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Desktop app is stuck 'Starting' when it loads up and doesn't sync on my Mac.

I am a paying customer and very frustrated with Dropbox. I am ready to drop DropBox and look for other alternatives.

Since Friday of last week it has been trying to sync 100Gb in files and it is taking an eternity. Now is stuck in "Starting."
I have rebooted the Mac (10.6.8). I am using Dropbox 3.0.3. I have tried going to Preferences, holding the option key and "Fixing Permission." I also read in the Internet about deleting the hidden cache folder but I have not done it yet since I don't know what to expect.

Any assistance is appreciated.

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Jay

Reading through this thread, everyone seems to be experiencing similar and yet slightly different issues, so I’ll go through the general troubleshooting steps to fix all of them.

Feel free to stop whenever your app begins to sync normally, not all steps are needed.

Install the stable version:

The first thing we need is to be sure you’re running the stable version of the Dropbox desktop application, and not the beta.

To do so uncheck the box next to "Early releases" here. Then, do an advanced reinstall to ensure that all beta functions are removed fully.

Instead of the download link on that page, I recommend using the offline installers for this purpose:

Windows
Mac

Confirm there are no symlinks

Secondly, if your app is fine, but it’s still starting, then it could be stuck in a loop trying to parse your symlinks.

What are these? Long story short for those not in the know, these are files or folder that refer to another file or folder in your Dropbox account, or even outside the Dropbox folder.

This can include, but is not limited to, iPhoto/Photos library on Mac, system folders such as Documents/Pictures/Music/Downloads, databases, programming code, and many more.

Removing these symlinks is vital since they can cause these issues, high CPU usage, and permissions problems.

Follow step 7 on this article in order to detect the symlinks in your computer and remove any from your Dropbox folder. Generally, moving the specific files or folders to another location should remove the links.

Check your internet connection

Hilariously, this is more common than you think. You have a stable WiFi/ethernet connection to the web, other sites work, and yet the app isn’t connecting.

If multiple users are having this problem on the same network, there is a possibility that a proxy, VPN, firewall, security software, or even ISP/router issues that could be restricting traffic to the Dropbox domains.

We can’t really narrow things down for you, since you need to check this out yourself as there are so many programs out there.

We’ve had cases more often than not about built in security software on routers for home internet users, meant to protect users and children, but in doing so preventing the Dropbox desktop application from loading.

Using a remote login

Getting a black or white screen on the Dropbox app when you’re trying to sign in is a different issue.

This usually occurs when using a remote login or even a virtual machine to another device. The graphics for remote logins are usually reduced in quality, and since the Dropbox desktop application connects to the Dropbox site to sign you in, it won’t render the login page in the app while on a remote login.

Best thing to do would be to access the machine directly to login from there.

---

Overall, there are many reasons for this cause, however hopefully this post should help in resolving most of the issues!

[This thread is now closed. If you have a similar or new question, you can ask here.]

All comments

Declan Z.

Same issue.

A message informs me Dropbox is "updating automatically."

So the choice to keep my working software is not mine anymore. It has been "automatically" replaced with software that is much slower to launch and sync.

I really wish companies would not force "automatic" updates. I'm sure they think they work. But my system, stable and working yesterday, then doesn't work today.

Not good.

mark c.56

They take a week to respond! terrible customer service ! I had to result to posting on their facebook page to get an answer!

Jane

Hey @mark c.56,

Thanks for getting in touch on Community, sorry to hear about the delayed response.

Just to clarify, has this issue been resolved? Also, it would be really helpful if you could give a ticket ID to reference in your reply, so that I see whether I could expedite resolution.

Looking forward to hearing back from you!

Kind regards,

JaneA

DDCG

If your Dropbox was Stuck on starting like mine was. Didn't matter if i Quit, or the Proxy, restart. Hopefully this helps someone.

SOLUTION:

UN-LINK your dropbox. Open dropbox, setup again to the same local folder. It will then re-sync everything again (this part sucks).

Rich

DDCG wrote:
It will then re-sync everything again (this part sucks).

It's actually not re-syncing. It's indexing all of the files in your folder and comparing them to the content of your account online. It may appear to be uploading and/or downloading, but it's only transferring comparison data and any data that has changed since the last sync.

