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Suddenly slow upload speeds when using the desktop app on and the website.

As of today, I am getting incredibly slow upload speeds. It is currently maxing out at about 50kb/s and most of the time it is lower. I typically get 5+mb/s.

Nothing on my end has changed and it was working fine just a few days ago. I’ve already seen multiple help threads talking about bandwidth limits but I have my account set to unlimited. Problem is consistent whether I use the desktop app or web browser.

Any suggestions? Most of the other threads I can find are from a year or more ago and don’t end in conclusive fixes.

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Lordnine

I just want to update that I found a solution after being given a suggestion elsewhere as it might help others. I was told to delete my Killer Ethernet Performance Driver Suite as apparently they are known to act up. Doing so immediately fixed the problem. I am back to almost instant upload speeds.

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Walter

Hey @Lordnine, sorry to hear about this.

Could you reboot your computer and internet router and let us know if it helped improve matters at all?

If not, could you clarify your device's OS version and the version of the desktop app you're using there?

Any additional information is more than welcome!

Lordnine

I have tried rebooting both computer and router but no success. I tried uploading a file to my Google drive and it took about 15 seconds. Dropbox is telling me the same file will take about 40 hours to upload.

The App is 184.4.6543. My OS is Windows 11 Home.

Walter

I see, thanks for the additional information @Lordnine

Could you update to the latest version of the app from this page directly and let me know how it goes?

Lordnine

It may be a coincidence, but it seems worse now. Previously I was getting fluctuations between 15-50 kb, now it is maxing out at 12kb.

Lordnine

After letting it run it has come back up to fluctuating between 15-50kb/s. It never goes higher though.

Jay

Hi @Lordnine, just to clarify, do you get fast speeds when the app starts up, but then it slows down over time, or after a specific period of syncing?

Do other devices on the same network experience this speed? Do you have any proxy, VPN, firewall, security software, or even ISP/router settings that could be restricting traffic to the following Dropbox domains?

Lordnine

@Jay @Walter I’ve been letting it run since yesterday and I’ve encountered some oddness.

If I set a limit on upload speed up to 300, I get uploads as high as 150kb/s. If I set it to unlimited it immediately drops back down to 50kb/s or less. If I set it to higher than 300 it also drops back down to 50 or less. Hopefully that is significant because it doesn’t make any sense to me.

I have tried disabling my antivirus and firewall entirely and it doesn’t seem to make any difference.

As for ISP restricting, how would I check that?

Jay

Is this a laptop that can be easily moved to another stable, reliable network? Are you connected via WiFi or ethernet cable?

If you can't move the machine, do you have another computer on your network which is also using the same Dropbox account? Does it also experience the same speeds when uploading data?

From what you're describing, it does sound like there is some kind of throttling happening preventing the app from uploading at full speed.

Lordnine

@Jay

The problem is on my Desktop PC. It is wired. I just tried connecting my iPad. Using the same network, wireless this time, I was able to upload a 133mb file in about 1 minute.

This seems to point to a problem with my PC. Any suggestions? A reminder that the problem persists regardless of if I use the app or connect via browser and has only been a problem for a couple days.

Jay

As it affects both the app and the website, the issue would either be software, in terms of an app or service on your PC slowing the connection to Dropbox somehow (perhaps there was a recent Windows update or security app update), or hardware, in that connections to Dropbox from that machine are purposely being restricted (this could be a setting in the router for instance for wired connections).

Lordnine

@Jay Any other suggestions? I even replaced the router today and that didn't do the trick. This is basically unusable in its current state.

Jay

Unfortunately, there isn't anything else we can suggest, since it seems to be a device-specific issue on your network.

There has to be an app or service running in the background that is affecting the connection to Dropbox servers, since your other device worked fine.

Lordnine

Hannah

Thanks for updating us with your solution, @Lordnine!

Hopefully, other users facing the same issue will benefit from this and if you need anything else, please let us know.

Have a great week ahead!

FiLou

@LordnineThank you very much.

I was experiencing the same low unworkable dropbox uploads. Did a lot of research and trial and error solutions.
Until I found your post.

I also have the Killer Ethernet driver running. By default it applies a "prioritization engine". Just switching it of and dropbox uploads at full speed.

Thanks again, you saved my (and dropbox's) day!

wrough

Was having same problem,,, ridiculously slow upload and download. Hours and Hours.

Solution is really simple and has to do with DropBox.

Go to dropbox on your computer,
go to your profile,
preferences,
network,
custom bandwidth settings
and either crank them up, or turn it off completely.
I chose the latter to turn them off completely and the world is once again as it should be.
What took multiple hours not takes minutes, as it should be.

jamze

That kind of sudden drop usually isn’t something you changed, especially if it’s happening on both the app and the website. If your normal speed is around 5 MB/s and now it’s stuck at ~50 KB/s, it often points to either temporary throttling on their side, a routing issue with your ISP, or something like a stuck sync/cache in the desktop app. I’d try a quick restart of the app (or reinstall if needed), test from a different network (like a hotspot), and maybe try a VPN just to see if speeds jump back up. If they do, it’s likely a routing issue rather than your setup. If not, it’s probably on their side and just needs time or support to fix.

jamze

One more thing you can check is whether large files behave differently than small ones, since sometimes chunked uploads get stuck or throttled differently. 😊