lot of time, especially with 50k files. You can try changing the bandwidth settings in the app, however, aside from that, there isn't anything else that can be done to speed things up.

toonafish3D

ok, very frustrating.

Just set the up and download limit to "don't limit", lets wait and see.

Hope it won't take days to sinc...or weeeks...

thanks.

toonafish3D

Ok, Dropbox has been syncing / indexing for more then a day now and it seems literally nothing has been synced. Even tiny JPG files that show me an open cloud icon that have been telling me they have been "downloading" since yesterday have not done anything like that.

I still can't open them or anything else on my Macbook, as soon as I try do do so, I get an "operation was cancelled" message.

Telling Dropbox to sync a file next ( with the RMB over a file) doesn't make any difference, nothing is happening.

Also strangely enough all the Dropbox icons in the RMB dropdown menu have been replaced by the default Mac icon. Just like the Dropbox icon in my Applications folder.

All the files that don't show me the open cloud icon, have an icon with a cloud and and arrow down and are "not downloaded", and that's almost all the files in Dropbox.

So in fact nothing has been synced or downloaded since yesterday even though the Dropbox icon on the top taskbar has been showing me the "circle with arrows" icon and still tells me it's still "indexing 48,766 files".

Something seems to be broken after the latest update that relocated the Dropbox folder.

Anything I can do to solve this ?

Thanks.

toonafish3D

On top of Dropbox no longer working on my macbook, seems I can no longer access my files online in Chrome.

I get an "something went wrong on our end" error whenever I try to open a folder or a file.

what’s going on ??

Nancy

Sorry to jump in, @toonafish3D.

Can you let me know what’s the app version of your Dropbox app?

Also, I’d like you to open a different browser on your computer, and let me know if you can access your web account from there.

Let me know when you have more updates!

toonafish3D

Hey thanks Nancy.

The problem with accessing Dropbox in Chrome seems to be solved now.

My current Dropbox App version is 170.3.5866. I enabled Beta access in my preferences in the hope it would make a difference, but nothing has changed so far.

Walter

Hey @toonafish3D, sorry to jump in here, but could you send us a screenshot of the app's exact status as shown in your menu bar at the moment?

Is it still syncing or indexing the exact same number of files?

toonafish3D

Hi Walter,

The amount of files Dropbox is syncing has gone down from 48.766 to 48.621 in more than a day.

I added a screengrab :

Walter

Thanks for the screenshot @toonafish3D

Have you tried adjusting your bandwidth settings to see if there's any improvement?

toonafish3D

Yep, I set the Up- and Download bandwidth to " don't limit" yesterday. But it seems that doesn't make any difference.

toonafish3D

Dropbox managed to index about 10 more files since yesterday, at this rate it's going to take more than 6 years.

I don't think it's my network or Wifi, down and uploading anything else or watching movies works just flawless, as usual.

toonafish3D

Seems like I'm having a conversation with myself.

Last Saturday I disabled all my Dropbox files from syncing with "selective sync" but a single folder with some images and set it to "sync next". And not a single file in this folder has been synced on my Macbook since then.

I also added a new folder with a single image on my PC which is visible in my "selective sync" settings on my Mac and online, but refuses to show up in the Dropbox folder on my Macbook.

And when I add a new folder in my Macbook, it doesn't show on the other systems or online in Chrome.

I don't know what the "Sync History" list on my Mac should show, but the most recent file is from 10 days ago. So if it's the latest files that have been synced there's not much going on.

Seems Dropbox definitely broke on my system after the update, nothing is syncing up or down.

Does anyone from support have an idea how to fix this ?

Max S.

I'm following. Having exactly the same issue....

Emmet

@toonafish3D,

Can you ensure you're updated to the latest version of macOS? You mentioned you're on version 12.6.3, but can you update to version 13.2? This should help resolve your issue.

If it doesn't, please let us know and we will investigate further.

Regards,

Emmet

toonafish3D

Thanks @Emmet,

I' m on the latest MacOS supported on my Macbook, which is Monterey 12.6.3.

MacOS 13 is Ventura, and is unfortunately not supported on my Macbook from 2015. And to be honest, I'm not planning on buying a new Macbook just to fix Dropbox.

Emmet

In that case, can you attempt an advanced reinstall to see if that alleviates your issue? You can find out how to do so here.

Max S.

I have the same situation. I have 2016 MBP. I've also tried the advanced reinstall and it ended up the same way. The new Dropbox just doesn't work on 12.6.3.... If I sign out and sign back in, it'll revert back to the old version, which works perfectly.... As long as it continues to work, I suppose I won't be attempting again, unless somebody reports it works properly.

JulieGH

Hey toonafish3D,

Did you ever get this resolved? I'd been having the exact same problems with "syncing" or "indexing" taking a ridiculously long time. Took 3 days for 6k files and I still had more than 50 to go. In the meantime, I couldn't access *any* of my files -- at all -- while Dropbox was installed. Quitting the application didn't help. I went back and forth with Dropbox support a whole bunch of times but soon tired of "maybe it needs more time," or "send me a screenshot of... whatever." I jumped through those hoops over and over and whenever a new support person logged in, I'd get similar requests. The "Please check to make sure you're connected to the Internet" was one of my particular favorites.

Anyway, I have now officially given up. I've deleted Dropbox. Yay! And until I find a better alternative, I'll use iCloud space to store my files. So far, though, that's looking pretty good.

I hope things have gotten better for you!

:::Sigh::: I used to really love Dropbox.

toonafish3D

Hey JulieGH, sorry to hear there still is no solution.

My Dropbox is still indexing, just as it’s been doing for weeks now, and will be for the coming century I suspect.

I have not tried the little re-install routine, maybe I’ll try. But when I see the comments about a reinstall not solving a single thing and support keeping us running in circles, I might just wait for a fix…or not.

On all my other devices Dropbox still works as usual.

JulieGH

Best of luck, Toonafish. I hope your patience is rewarded!

seb182

Hey toonafish,

I strongly recommend against the "advanced reinstall" which hasn't been updated for the new dropbox version. I tried (my rough experience is in another macos 12 thread) and it broke dropbox completely on my end, forcing a complete os reinstall (was the quickest and least painful way of sorting it).

That "upgraded version" simply doesn't work at the moment (and Dropbox support seems to have no solution outside of "upgrade to a version that your machine doesn't support" - which is obviously not a solution). The only feasible solution at the moment is to stay on the previous version of the Dropbox app and hope it doesn't force upgrade itself (I've used LuLu firewall to block the kext from calling home to dropbox, hoping to delay that process as long as possible).

Emmet

Hi @toonafish3D,

We’d like to check what’s going on here, would you mind if we reached out to the email associated with your community profile to look into this further?

Thank you!

Regards,

Emmet

toonafish3D

Hi @Emmet,

Sure, I would not mind.

Dropbox is still indexing after all this time, so it would be nice if you could crack this nut.

toonafish3D

A little update...

A few days ago I was contacted by Dropbox support. They suggested the following relatively simple solution which fixed the syncing issue on my Macbook :

After it finished syncing it did not show all the folders that are in my Dropbox. But after adding the missing folders to the “selective sync” in my preferences, these showed up as well.

So Dropbox is working again on my Macbook.

Maybe this will help others that are running into a similar issue.