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(OS X) Dropbox consuming a lot of CPU whenever any file or folder is changed anywhere

On my OS X 10.9.5 system I'm seeing Dropbox consume CPU whenever anything on the file system changes, regardless of whether the changed files or folders are in the Dropbox synced folders. The CPU usage is proportionate to the rate of file system changes.

When I'm running an installer that takes a long time and has high disk activity (e.g. installing a documenation update in XCode), then the Dropbox CPU usage goes through the roof and I see the Dropbox sync status change from 'up to date' to 'indexing'. For less sustained activities with less intensive file system changes, I see Dropbox just popup briefly in the list of top CPU consumers -- but it shouldn't be showing up at all (or certainly not at double digit CPU use and not for the duration of the file system activity.

My guess is that Dropbox is simply listening for file system events and reacting to each one as if it might be change in a synced file or folder. It should be ignoring fsevents that are for items outside the Dropbox folders -- but it seems not to be the case. :-( :-(

I'm on 3.0.3, but have been seeing this problem since the 2.* days.

--

Dave Hein

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Hi everyone,

We are really sorry to hear about your issues and that we didn’t catch this thread earlier.

Diagnosing CPU usage is tricky because even if all your issues seem similar they’re actually different and probably linked to your particular set up.

There are a few known cases where Dropbox was responsible for high CPU or memory usage:

When we rolled out a new feature, called File Identifiers, back in the end of 2014. Dave, this could be what you were hitting at that time.
Edge cases with our features like Badge

Apart from that the Dropbox client shouldn’t use a high percentage of your computer’s performance, especially when not syncing files.

We monitor CPU and memory usage really closely and each time there’s a spike (a lot of people suddenly consuming more CPU than usual) we investigate thoroughly to see what the root cause could be and fix this. We take this very seriously.

This is why, unless you fall into the above-mentioned explanations, your problem is very likely to be linked to external factors conflicting with Dropbox.

Here a non-exhaustive list of factors that could explain your issues:

Symlinks pointing outside of the Dropbox folder
Files in your Dropbox folder with permission incorrectly set (the app will endlessly try to sync them)
Dropbox folder installed on NAS
Dropbox folders installed on drive with a file system that doesn’t support extended attributes
A lot of files (performance starts to decrease after 300k files)
Conflicting third party app (an app accesses your files and modifies them, then Dropbox syncs the change, then the app accesses the files again, etc… this is usually syncing apps, backing up apps, anti-viruses and/or security softwares)
A huge sync e.g. if you suddenly upload 100k files, Dropbox will use more CPU than usual to perform this action

If your set up falls into one of these situations, here are the respective solutions:

Remove the symlinks
Move Dropbox to another drive if possible or stop using Dropbox on the NAS, we do not support Network Share file system
Move Dropbox to another drive or format your drive with a file system supporting extended attributes
Use selective sync to reduce the number of files locally while keeping all your files in your Dropbox https://www.dropbox.com/help/175
Try disabling any potential conflicting app one by one until you identified the one causing the issue
Upload files in smaller batches, or temporarily reduce the priority of the dropbox process to limit resource usage of Dropbox like this:

Linux: http://www.nixtutor.com/linux/changing-priority-on-linux-processes

Windows: http://www.wikihow.com/Change-Process-Priorities-in-Windows-Task-Manager

Mac: http://bencane.com/2013/09/09/setting-process-cpu-priority-with-nice-and-renice

If none of your set up falls into those categories or if even after trying the above, Dropbox is still using too much CPU, I’d recommend writing into support here

http://www.dropbox.com/support mentioning this forum thread and what you tried to solve the issue.

Our support engineers will look at your computer logs precisely and should be able to help (I can’t do that on this Forum thread as this is personal information we cannot share publicly)

I hope this helps!

Diello A.

It takes 100% processing all the time. I barely can't use my computer when Dropbox is open.

Sincerely, I don't think Dropbox staff is doing anything to fix this issue. I'm considering migrating to another Cloud Service.

When Google Drive is syncing, it doesn't drain my CPU like Dropbox does.

Also, Dropbox is constantly draining my Macbook battery enegy.

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Laureline

Hi Diello,

Did you followed the advice that Ed sent earlier?

There can be very different causes for a CPU issue.

If you did, I would recommend you to write to the support team here:

https://www.dropbox.com/support

They will be more than happy to look into your issue, and try to find a reason why Dropbox is using so much CPU on your computer

Gordon Q.

