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Sync stuck ... and I don't know where

I have a big archive (about 80+GB and 60k files) imported to a Dropbox account, I understand that the initial sync won't be immediate but now appears stuck.

Chat support told me to check if there are any files with not allowed file names as described here https://help.dropbox.com/organize/file-names but with 60k files the manual check could last centuries.

And this raises 2 issues

- The first is that Dropbox UI don't show the file that raises the error (or I don't know if there are application logs), so that research is very difficult

- The other one is that the sync is stuck and is not proceeding, it could simply mark the file with illegal name with a "skip flag" and proceeds with others

This two issues are very bad since I cannot have my content synched on my other computer unless the first sync is completed.

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lucamosca1

Good news, reinstallation fix all the issues and I've been able to have all my content in sync in less than 4 hours.

Some hypotesys and suggestion (sorry, I worked as a software QA 😄 )

- Adding shared folder while the very first sync is running cause a loud mid-air collision and the client is basically blocked

- Reinstallation restored everything, maybe because the first sync hasn't been interrupted by other invasive tasks and the application was able to perform in order all action needed (indexing, download and upload at the same time)

- The emergency options in the "hidden" menu didn't solve my issue: since only reinstallation worked I suggest to add a button to trash every data used by application such as local database and restart from scratch, this can clean up everything and start a first sync without reinstalling.

Thanks

All comments

Hannah

Hey @lucamosca1, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Can you please let us know the exact sync status and version of the Dropbox app on your computer?

You can hover over the Dropbox icon in your system tray/menu bar, to see this info.

And also, if you click on the Dropbox icon, then on your initials/profile pic and then on "view sync issues", do you see anything reported there?

Keep me posted.

rmoscato

Hi Hannah, Luca here. I have to do assistance to my dad (owner of this big account, I posted from mine). Below the infor requested

It seems no sync issues, but the values in tooltip are basically not moving. Asking in chat, ticket #22227076, I was suggested to check if some filname with stragen chars is blocking the sync

Hannah

Thanks for the update and the ticket number, Luca.

Is the sync status not moving at all or is it moving, just really slowly?

Can you try the steps here (when applicable), to see if they help?

lucamosca1

Hello Hannah,

the sync is basically stuck. Since last message numbers has single-digit varaition. IMHO windows client is not able to correct handle all the stuff-to-do and varius processes are stealing computer resources each other (I'm working on a noteboot - i3-11th gen, with 8G of memory and ssd disk). I can try to reinstall dropbox application without touching the content of the folder.

Maybe first very big sync + shared folder added on the run raises this mess.

Isn't there any application log to send in order to troubleshhot this issue?

Thx

Hannah

Hey Luca, thanks for getting back to me!

In this case, can you also try the steps here, to see if they help?

rmoscato

Hi, things changed a little. Fix hardlinks did nothing but Fix permissions seems to give something. Numbers changes and now the amount of "indexing" in the tooltip almost skyrocketed (from more or less 2k to 29k), upload section is actually the same but downloads are(very) slowly increasing

I try to leave the pc on for some hours and see how is going. News soon

Luca

lucamosca1

Situation is still the same and numbers doesn't changed.

Just a moment to summarize the exact order of events since I have a little time. We decided to split our data between 2 dropbox plus account, idea was to copy the entire content to an other account and then establishing data connection with shared folder:

Environment: dropbox account with more or less 60k files and less than 100GB - Notebook i3 with 8G of memory and ssd disk

1 - uninstall dropbox from pc

2 - phisically delete the folder that will be shared with the other account

3 - install again dropbox, logging in with the new account but maintaining the same Dropbox folder

4 - while the long initial sync was starting, I ask to send me invitation for the shared folder

5 - accepted the shared folder during the initial sync

6 - after some files has been uploaded the sync seems to be blocked while dropbox application still use a lot of disk and memory

Now I decided that is the time for the "extrema ratio" so that I've uninstalled the application again and I reinstalled it using again the same dropbox folder. While I'm writing the application is just indexing files, numers are progressing.

Again, news soon

Megan

Thank you for the updates @lucamosca1!

I'll be waiting for your news in regards to this.

lucamosca1

Good news, reinstallation fix all the issues and I've been able to have all my content in sync in less than 4 hours.

Some hypotesys and suggestion (sorry, I worked as a software QA 😄 )

- Adding shared folder while the very first sync is running cause a loud mid-air collision and the client is basically blocked

Thanks