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My browser crashed while I was uploading

I am uploading hundreds of files to someone. Browser crashed 3/4 of the way through. Can the upload be restarted and resume? I'm not sure which file it was on when it crashed. The recepient has sent me an invite link so I don't know if I can see his folder.

Best thing to do? Thank you

edit - set it to upload overnight - Uploaded for six hours then it crashed again - "something went wrong, please try sending your files again." Really? All 500 of them? 25 gig? Is Dropbox always this unreliable with large loads? Is there a better way to approach the upload, or are there any more stable alternatives out there?

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Rich

You're uploading through a web browser which is never all that reliable for large transfers, regardless of the service you're uploading to.

For large files or large amounts of data you really should install the Dropbox client and use it to sync the files from your computer. Just put them in the Dropbox folder that gets created on your computer and they will sync with your account online.

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Rich

You're uploading through a web browser which is never all that reliable for large transfers, regardless of the service you're uploading to.

KS555

Thank you.

I'm doing that now but I must say it's unbearably slow. My internet upload speed is slow, like 2.46 mbps. So I'll have to upgrade if there are more of these types of jobs. I"m uploading only about 7 gig - about a third of the total files- and it's telling me six hours. I did go into settings and tell it not to limit the upload speed.

Is that upload time normal for that speed?

Also I'm still unclear as to whether the files that uploaded via the request link before it crashed were full or partial files. If the email from Dropbox says x file was uploaded, is that the entire file? Or is it uploading parts of all the files, then the upload fails, and all of the files are, say, 75% uploaded?

FOr what it's worth it also did not upload them in order (they are numerically named). Instead, it uploaded one folder, then the second half of the next folder, etc. And the email they sent had the files listed haphazardly, out of order. I had to copy them all into a spreadsheet to sort them and see what was missing. Which was about half, from different sections.

Rich

KS555 wrote:
I'm doing that now but I must say it's unbearably slow. My internet upload speed is slow, like 2.46 mbps. ... I"m uploading only about 7 gig - about a third of the total files- and it's telling me six hours.

That's just about right.

2.46Mbps / 8 = .3075MBps
.3075 x 60 = 18.45MB per minute
7168MB / 18.45 = 388.50 minutes = 6.48 hours

And that assumes best case scenario, that your speed remains constant, there's no other traffic, etc. And remember, each file that you upload is hashed, compressed, then transferred, encrypted, and stored on the Dropbox servers. That entire process is included in the aggregate 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.

KS555

Thank you,

They are being recompressed? These are mpeg 2 files and I want to leave them uncompressed. Is that possible?

KS555

*long rant edited*

Looks like even though it was not listed on the status page as an outage, for some reason it's working now. So I won't tempt the fates by speculating about why or how. Let's just hope this finishes.

I've not had a good introduction to this service, between absurdly long upload times, crashes, etc. Not loving Dropbox at all. Maybe there's an alternative out there somewhere.

Rich

They're not compressed in a way that alters the file when they're synced back to your computers or downloaded from your account. It's just the storage mechanism used by Dropbox. They're also synced/stored in 4MB chunks, not complete files, and you never see this either.

KS555

Thanks for your help! All is working well now.