DDCG

By re-sync I meant that meanwhile the 3 hours its Indexing...I am also making changes between 2 computers and when thats all done, it will be re-syncing. Either way, takes way to long for us with Business Dropbox and are using 800GB+. The index is so long, I had to go to dropbox.com to Download a file I was working on between 2 computers because one computer is running the extremely long index process which honestly takes way to long. I have 200mps and this things going to bog down my computer for a long time. gg RIP

sjatkins

@Laureline wrote:
Hi guys!
These issues are complex and require access to your personal information to be able to troubleshoot.
I would really recommend you to write in to our support team, who would be more than happy to help you!
Thanks

I am not buying it. Plain first install on Ubuntu 17.04. No firewall or proxies. Home desktop that worked fine with Dropbox on 16.04. Not working since upgrade to 17.04 and reinstall of dropbox.

mlaw

I just got a new computer issued at work today. first thing I did at 11:15 this morning was install dropbox. It's been "starting" now for about 4 hours. I intentionally disabled selective sync for everything but a few folders with lightweight txt files in it so there's no reason for it to be taking this long. My work dropbox has about 40+ Tb worth of data in it but I'm only trying to get at a couple megs of it. What can I do to speed this up?

Rich

Even though you're not syncing it all, Dropbox likely still needs to build its database which will contain information about all the files in your account, and not just those that you're syncing. With 40TB of data, that process will take a while.

There's no way to speed up any of Dropbox's processes. All you can do is just let it work.

Sanchez

Hey @mlaw,

Would you mind taking a minute of your time to fill out a survey sharing your experience using our Dropbox Community? You can access the survey here: http://bit.ly/2lNKIxT

Thank you!

Leon E.

I have exactly the same problem since about a couple of months. I have tried all the "possible" solutions and still stuck on restarting. I am driving myself crazy as I totally have become dependant on dropbox.

If somebody has the solution to fix it, will be greatly appreciated.

Jane

Hey @Leon E., sorry to hear you’re experiencing an issue with the Dropbox desktop app.

As I’d like to work on that with you, let me just do some basic troubleshooting, so as to narrow down the possible causes.

Firstly, are you running the latest Beta or a Stable Dropbox client?
Have you checked whether there are any external locations Symlinked to your Dropbox folder?
I’d appreciate a screenshot (omitting personal info) of what you’re seeing in your next post here as well, so as to get a better insight of what’s happening.

Once I have this info, I’ll do my best to analyze the case with you.

I’ll be awaiting your next reply here!

boazs

i have the same problem too. it is only on one computer. it is so frustrating, especially since i am a paying customer. is there any solution?

Tom H.

Unforuntaly, simply saying I have the same issue, doesnt give us much to go on. Can you please tell us what steps you have taken ? if any ? Results of said troubleshooting steps ? The thread is 5 pages long and there is already some great advice in it.

Further more what OS are you using? Not all of us helping out here use the same OS. So I may not be the perfect fit to answer your questions where as anohter user may be better at your OS.

boazs

my dropbox stays on "starting" for about 45min - over an hour , then it stays on indexing for another 30min at least and only then starts to syncronize.

it happens only on one of my computers.

i tried to unlink and relink but with no improvement.

tried to temporary turn off the macaffe antivirus, but no improvment.

any suggestions?

Sir_B

Don't know if this is relevant, but I had a similar problem. I'm using Windows 10, and on booting, the Dropbox-Icon was grey and said "Starting", but seemed to be frozen as nothing further happened. Furthermore, on right-clicking on the icon, a Dropbox Window appeared, but never vanished until I ended Dropbox in Task Manager. This happened quite regularly for the past couple of days.

For my particular case, this turned out to be a Windows Problem. I noticed a strange message on shutting the computer down, originating from Task Host Window. Apparently, the Windows Task Host keept some background tasks, including Dropbox, from running properly. If this is something that might fit your situation, have a look at this video. In the top comment there, you will find a solution that works fine for me. YMMV, obviously.

Jane

Hey @boazs, thanks for posting on the Dropbox Forum on the syncing issue you’ve experienced, I’m wishing you the best for 2018!

- I agree with @Sir_B’s advice, as s/he’s pointing you towards the right direction. Have you checked any background applications that may be accessing the Dropbox folder? These may kill syncing in the background.

- Secondly, could you check whether Dropbox is listed under the list of startup programs on your device?