I have the same kind of issue. As soon as Dropbox starts syncing, whether it be one file or 100, my iMac bogs down and my disk starts howling. It's like Dropbox is the Soup Nazi of apps – "No processing for you!" It feels like a scheduler problem to me. I wish Apple or Dropbox would give me the ability to limit Dropbox to a capped slice of processor and disk usage. Dropbox could use idle resources when available, but when other functions need resources, Dropbox is backed off to it's cap. You know, state of the art 1970s computing.

John H.7

Ed, can you please briefly explain what is meant by "Symlinks pointing outside of the Dropbox folder" and perhaps less briefly explain how you would go about fixing this condition and stopping it from re-occurring?

Means paths that are pointing to folders living outside your Dropbox folder.

For more details: https://www.dropbox.com/help/9199

Symlinks

Because symlinks refer to locations outside of the Dropbox folder, the Dropbox desktop app could get stuck attempting to access them.

Determine if symlinks are the cause with these steps:

For OS X computers

Open your Terminal app located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.
Copy and paste the command line below and press Enter on your keyboard.

find ~/Dropbox -type l -exec ls -lah {} \;

For Windows computers

Press the Windows + R keys (at the same time) on your keyboard.
Type "cmd" and press Enter on your keyboard to open the command prompt.
Copy and paste the command line below and press Enter on your keyboard.

dir "%HOMEPATH%\Dropbox" /a:l /s

By default, the Dropbox folder is located in ~/Dropbox. If you have a Dropbox Business account, https://www.dropbox.com/help/4210 is~/Dropbox (Your team name). To search the business Dropbox folder you should replace ~/Dropbox with the full pathway to the Dropbox folder within quotation marks. You should do the same if you moved the Dropbox folder to a location other than the default location. See the follwing example pathway:

 find "users/Michel/Documents/Dropbox (Enterprise)" -type l -exec ls

John H.7

Ed,

Your last command needs this on the end:

-lah {} \;

But anyway finds nothing even if I make shortcuts/aliases to files/folders lying outside the Dropbox folder.

Please advise.

Luwe S.

Dropbox is still using too much cpu imho. Narrowing down the folders a bit with selective sync helps, but does not solve the problem. The selective sync feature is also a bit immature. Please integrate some feature like a custom ignore list for reoccuring folders that you want dropbox to ignore by default

to name a few, for me the following can and should be always ignored by dropbox

node_modules
typo3_src
typo3
cache
idea

Diello A.

I followed all the suggestions left here by Dropbox Staff and none of them will solve my problem.

Dropbox client is like a virus. Whenever it's active, it will drain all my CPU and RAM and won't let me do anything else in my computer.

It means that if I want to do something productive in my computer, I have to close Dropbox completely (which is senseless, since I want to keep my folders in sync).

I don't think Dropbox staff will do anything to solve this problem. They don't seem to be really interested in making their customers happy.

I'm shocked how Google Drive can do the exact same thing without ruining my computer.

Amandeep R.

Have you guys figured this out yet? I can't afford to have my CPU over 100% as it makes my computer slow. Can't you guys cap your Dropbox app to use only maybe 20% of CPU time? If you think this is not enough then you guys just have a bad design or poor developers. Figure it out or I am looking for another solution.

Roberto r.15

Yes, I did, Google Drive is the way to go.

It's sad, because I like Dropbox, but I can't afford having this 100% CPU problem, my computer heats like hell, and this reduces the lifetime of my processors, so I'm not going to pay for a service that does that, it's like paying it twice.

Sad but true.

Taylor R.4

I found this thread a few minutes ago because I haven't had this issue until today. For the past two years Dropbox has worked silently in the background but today it decided to be running at 50% CPU all the time. I haven't changed anything recently.

Sebastian K.6

I have the same issue: Every time I make any operations which modify a lot files anywhere outside the Dropbox directory Dropbox just consumes 100% CPU. I can reproduce this issue easily by just extracting a very large tar file (e.g. the Linux kernel sources) somewhere outside the Dropbox directory: Even with a completely empty Dropbox directory (that obviously contain no symlinks) I get a very high CPU use of the Dropbox process even though not a single file in the Dropbox directory was modified.

I attached DTrace to the Dropbox process and can see it making thousands of system calls per second when I extract the tar file somewhere outside the Dropbox directory:

Dear Dropbox developers, are you *sure* you're not listening to *all* filesystem events which happen in my user's directory? Because to me it completely looks like that and is the reason I get such a high CPU use when I make heavy filesystem operation which shouldn't bother Dropbox at all.

Neven J.

Bump!

I am having exactly the same issue with exactly the same findings on multiple MacbookPros.

