Child Item

Update 232.4.5988 causes unnecessary full re-sync.

Application Affected
Dropbox for Windows
Device
Microsoft Surface Pro 0
Operating System/Browser (if using the web)
Windows 11
Dropbox App Version (if using the app)
232.4.5988

Question or Issue
Dropbox updated to 232.4.5988 this Wednesday, as announced by the app with much fanfare. The new app uses the Windows sync icons, was the message. Hurrah.

After the update, apparently Dropbox decided a full resync of all my content (some 38K files) was needed. This resync has been going on ever since. Numerous Dropbox subfolders with no changes for months are now being slowly, arduously indexed. (A movie I bought back in the 2000s is one example of being 'uploaded'.)

Also, numerous of those subfolders are now getting the white sync icon with green border. I have Dropbox configured to keep everything Available Offline, and before the update, all folders and files had the green icon indicating that all content was available offline.

What is going on here? What did this update mess up?

Find more posts tagged with

Desktop

Sync

Windows

Insightful

Closed - Partially Delivered

Delivered

Comments

Megan

Hey @florismk, sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

As a first step, could you let us know the app's current syncing status app as shown in your taskbar at the moment?

Is the process stuck? Usually indexing takes much less than actual syncing, so you should be good soon.

To expedite the process, have you made sure that the bandwidth is adjusted correctly when using the app?

In addition to this, have you tried right-clicking the entire folder in order to mark it as available offline?

Let me know and we'll go from there.

florismk

Hi @Megan , the process finally completed, so the current syncing status is Up to date. But this took more than two days, in which all the content in my Dropbox seems to have been downloaded and re-indexed. During the process, the status indicator on the Dropbox showed variations of "1,031 files indexing, 14 files uploading, 4,503 files downloading" (numbers changing obviously).

I've set no limit on bandwidth.

Right-clicking any folder or file does not offer the Available Offline option:

File context menu

Folder context menu

Which is sort of logical, as the files and folders are already available offline. But what I want is to make them Always Available Offline. Which is not available.

The only way I've found is to first make them Online Only, and then the Always Available Offline options shows up. But that would mean yet another full re-index (I've tested it with two small folders). And it doesn't provide a solution for the root Dropbox folder.

I'd say it should be a permanent option in the context menus.

Megan

Hey @florismk!

Happy to see that the app is fully updated.

If the files/folders are already set to available offline, then that'd explain why you don't have the option.

Keep in mind that you can always use these steps in order to make to make your files available offline by default.

If you need something else, please let me know and I will be more than happy to help every step of the way.

florismk

Hi @Megan ,

Please be aware that there's a difference between Available Offline (white icon with green border; local file may be deleted by Dropbox to save space) and Always Available Offline (green icon; local file will never be deleted by Dropbox).

All my files and folders currently have the white-with-green-border Available Offline icon, where they previously had the green Always Available Offline icon. The latter is what I want. I can change the sync status by setting the files and folders to Online Only first, and then choosing Make Available Offline. When I do that, all folders and files I've selected switch to the green icon (after downloading again). That also demonstrates that the two statuses are different.

This diffference in status is also documented in your own Help pages: Dropbox sync icons in the Windows desktop app - Dropbox Help - Dropbox Help.

So what I'm talking about is that Dropbox needs a way to change sync status from Available Offline to Always Available Offline. Without going through Online Only, because that forces the entire Dropbox folder to re-download.

Do you see what I mean?
Floris

Nancy

Hey Floris, hope you don’t mind if I chime in.

I see you also have a similar thread here.

Besides Hannah’s feedback, I also passed your comments here along to our team. This way, they can see how this affects you and take your suggestion into consideration in the future.

florismk

Hi @Nancy , thanks! Is there a way to post feature suggestions?

Dell_Dropbox

Hey there, no further action is required on this particular suggestion. But if you have something different you want to discuss you can check out the Ideas forum.