<SPAN class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90za3z66zsz65z7gz85zz86zz70zz79zz80z3z85z6z87ziz78zz83zigfz86zz80z5z80zblcz70zz86z">&nbsp;#1. Right click the Dropbox icon in the system tray at the bottom right of your screen, by the clock on Windows, or menu bar at the top of your screen on Mac and Linux</SPAN>

<SPAN class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90za3z66zsz65z7gz85zz86zz70zz79zz80z3z85z6z87ziz78zz83zigfz86zz80z5z80zblcz70zz86z">#2. Click on the gear icon in the Notifications panel and select "Preferences" from the menu&nbsp;</SPAN>

<SPAN class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90za3z66zsz65z7gz85zz86zz70zz79zz80z3z85z6z87ziz78zz83zigfz86zz80z5z80zblcz70zz86z">#3. Verify that the box next to "Start Dropbox on system startup" is checked.</SPAN>

If the issue persists, you can try using these links (Mac/ Windows) to check if Dropbox is listed as one of your Startup items or to add it to your Startup folder.

Please keep me updated on how the option above works for you, so as to send over the most relevant next steps!

Shailen S.

It was also stuck on Starting. Then I closed everything and started again. Now, Dropbox is stuck on indexing, for the last 2 days - left my computer overnight. Following this tip, I tried to unlink my account, and Dropbox will then close itself, and not unlink at all. If I open my Dropbox again, it still tries to sync endlessly. This is madness. Those issues have been over 3 years now. Please do something.

Jim B.45

"There's no way to speed up any of Dropbox's processes. All you can do is just let it work."

This is the standard response to the fact that Dropbox is a buggy piece of crap. A properly implemented sync client does not take hours to start, then turns red and says that it can't access my Dropbox folder and asks for my password -- the Dropbox folder is owned by me, in a folder owned by me, and dropbox is running as me. And then after I enter my password, it says "starting..." again and probably will do so for hours and then fail. I'm a good programmer with over 50 years of experience and I don't write crap like this and I know that crap like this is not acceptable.

The reason that Dropbox is starting is because I had to restart it after it hung for hours, loading no files but with a tooltip saying that it was processing at over 6MB/sec with 17 seconds to go ... lord knows what that time means, when it still had hundreds of thousands of files to download. This is incompetent, buggy crap.

Before Dropbox hung for hours, it managed to download 40GB in a DAY. This is buggy incompetent crap.

Dropbox has said for years that performance "declines" if you have more than 300,000 files ... they have never explained why and have never fixed this. Properly designed sync clients don't have this limitation. Dropbox's "solution" is selective sync, which is no solution at all. And selective sync deletes the local files (but not all of them!). There's no way to move the files elsewhere, turn on selective sync, then move them back and sync ... Dropbox insists on reloading everything. Properly designed sync systems don't work like that.

Walter

Hey @Jim B.45,

Sorry to hear about this - let's see into this together!

First of, are you running the latest stable version of our desktop application (47.4.74)? If not, you can find it here.

Another quick question to help with this: are you having the Dropbox Folder on your main HDD - meaning the one where your operating system resides as well?

Note that your user account must have permission to write to the desired location and that the drive must be in the correct format to avoid such errors. You can see more about this here!

As per your last query, it is indeed true that the performance of the desktop app might decline should you have more than 300,000 files. This is a soft limit and depends highly on the hardware specifications of the computer running the Dropbox application. You can always try to improve the performance of individual computers, by using selective sync to select only certain files to sync to that specific computer. In any case, you'll still be able to access all of your files from dropbox.com or other devices linked to your account.

Note: This limit is related to the number of files, not to their size. Generally speaking, Dropbox accounts with a large number of files may take longer to sync but a delay in syncing or a prolonged sync is not necessarily a sign of a problem. Usually, adjusting your bandwidth settings may increase your sync speed.

I hope this helps and please let us know what you find so we can get to the bottom of what is going on here.

Paul A.25

I too have Dropbox stuck on "Starting" in Kubuntu 14.04. But what's worse is that my machine (HP Pavilion) soon gets wedged altogether -- so wedged that I can't even start a virtual console with Alt-Ctl-F2. That might or might not have anything to do with Dropbox, but it seems to happen only during Dropbox startup. I've installed Dropbox on other laptops, and although it sometimes takes a few minutes to start and a day or to to finish syncing, this seems much worse.

Jim B.45

"let's see into this together!"

Cut the patronizing crap. I've been writing software for over 50 years and can "see into this" just fine.

"As per your last query"

Which you didn't read. Again:

"Dropbox has said for years that performance "declines" if you have more than 300,000 files ... they have never explained why and have never fixed this. Properly designed sync clients don't have this limitation. Dropbox's "solution" is selective sync, which is no solution at all. And selective sync deletes the local files (but not all of them!). There's no way to move the files elsewhere, turn on selective sync, then move them back and sync ... Dropbox insists on reloading everything. Properly designed sync systems don't work like that."