Did not get much love from Dropbox support. They tried but failed miserably and they ignore the issue.

Dropbox support performed stack analysis remotely (without my permission or knowledge) and saw my running process was TimeMachine. They think TimeMachine is causing clash and asked me to raise issue with Apple LOL.

For test I reinstalled dropbox and osx, disabled timemachine, checked symlinks, ownerships, permissions, etc etc... - and high cpu is still here.

I do not have this issue on Windows on other hand.

Darwin I.

I'm trying their suggestions like removing directories with symlinks, but my Dev folder where I keep many python projects seems to be the one with all the sym links. I'm moving that to Google Drive I guess since Dropbox can't handle symlinks? Seems extremely lame.

Kevin B.69

Dear Dropbox,

I'm discontinuing my paid membership over this issue. I was an avid member early on ever since the beta (2007/2008?), but I'm no longer impressed. In fact, I'm hugely disappointed. This CPU usage issue has remained for far too long (past couple of years for me). At this late stage it is not even clear if you are treating this as a bug.

I have read the posts about 300,000+ files, and symlinks etc. And my situation is probably one of those, but you know what - I don't care. I want to have 300,000+ files! and I want (need) symlinks! And I want to use my computer without hearing the fan run furiously.

There is no reason that the desktop sync app should cause such high CPU for such long durations even with these conditions. The app should just work quietly in the background without disturbing computer usage. Throttle the heavy work. Yield CPU in your tight loops. Your smart engineers can solve this problem.

Steven G.6

I seem to have the same issues as Sebastian K. and others, basically anytime I modify a file or possibly install or update a package through homebrew it will start using a high % of CPU, 90-100 and for no good reason... at least I don't see why it would need to be reading activity outside of the Dropbox folder especially when I'm not using symlinks inside of it.

Something is afoul here.

Roberto r.15

Steven G., Sebastian K., Kevin B.,

As I could note, you are programmers.

Did you notice that Dropbox now has only one plan 1TB $9.99 monthly?

They don't care about programmers, they wanna build an average service for an average person that will use 10, 20GB only and will not complain because they will never need to store the same amount of files programmers need. They will never open a terminal, use brew or npm, use symlinks, etc. They don't care about fixing this, they prefer us to leave and charge average people for an average service that will make these casual users very happy.

Shame on you Dropbox.

Neven J.

I switched to self hosted seafile and won't look back. Dropbox does not care about user experience at all.

It's a SHAME that their client on macOS is such CRAP, and at the same time there is so much GREAT code from dropbox on github with all sorts of experiments in different languages, more optimized that python for file hashing - https://github.com/dropbox/

jpjd

Same here and they have had over a year to fix it. Issue is still present on my new MacBook Pro.

jpjd

My New Macbook Pro's fans are so loud when Dropbox is syncing and my CPU is bouncing between 100% and 150%. The minute I pause the syncing process everything goes back to normal. Fans drop and CPU goes back to normal! This is nuts. I don't have anywhere near 30,000 files. Dropbox are you fixing this issue or will I be forced to cancel my pro account and warn my friends about this isseue! Google Drive is sounding very tempting right now.

stevenzimmerman

This is a concerning thread. Just switched from PC to mac and I have never seen the CPU run so high before. Ditto to previous thread... google drive is looking more appealing than my dropbox pro account if this issue cannot be resolved.

sidan5

I have same issue. Using latest MacBook Pro (Touch Bar) and latest OS-X.
This is crazy because Dropbox just takes all the battery. First I though it's the new MacBook Pro battery but now I guess it's Dropbox issue.

I must say Dropbox is IDLE when taking all the CPU and I don't have too many files.

This adding up to the warning that Dropbox doesn't work well with Sierra and I could loose files. I guess I need to cancel my paid plan and move to another provider if this doesn't get solved ASAP.

Ventus

Same issue here. I was thinking to adopt pro version but instead I'm thinking to work with an another platform probably Google.

what

It's been 2.5 years and still issues the CPU. I don't use Dropox anymore and they still didn't do anything about it. Don't waste your time people, come to Google Drive, works fine. You wasted 2.5 years on this, don't have anything to do other than fix other company's problematic software? Dropbox clearly doesn't listen to Mac people, it's all about Windows 10 back in the game.

Kevin B.36

This is a long running (and should be embarrasing) problem for Dropbox. Their tech support staff have no idea how to solve it, that's why they either try and then give up or simply just don't try in the first place. I have no sym links, I'm not sure how many files, but it's about 25Gb of the 1 Tb I pay, ie. bugger all really.

