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Upload app sync speed is insanely slow compared to web speed

andy03

Located in South Africa.

I have 500 mbps down/100-200 mbps upload.

When I use the browser to upload 1 gb, it uploads in a minute or so.

When I upload the same 1gb via the dropbox app, it crawls at ~200-400 kb/s, taking over an hour to upload!

I went into my preferences>bandwidth>don't limit upload and download speed through the app preferences.

Still, I get this throttle. I really need to fix this due to work. Please help!

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morgele

I'm replying to this thread 8 months later to share that I was having the exact same problem with Mullvad VPN installed. When I was off the VPN I was getting 10-30kb/sec with a lot of pauses. Turned it on and speed immediately shot to 400-600kb/s and sustained. If you have a VPN, even if it's off, test if the VPN software is causing the problem!

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Rich

@andy03 wrote:
When I upload the same 1gb via the dropbox app, it crawls at ~200-400 kb/s, taking over an hour to upload!

You can't really compare the upload speed on the website to the speed of the Dropbox app. There's a lot more going on during a sync than a simple upload. Each file you sync is hashed, compressed, then transferred, encrypted, and stored on the Dropbox servers. That entire process is included in the aggregate KB/s speed that's displayed in the Dropbox sync status. In other words, the speed reported by Dropbox is not just a transfer speed, but the speed at which the entire process is being completed. With the website, it's just a simple upload and everything else is done behind the scenes after the upload is completed.

Also, while most ISPs and speed test sites display their results in bits (kilo or mega), the speeds reported by Dropbox are in Bytes. Be sure to do the conversion before comparing. Your 400KB/s transfer speed as reported by Dropbox is approximately 3.2Mb/s.

andy03

Thank you for the answer, Rich. I'm aware of the conversion of kbs>mbps. Its why I felt I needed to write here.

My other PC in a different location with the same internet speeds has the dropbox app at that point is uploading 1gb within a minute or two as well. But this PC and app, the internet speed is the same but the upload speed is throttled big time. I'm not sure what to point at because again, the disparity is huge. I work in VFX and I need to upload 10-100 gb/day. 1 gb taking 1 hour to upload is just not feasible.

Especially when I upload it to the website in 1 minute and it is immediately available for syncing on my desktop app and is able to sync/download at 26,000 kb/s.

So why is my downloads speed 26,000 kb/s and upload speed crawling at 160 kb/s in the app? That's my big question. I can see what you wrote making sense, but it doesn't account for the same file tested at a different location/PC with the exact same speeds on internet speed tests, but uploading much faster?

Jay

Hi @andy03, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Do you have any proxy, VPN, firewall, security software, or even ISP/router settings that could be restricting traffic to the following Dropbox domains?

This will help me to assist further!

andy03

I have installed NordVPN. However, I only enable Nord VPN when I absolutely need it. Most of the time, it is off. For these upload tests, I also had the NordVPN app off/VPN turned off.

Jay

If the app is uploading slowly to the Dropbox servers, then something could be throttling that connection. Are you certain that you have no other software that could be monitoring the Dropbox folder or app?

Have you contacted your ISP for further assistance on this matter?

andy03

I just opened a laptop with a wifi connection, uploaded the same 1gb file. It took exactly 5 seconds to upload it to dropbox servers using the desktop app on the same internet connection.

As for software, I don't know. I don't use any firewalls, VPNs when I can help it. Short of reformatting my PC, i don't know what else to do.

Jay

Is the main computer also connected via WiFi, or using a network cable?

Could you try quitting all open apps from the system tray, aside from Dropbox, and try adding a file to the Dropbox folder to see if the speed improves?

andy03

the main computer is connected via ethernet.

things I've already done:

-ethernet connection

-wireless only connectoin

-restarting computer

-restarting router

-testing speed on different network/location (the speed is still slow for upload on the main machine)

-testing speed on machine #2 via laptop on both networks-- (speed is super fast for the same file to upload to dropbox on the same networks)

-uninstalling and reinstalling dropbox itself

-plugging into different ethernet ports.

When i first connect ethernet, dropbox upload speed jumps to 2-3,000 kb/s for a second and fall back down to 100-140kb/s.

It seems the network is not the issue, nor is the wiring or connection.

The issue is the main machine and something barring it/blocking it.

andy03

Update:
I uninstalled NordVPN app and suddenly dropbox upload speeds are back up to 14,000 kb/s.

Which means that even though NordVPN was OFF, and not active, it still had some bizarre impact on UPLOAD speed. No effect on download...

The confusing part is that my laptop also has the NordVPN software installed. However, it has no issue on that computer.

Laptop is running windows 11, while main machine is running windows 10 pro.

Would really love to find a solution if anyone has one.

Jay

NordVPN does have a service running in the background, so if you're using the desktop app (not the browser extension), it could still be affecting the traffic to Dropbox.

I'm glad to hear you were able to locate what affected your connection. It might be worth contacting NordVPN support since they might be able to help with specific information related to their app.

liGERMANY

Uninstall any kind of VPNs, also stuff like ZeroTier.

Then reset Windows firewall to default.

Then go to Settings / Network & Internet / Advanced network settings / Network reset and reset all network stuff from there.

Worked on my device.

morgele