So don't go telling me yet again to use "selective sync", which is just another way of saying "don't sync all your files". I want to sync all my files. Properly designed sync systems don't have these problems. People have been complaining about this "soft limit" for years, but Dropbox has never explained why it has so much trouble with large numbers of files. And don't go explaining "This limit is related to the number of files, not to their size" as if I were some imbecile. The problem isn't with me, it's with Dropbox.

"what is going on here"

I told you what is going on here ... the client is buggy crap. It should not fall to pieces when there are lots of files, and it should never sit there for hours with a tooltip that says "6,000 KB/sec, 17 sec left" with no data being transferred.

After several restarts and a relink, Dropbox finally decided to start transferring my files, but I have no faith in it continuing to function, and will be switching to another sync service.

@Walter

Paul A.25

It seems to have gottrrn unstuck, although the transfer is going painfully slowly (maybe 100 files an hour). And that's to my primary HDD.

Sanchez

Hey @Paul A.25,

I hope it works out for you, but if this persists, go ahead and write in to our team so we can take a closer look.

Have a great week ahead!

Paul A.25

Dropbox has gotten unstuck, but it's restoring my local Dropbox image very slowly -- at a rate of about 8 kilobytes/sec. This is likely due to a bad interaction between my particular laptop and Dropbox. I've also had lockups during the attempted restoration that forced me to reboot. On the other hand, I've installed Dropbox on several other machines, and although it often took a full day of computation to finish, it always ran smoothly.

At the moment I'm letting the restoration proceed without anything else going on. Once it's completed I'll be able to investigate any other difficulties withouth having to contend with Dropbox restoring files in the background.

Walter

You can speed this process up by changing your bandwidth settings if you like @Paul A.25!

Remember that Dropbox doesn't use all of your bandwidth normally. Nevertheless, you can change that by manually setting the upload/download speed following the steps outlined here.

Just keep in mind that setting your Upload to Don't Limit or a higher number than your connection is capable of could possibly cause all other Internet activity on your network to slow significantly.

Cheers!

Paul A.25

I'm running Dropbox under Kubuntu 14.04. I too am stuck on Starting, but with a nasty extra twist. As Dropbox runs, the resident memory it's using (I monitor it with top) gradually increases. At the moment it's up to 4.7GB. Eventually the system processes are starved for memory and the machine locks up. The trouble is that this happens before the sync has been able to get past Starting.

Walter

Thanks for the additional info Paul - much appreciated.

Since I'd really like to help with this, I ran an internal search and found your support ticket. I have consulted with the agent handling your case and sent you some additional information on your specific case via email. Check your inbox at your earliest convenience and let us know how this goes.

Thanks!

lallen

Trying to install drop box on some work machines for a project, but eachand everyone become stuck on "starting" with a black dialog box, ten machines in total. I found the soultion was to simply crash the software on PC. Go into taks manager and End the setup dropbox task. Dropbox starts syning and works.

Clearly a bug in the installer. 10 fresh installs with the same behaviour.

Jay

Reading through this thread, everyone seems to be experiencing similar and yet slightly different issues, so I’ll go through the general troubleshooting steps to fix all of them.

Feel free to stop whenever your app begins to sync normally, not all steps are needed.

Install the stable version:

Instead of the download link on that page, I recommend using the offline installers for this purpose:

Windows
Mac

Confirm there are no symlinks

Secondly, if your app is fine, but it’s still starting, then it could be stuck in a loop trying to parse your symlinks.

What are these? Long story short for those not in the know, these are files or folder that refer to another file or folder in your Dropbox account, or even outside the Dropbox folder.

This can include, but is not limited to, iPhoto/Photos library on Mac, system folders such as Documents/Pictures/Music/Downloads, databases, programming code, and many more.

Removing these symlinks is vital since they can cause these issues, high CPU usage, and permissions problems.

Check your internet connection

Hilariously, this is more common than you think. You have a stable WiFi/ethernet connection to the web, other sites work, and yet the app isn’t connecting.

We can’t really narrow things down for you, since you need to check this out yourself as there are so many programs out there.

Using a remote login

Getting a black or white screen on the Dropbox app when you’re trying to sign in is a different issue.

Best thing to do would be to access the machine directly to login from there.

---

Overall, there are many reasons for this cause, however hopefully this post should help in resolving most of the issues!

[This thread is now closed. If you have a similar or new question, you can ask here.]