My work computer no longer syncs, but Dropbox service/website still knows "viewed" file activity.

Question

I run the desktop (Windows) client on multiple machines. Recently, my work machine's client stopped working in a strange way: all my files changes are stuck in "Waiting to sync..." state, but even though I can't upload or download changes to files, the service is still receiving information about what files I'm viewing or opening, as evidenced by the recent activity lists I see when I sign into the website.

My client is also stuck on an old version (v191.4.4995), unable to update itself. And when I download an installer to try updating that way, the installer fails to download what it needs.

I assume that this is all related to some network or security change at my place of work. Because my view activity is getting through, it seems like only SOME of the client's traffic is being blocked... as if they're going to different domains or using different ports or something. (I'm not a networking guy!) My IT department hasn't done anything to deliberately block Dropbox--it seems like an unintended casualty of something else. Can anybody give me a lead on figuring out what may have happened and hopefully getting my service back?

Megan · Answer

Hey @sstoneb, thanks for checking with your IT about that.

In regards to the ports, and how you can adjust them, feel free to have a look here, and let me know if you have any questions.

As for the file shown as edited/viewed, I'd like for you to check their version history online, to see what you're able to find there, and if they indeed show as edited.

sstoneb · Answer

Hi, @Megan . My IT dept has now told me the problem is indeed related to changes they made in our firewall, which I am not able to do anything about.

I guess the only thing that might help at this point is if there's some way I can reconfigure the client on my end to use different ports or protocols or something. Is that possible? If so, what information would I need to figure out how to set it up?

sstoneb · Answer

Screenshots below. My Dropbox folder on this machine contains a total of 7257 files in 1003 folders, at about 3 GB. I'm a free user with a 3.3 GB allotment.

The files showing "Viewed 2 days ago" were, generally speaking, edited and saved, not simply viewed. It shows the same status for files that I did merely view as for those that I have worked on and resaved.

I discovered today that if I rename a file on my work machine, this immediately gets updated on the Dropbox website, even though it's still unable to upload or download changes to the contents of files or newly-created files. You can see some of that in the activity list above.

The "biblio.pack" file that says it was updated is a configuration file in my LibreOffice user profile, which I keep in Dropbox as a way of syncing my preferences across multiple machines. On the website, it does indeed have a just-updated timestamp as if it were changed. I have no idea what that specific file does and can't check whether its contents truly changed or not. But it's one of several config files that LibreOffice opens and then saves whenever I use it. I don't know if that file's ability to (apparently) update is a useful clue or not!

The only security running is Windows Security, nothing third party. However, since the machine is managed by my workplace IT department I'm not able to disable it for testing. As I mentioned before, my IT hasn't *deliberately* tried to block Dropbox from functioning, but some security change might be responsible anyway. Also, for what it's worth, my Google Drive and OneDrive clients are both working fine.

I suspect the problems are caused by a networking change that's blocking certain sorts of traffic. (My Discord client stopped opening at about the same time because it's unable to update itself, but I can still use the Discord website just fine.) My hope was that you might be able to give some insight into how some activity registers correctly and other activity is blocked, as if they're using different methods. That sort of information could help my IT figure out what is happening and (hopefully!) revert whatever is responsible.