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New MacOS Ventura install on 8TB SSD, files show but do not open and syncing is slow

rs1970

Hello,

I just installed Dropbox on a brand-new Mac Mini M2 with 8Tb internal SSD. Dropbox for Business files are currently 2.3 TB.

Dropbox has been syncing very slowly. Some files show the green checkmark but also a cloud with a downward arrow. Other files have a cloud with a question mark and no check mark. See this screenshot: https://capture.dropbox.com/SycoaW2ogsekNMVb

What is going on? Using the latest beta, which no longer seems to show the sync transfer rate or what files are being synced.

I have ample space in the /Users/reda/Library/CloudStorage/ folder and fiber 300MB symmetric bandwidth.

Device: Mac Mini M2 Ventura 13.2.1

14 hours later and no reply from Dropbox support, so I'm trying the forum. None of the files are opening on the new Mac's Dropbox. Is this a known bug? Is there a workaround?

I know that it takes 2-3 days to fully sync. Dropbox is indeed shown as Syncing, but seems to be *not happening at all* or *dead slow* (7-17Kb/s). This is not shown in the Dropbox interface, but I'm using iStat Menus to measure bandwidth.

We depend heavily on Dropbox for publicly-shared links, but I am starting to look for an alternative that we could migrate to.

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Jay

Hi @rs1970, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Could you check the bandwidth settings for the Dropbox desktop application to ensure that there isn't a limit on them?

Do you have any proxy, VPN, firewall, security software, or even ISP/router settings that could be restricting traffic to the following Dropbox domains?

This will help me to assist further!

rs1970

Thanks @Jay for offering to assist.

Bandwidth is unlimited. No firewall, throttle, or security software or other ISP restrictions.

Hannah

Hey @rs1970, do you happen to have more than 300K files in your Dropbox folder?

The application's performance will decline after this soft limit, so you might want to try using selective sync, to reduce the number of files and see if that helps.

rs1970

Yes @Hannah I have >500K files. From re-installing Dropbox in the past, I know that it typically takes a couple of days for everything to sync.

However, I’m disappointed that un synced files cannot be identified. They appear to be stored locally, with a green check mark and correct file size shown, and opening them opens the relevant application. However, the file itself never actually opens. This is true even for tiny files, so it cannot be due to a file taking time to download.

This is the problem I am struggling with - as I try to open files that I actually need to work on, I cannot do so.

Megan

Hi @rs1970, you mentioned that you're already in contact with our Support team.

Could you send me the ticket number reference, in order for me to locate it on our system?

rs1970

@Megan 21682927

Megan

Hi @rs1970, thanks for this, I appreciate it!

I was able to locate your ticket number in the system, and passed the comments to the agent working on your case. Have you tried out the steps he provided?

rs1970

@Megan No, I am keeping the beta because I'm afraid that downgrading to the stable version will restart the entire syncing process.

Syncing of 2.3TB has been ongoing since Friday, ie almost five full days and still not done.

There is one other MacOS-specific problem I do not understand: files in the Dropbox seem to have a second set of Apple Cloudsync icons, alongside the Dropbox ones. These are little grey clouds, as shown here:

20230315.090753.Finder.Dropbox.png

Clicking on them seems to trigger some kind of syncing.

For some reason, Dropbox is now an app that uses iCloud Drive. Does that mean that my Dropbox content is also being synced to iCloud? Or is Dropbox using this to store settings across devices?

Here is what is shown in iCloud Drive settings:

20230315.091020.System Settings..png

Megan

Hi @rs1970, I definitely see where you're coming from, however files won't have to re-sync if you choose to switch to the stable version of the Dropbox desktop application.

Regarding your question about iCloud, the other sync icons you see are indeed linked to it. But keep in mind that if you choose two cloud services to sync your files that may cause conflicts.

rs1970

@Megan I made no deliberate choice when I installed my new Mac Mini Pro M2, only migrated my user account from another machine using Apple's tools and re-installed Dropbox. iCloud Drive was turned on *by default* for Dropbox. I've now turned it off, but is this documented/known behavior? Is it considered a bug by Dropbox and/or Apple?

This painful experience confirms that Dropbox is underinvesting in the MacOS platform: not keeping up with MacOS-level security changes, being super late in migrating to Apple Silicon, leaving unresolved long-time issues like slow sync when restoring a Dropbox, etc.

In the mean time, Dropbox seems to be obsessed on upselling me new products that I did not ask for and do not need, such as e-signatures, etc.

If there was a simple way to migrate to another file syncing app, I would do it for our entire office. But it also seems that Google Drive has problems and Microsoft One Drive is… well… Microsoft.

rs1970

@Megan Just dropped out of beta. Dropbox icon is greyed out with "Starting…" message in Dropbox menu bar interface.

20230316.130008.Mail.Searching “All Inboxes” 2.png

Jay

Hi @rs1970, could you try rebooting your machine to see if this helps?

rs1970

Updated on 21 June 2023:

Rebooting did not help.

It took about 2 weeks for everything to sync.

As of today, the iCloud sync icons show up on some files and folders, but not others. It still feels like some files are syncing twice: once on Dropbox, another time on iCloud, but that's conjecture as there are no tools that I know of to see what iCloud is actually doing, and I have no idea which logs to look at or how to interpret them.

Now on version 176.4.5108.

Still looking for alternative to Dropbox.

Two other Macs that have the full offline Dropbox files stored on external SSDs are still working with external file storage.