I started with an i7 Windows laptop and do not recall seeing the exceptionally high CPU usage, but that was a long time ago. Moved to an i5 based 2012 Macbook Pro and the CPU usage is pegged at 105%. I thought it might just have been a down market machine, i5 with 8Gb RAM and 1 Tb SSD. To do anything I would constantly have to switch off Dropbox Syncing. So have just bought a refurbished mid-2015 15" Retina 16Gb RAM Macbook Pro (don't get me started on the utterly underwhelming, mid-2016, stupid taskbar, fantastically overpriced, for no real advantage, latest MBP offering, that's an entirely different discussion).

On startup:

Fans running very fast
Noise level something I just did not expect
Heat at base of machine didn't seem too bad
Looked at CPU usage and, once again, Dropbox is at 105%

Downloaded intel's Power Gadgert and Macs Fan Control.

Intels Power Gadgets shows a constant Temp of around 95-100 deg C

Macs Fan Control shows all 4 CPU Cores between 85-102 deg C

I set the temp sensor to be CPU proximity and memory proximity where the temps are in the 70's (I think this is a beter representation). Intel is obviously getting the temperature from CPU Core 1 (or may be averaging all cores, they do not say).

I stop Dropbox syncing, all 4 cores immediately drop to between 45-58 deg C and the CPU proximity to 45 deg C with the memory proximity the same. I startup syncing again and up the CPU usage and core temps go again. This is really not acceptable, but I've been a Dropbox user for years and a paid subscriber for 5 years. That also includes everyone I collaborate with and share folders (the big problem). So downing tools and switching to Google or iCloud or whatever would not work.

So look Mr Dropbox, pull your fu#$%^&ing fingers out of your collective ar$%^&*holes and find a solution. Even throttling CPU usage to say 50% maximum would be a workaround, but at least DO SOMEHING. This has been an issue for years now not days, weeks or months.

Nathan & Shelle

I recently got a bigger SSD on my MacBook Pro wanting to be able to finally have my whole 400GB Dropbox local, but this is proving impossible. The Dropbox process is randomly grinding my laptop to a halt with the fan spinning up full tilt. I've been zipping folders of older stuff to try to reduce the file count (somewhere around 130K files). This sucks.

Additionally it took about five days over my gigabit home network to do LAN Sync. That makes no sense. The whole time it said something like "2 Hours Remaining". Again, with the CPU going 100-150% with the Dropbox process the entire time.

I love Dropbox, but it's really not scaling properly at "pro" level.

Jane

Hey @Nathan & Shelle,

Thanks for reaching out on the Dropbox Community! Let's follow some steps together to improve syncing.

As a first step, could you have a look at this article and see if any of the cases mentioned there applies to you? The best course of action would be to make sure that you've installed the latest stable version of the Dropbox desktop application on your device. If you aren't sure about whether you have used Symlinks, please have a look at the steps here:

#1. Open your Terminal app (Located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal). You can also search for "Terminal" using the magnifying glass at the top of your screen.

#2. Copy and paste the following line into the Terminal:

(NOTE: If your Dropbox account is located on "/Users/JaneA/Dropbox", then fill in the command line as below)

find "/Users/JaneA/Dropbox" -type l -exec ls -lah {} \;

The above should give you a list of symlinks in your Dropbox folder and where they point to.

Hope this helps you resolve this issue!

Kind regards,

JaneA

Nathan & Shelle

I think this may have helped some. I have no links inside my Dropbox, but I followed the directions to update all the file ownerships and chmod settings. It indexed for probably 2-3 days (140K files), but Dropbox finally settled down after that...

Kevin Y.2

This is the only thing that worked for me:

http://www.michaelcarwile.com/throttle-dropbox-and-other-app-cpu-usage/

Dropbox (and other apps) has a tendency to use every bit of CPU it can, especially when starting up. On Mac (with Homebrew installed), Dropbox (and other apps) can be throttled via a tool called cpulimit.

Install cpulimit:

brew install cpulimit

Get Dropbox’s Process ID:

ps aux | grep Dropbox

user    19628  104.7  2.3  xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx   ??  R     4:07PM  15:47.12 /Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox

Run cpulimit with the -p flag using the process ID:

cpulimit -p 19628 -l 40

Note: That’s a lowercase L (for limit) and the last number (40 in this case) is the percentage % of CPU you’d like to throttle the app to.

Also Note: cpulimit will output ‘Process xxx found’ and will continue to run until you kill it with <CTRL> + C