Syncing forever without actually syncing

Hey there @skillbard.

Initially, please note that syncing can take time if you have many or large files. What I’d recommend for now is to give it time. If the sync time is large then please remember to stay logged into your computer, keep it turned on and connected to the Internet - your files will be syncing in the background.

You can find more info on how to check the status of syncing and file uploads here. Furthermore, if you’re using an external hard drive to use the Dropbox desktop app, you can also have a look at this article for more info.

If the issue seems to persist and there is no progress at all, let me know and we’ll take it from there. In the mean time, have a lovely day ahead!

All comments

Hey there @skillbard.

If the issue seems to persist and there is no progress at all, let me know and we’ll take it from there. In the mean time, have a lovely day ahead!

skillbard

Hi Lusil,

It took a couple of days but, yes, it did evenually sync up. V strange but we're all okay again. Thanks for taking the time to respond!

Hi again @skillbard, glad to hear everything’s working! :laughing:

If you have any other questions in the future, you know where to find us. Have a great day ahead!

shlomofri

I have the same problem, it is on MAC OS Catalina, which is beta at this stage, but it is coming in a month, so wanted to give yuo a heads-on... its been syncing for a week now, all I have is 3.5 Gb.

Hey @shlomofri,

Yes, the OS you're running isn't currently a fully tested or supported environment for the desktop app and, while we support a variety of OSes, we are unable to support these versions until they are officially classified as stable.

Nonetheless, you can always contact our Support team for a more in-depth look using our internal tools.

If you have any other questions in the meantime, please don't hesitate to get back to us. Cheers!

embauba

I have the same issue. I run two different usernames and sync different files on each. I recently had to remove some files from DB because it never uploaded a large file for a job, on Profile 2; it cost me its publishing because of delay (4 full days to upload 1 Gb but also because of poor internet bandwith) so when back home with my usual fast internet, moved my files back to DB, I get 130K files which havent uploaded at all - not a single one - for over 10 days now. On the other hand, my other user (Profile 1) has DB updated just fine. How do I deal with this?

Thanks! Pedro from Rio, Brazil.

Hey @embauba, thanks for reaching out to us and sorry to hear about your experience.

Could you let me know what the Dropbox icon says when you hover over it, on the profile that you're having trouble with?

Let me know what you find, cheers!

I'm having the same issue. All my files are synced, but the app says it's syncing 5 files for weeks now. I'm pretty sure I don't have any filmes so large that could take so long to sync. Any new files added to the folder are synced normally.
I'm using a PC with Windows 10, with a 1Tb Seagate Barracuda HDD (Dropbox is installed in the secondary disk, )

Hey @henrycorps, thanks for joining us on this thread.

If you've made sure that you're running the latest version of the desktop app (111.4.472) by hovering over the Dropbox icon that's next to your computer's clock, could you try these steps?

Hi, there! Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I'm using the latest version.

Daphne

Hi there @henrycorps!

Could you just confirm if you had the chance to try out the steps Lusil linked above?

Hi, Daphne.

Yes, I did all the steps. Clicked on the "Fix Hardlinks" button, and after finished, tried to restart Dropbox.

Then I clicked on "Fix Permissions" button, and after finished, restarted the app, and nothing happened again.

Is there any way I can know which are the 5 files Dropbox is trying to sync forever?

Do any of your folders in your desktop app show a blue syncing icon with white spinning arrows on them?

If you do, then follow the path and see if you're able to find the files in question.

Nope, no blue, syncing icon

All the files and folders are either:
- checked green (green circle with white check)

- checked green (white circle with green check)

- cloud icon.

To be fair, under the message "Syncing 5 files", there is a blue progress line, which progress slowly day by day, giving the impression that there is a large download or uploading being made. But after a few days, it gets stucked, around 85%, 90% (it doesn't show the percentage, i'm just assuming, by the lenght of the bar.

Still, no way to find out what files are that, since all the foldes are marked checked or cloud.

Other crazy thing I just noticed today is that these icons (checked, cloud, etc) are constantly disappearing and appearing over and over, when I leave the Windows Explorer opened in the Dropbox folder. Like it's refreshing by itself, over and over. And sometimes it shows differend icons (like the shortcut arrow icon or the shared icon, or an X icon). Very crazy. :O

Hmm, could you temporarily close any third party security apps and antivirus to see if that changes anything?

Could you also make sure that you have configured your firewall to work with Dropbox?

I don't use any third party security app, just the Windows defaut app. For the sake of it, I closed other file syncing apps like Google Filestream and OneDrive, it's basically just dropbox running now, and still, stuck.

I also checked the Firewall, Dropbox was allowed, and I added DropboxUpdate now.

When I click in the arrow that shows the syncing cue, it shows a drawing of a dog, and it says it's looking for updates, to see if all my files are up to date, but stays in that screen forever.

Here's a printscreen of how dropbox looks (sorry it's in portuguese, but you probably know the equivalent text in English. Otherwise, I'll se if I can change the app language and print it again):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qhtaq5lxcjo8uax/dropbpx.jpg?dl=0

You can notice the blue bar at the bottom almost reaching the end, but it's just stuck there, in the same position, for many days. I didn't turn of my computer this week, just to make sure it's not just a big file.

Cheers!

In that case, you could also try unlinking and relinking your account through the app's preferences as this would force our desktop app to rebuild your whole database anew.

Let us know how it goes @henrycorps!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/951nkrw7ses1l8a/screenshot.jpg?dl=0

I was confident that would work, because it started to resync all the files, showing the number of files and filesize remaing.
But, after a few hours of resyncing everyting, the app still shows 5 files remaining, no estimate time or filesize... same same.

The only "difference" is the blue bar on the bottom, which seems completely filled now, instead of the "almost filled" it used to show.

I'm getting out of hope...

In that case, could you check if there are any pending updates for you computer and apply them @henrycorps?

While at it, could any of your files contain an incompatible character in their names?

I have essentially the same problem with my Dropbox application: there is 1 file that takes for ever synchronizing and this seems to considerably slow down my computer. Apparently, killing the Dropbox process (which is launched at startup) and restarting the application helps: the status is then "up to date" and, I hope, the slowness problem disappears. Is there a general fix to avoid this issue from happening?

Hey there @caloz; sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

Can you please let us know the exact version of our desktop app you're noticing this on?

Our most recent, stable version (118.4.460), for example, just got out yesterday.

v117.4.378...

I was not able to update the app from within it! How can this be done?

Now I did the manual update by clicking your link... Unfortunately, the problem is still there!

Sorry for the late reply @caloz; are you still having issues with this?

Yes, I do: "Syncing 1 file" for every!

Thanks for the update @caloz.

Can you try un-linking and re-linking your account through the app's preferences?

Maybe that will do the trick!

I tried: App => Access and Manage your Dropbox Settings => Preferences => Account => Sign Out => Message "Disable your backup before signing out"; I clicked the button "Disable backup". Nothing happened; I could not sign out...

If this persists after rebooting your computer, may I reach out via email to look further into this @caloz?

Certainly, my email address is [removed per the Community's Guidelines] . Thanks.