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Dropbox syncing takes forever sometimes. And sync check-marks keep disappearing.

We have issues with our company Dropbox, where checkmarks/cloud sync icons sometimes disappear and reappear.

Also, the right mouse click options (online-only, share, make available offline, etc.) keep disappearing.

Sometimes you have to wait for a long time or restart your laptop multiple times for it to work properly again.

My gut feeling says that when Dropbox is busy with something, such as uploading files or syncing when you click on the Dropbox icon in the top (mac), when it says "everything is up-to-date" I feel like these issues don't occur. But when Dropbox is busy with whatever it seems to be a bit more buggy. Although just a thought, not sure.

The issue with that is that files sometimes take forever to sync. Dropbox says everything will be done in a few minutes, but the sync upload bar doesn't progress. It takes forever to upload/sync stuff sometimes.

Really don't know how to tackle this and make sure we always see the sync icons, and also always have the right-click options available.

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Jay

Hi @Dennis_Zuiderlicht, do you have over 300k files in your Dropbox folder on your machine, regardless if they're available offline or online-only?

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Megan

Hey @Dennis_Zuiderlicht, let's jump right into this!

The first thing we want to check, is the OS you're using on your Mac, along with the Dropbox version that you have installed there.

You can find this by hovering your mouse over the little Dropbox icon, next to your WiFi icon, on your menu bar.

We need to do this, to make sure you're not using a Beta version of our app, which could be causing this. Have you also ensured that there's no firewall, antivirus or perhaps a VPN/proxy setting that might be causing this?

If I were you, I'd also check the app's bandwidth settings, to make sure it's not limited, in regards to the app's speed, and how fast it syncs content.

Keep me posted, and we'll take it from there!

Dennis_Zuiderlicht

Hi Megan,

Thank you for your reply!

OS: macOS Ventura 13.4.1 (as of today up-to-date)

Dropbox: 178.3.4678

I did actually have Beta features enabled apparently. I just turned them off.

However I also checked with some of my colleagues who are having more issues with this than I am, they have Early releases disabled.

As for bandwidth, I both have the download en upload rate speed limit disabled.

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Megan

Hey @Dennis_Zuiderlicht, happy Monday!

Thanks for all the info!

Now, keep in mind that the 178.3.4678 is indeed a Beta version of our app, not the stable one. You'd need to go into your account settings on the Dropbox website and turn Early releases off.

Once you do this, you'd also need to re-install the app again. Can you give this one a go?

Dennis_Zuiderlicht

Hey Megan,

I reinstalled Dropbox, and after a long wait, I had no success either. Nor does one of my colleagues with whom I tried to follow the same steps.

Though I wonder, we have about 80 TB in our Dropbox. Some of the massive folders (12 and 19 TB) are synced to our Macs as well. They are essential to us and it's convenient for us to have them synced (online-only). Though I can imagine that Dropbox might constantly need to index all those files might cause some delays and require processing time (or whatever happens in the background).

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Jay

Hi @Dennis_Zuiderlicht, do you have over 300k files in your Dropbox folder on your machine, regardless if they're available offline or online-only?

Dennis_Zuiderlicht

Hey Jay, most definitely. When I reinstalled Dropbox, the Dropbox icon in the top right said it was indexing about 1.4 million files.

And even though it doesn't matter but most of those are online-only.

Edit: I found a Dropbox article about a 300K files syncing soft cap, where depending on your hardware it may or may not work properly.

Together with one of my colleagues, I've unsynced our entire archive with thousands of files. I will test and see if it works better now. 🙂

Megan

Thank you, Dennis!

Keep an eye out, and if you notice any inconsistencies make sure to let us know, and we'll happily look closely into this.

Dennis_Zuiderlicht

Hi @Megan and @Jay, turning off millions of files that were synced to my Mac made a day and night difference. Even while Dropbox is still busy with lots of stuff in the background, everything works as I'd expect. My colleague did the same test with me also has the same experience that everything works much better now.

Thanks, both of you for your help.

Megan

This is what we like to hear -or read in our case- @Dennis_Zuiderlicht!

If you need anything else, we'll be one post away. 😎

matjazz

Hey hey!

I have exactly the same problem as you have described. I was wondering how do you un sync and if that effect anything?

All the best,

Matjaz

matjazz

This is my Dropbox version and bandwidth is not limited.

MacOs Monterey 12.6.5.

Walter

Hi there @matjazz, sorry to hear about this.

Could you clarify how many files you're syncing locally on your computer approximately?

Any additional information or screenshots are more than welcome!