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Dropbox constantly adding and deleting temp files

My dropbox is constantly adding, deleting, re-adding, re-deleting (etc) a file called _fIlE_!.tmp. It is also doing all sorts of other strange actions every few seconds, like "You renamed the file metadata.json.temp to metadata.json"

Any ideas what is causing this?

I have tried restarting my PC, and also unlinking/relinking Dropbox to my PC.

Thanks for suggestions!

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Mark

My money is on the WD software. Dropbox, like most other tools like this, doesnt play well when other applications are trying to lock files etc. its using.

The way I can think of seeing where these files are is to go to your Dropbox folder on your machine, click on them and look to see where shows a syncing file (i.e. blue spinning icon) and navigate through to see if that gives you clues.

Or, temporarily remove the WD Backup.

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Mark

Hi Adsummers

Dropbox is simply replicating whatever is happening within the Dropbox folder, so, something on your computer is creating those files.

Are you doing any coding by any chance? Or do you have your browsers cache etc. inside of the Dropbox folder to sync?

adsummers

Thanks this is very helpful.

I'm not doing any coding, and I don't think I would have anything like my browser cache in the Dropbox folder. I only have a small number of specific folders in the Dropbox folder.

I do also use Dropbox with WD Backup, so maybe it is this backup that is creating/deleting temporary files?

How do I find out exactly where the recently added/deleted files are located? When I click through to the Events page on dropbox, it only gives the name of the file, not the full file location. And clicking on the file just downloads it, but doesn't show the location.

Thanks again,

Andy

Mark

Jane

Hey @adsummers,

If it’s not too much trouble for you, would you mind taking a minute of your time to fill out a survey sharing your experience using the Dropbox Community? You can access it here: http://bit.ly/2lNKIxT .

[ Please feel free to get back in touch here at any time if you have any other Dropbox questions or experience any issues in the future. ]

pattyud59

hi,

Every time I download a file from my Gmail in chrome browser, I get this Alert message: " Remove *.temp file from your Dropbox account and all devices?

My default is placing the file in downloads of my computer. If I choose the option he asks me before downloading the file, I get this Alert. It seems that he automatically creates a temp file in Dropbox by default. But I do not know where to change this.

Thank you for your help.

Walter

Hi there @pattyud59, sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

May I ask if you've enabled the Dropbox Backup feature for your computer's Downloads folder?