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Slow Upload Speeds

I am experiencing very slow upload speeds even though I have recently upgraded by internet connection (100mbs down and 40mbs up). I am a videographer who needs to upload gigabytes worth of footage online after every shoot and dropbox isn't even coming close to saturating my provided internet speed. Below is a list of what I have tried to no avail. Bear in mind that I do not have these upload speed issues with Google drive.

- Restarted system and dropbox app multiple times

- Disconnected and reconnected internet connection (both wifi and physical ethernet cable)

- Uninstalled and reinstalled dropbox app on Windows 10

- Tried uploading directly to dropbox via website

- Tried uploading in different browsers, private tabs and different computers with no success

- Clearing both dropbox app cache and browser cache

- Tried adjusting bandwith settings in desktop app

- Tried restarting router

I haven't had issues with dropbox upload speeds up until the past few weeks so something has clearly changed on Dropbox's side and not sure what is going on.

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Comments

Hannah

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

Generally, syncing is a more complicated process than just transferring data.

Each file is divided and compressed into hashed components, transferred via secure data transfer, and then encrypted and stored on our servers.

It also depends on how fast your computer can process and compress the files, etc.

Have you just recently started facing this issue?

And is it possible that you might have more than 300K files in your Dropbox folder?

Keep me posted.

RogueXLR

Yes I do have just over 300k files in my dropbox account and have only started encoutering this issue recently

Nancy

Hi from me as well, @RogueXLR!

Please keep in mind that the Dropbox app’s performance may decline if it tries to sync more than 300k files.

What I’d like you to try, in case you have any large folders you don’t need to be synced locally, is to use selective sync and remove them from the desktop app, so that they only appear on www.dropbox.com.

Let me know if this seems to help.

RogueXLR

@Nancy

Ok I have just removed some files that way the total is under 300k and upload speed is now up to my max plan speed. I still don't understand how if there are more than 300k files and if nothing has changed on say 250k of them, why it drastically slows down the upload speed. I get that it has to check every file one by one but making it slow down upload speed is odd.

Nancy

I’m glad to hear this seems to have solved the issue, @RogueXLR!

If you’d like to check more info on this, please take a look at this Help Center article, as well.

Hope this helps.

RogueXLR

Hello I am back with experiencing more slow upload speeds despite the total file count being below 300k. My upload caps out between 5-10Mbps compared to the usual 40Mbps based on my plan speed. I have even gone to the lengths of completely uninstalling and reinstalling the desktop app and even tried uploading directly to the website and still have the same slow upload speed. I don't know what is going on and why this has changed suddenly in the past 6 months.

Jay

Hi @RogueXLR, if you're experiencing this issue on the Dropbox desktop application and the website, then it sounds like a proxy, VPN, firewall, security software, or even ISP/router settings could be restricting traffic to the following Dropbox domains.

James M.58

Hi There,

Are you based in Australia? I'm having similar issues with Dropbox due to the fact that Dropbox stores Australian user's data in Singapore. There is quite a bit of international upload congestion right now so uploads are typically less than 10mbps or 1/4 of my upload bandwidth as I have a similar plan to you (100/40).

I noticed this https://help.dropbox.com/security/physical-location-data-storage but it doesn't apply to professional plans.

Until Dropbox fixes the issue there is always Google drive or One Drive. I've found both have much better performance for Australian users.

James M.58

I had a look at your Dropbox domains article and noticed that some of your au domains e.g. dl-web-au.dropbox.com actually resolve to Singaporean servers. This would explain my problem and possibly the original poster's issues (assuming they are the same as mine).

Is this a policy change by Dropbox or a technical error? Please fix it ASAP. It would be a shame to leave Dropbox a year before my 10th anniversary as a paying customer.

Megan

Hi @James M.58, I hope you're doing well!

Would you be able to share with us the info you located in regards to the servers?

If I were you, I'd try restarting the router, just to see if you can get a different connection. Also, have you adjusted the app's bandwidth settings to "not limit"?

Keep us posted!

James M.58

Hi @Megan,

Here are a few screenshots. A short summary is my Dropbox is running at around 5-9mbps and google drive is doing more like 40mbps. My investigations reveal Dropbox is sending my data to Singapore instead of Australia. There is no speed limit on Dropbox.

Below you can see I'm getting 7.2 mbps on Dropbox and as you can see there is very little network activity other than the Tray Assistant.

Screenshot 2023-06-16 08.43.16.png

For comparisons, I added some data to google drive and was getting 40.7 Mbps up

Screenshot 2023-06-16 08.53.13.png

As you can see

Screenshot 2023-06-16 08.42.14.png

As you can see from above my data is being synced with a server with an address of 162.125.81.12 and a tracert shows that the server is located in Singapore:

C:\Users\me>tracert 162.125.81.12

Tracing route to 162.125.81.12 over a maximum of 30 hops

  1     1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  RT-AX86U-CC18 [192.168.0.1]
  2    11 ms    13 ms    14 ms  #my IP address#
  3     *       10 ms     *     10.241.5.130
  4    98 ms    98 ms    98 ms  be3.core1.equinix-sg1.sin.aussiebb.net [180.150.2.85]
  5   114 ms    98 ms    98 ms  19679.sgw.equinix.com [27.111.229.7]
  6    97 ms    97 ms    99 ms  ae1-sin1-ea01.net.dropbox.com [162.125.86.141]
  7    99 ms    96 ms    97 ms  162.125.81.12

Trace complete.

Megan

Hey @James M.58, thanks for all the detailed info!

Could you also send me a screenshot of your Speedtest results?

What sync speed do you usually see via the app, and how long does it take to upload a file via the web with the same size of the file?

James M.58

Thanks for all the questions but could you please answer my original question? Is there any option to move Australian users' data to Australia? I feel like Australian users are not getting value for money by being forced to overseas servers. It would appear this is the reason for their poor performance and you are ignoring it.

Sync speeds according to the tray icon are in keeping with the earlier screenshot (400-900 kB/s bytes vs bits of course).

Uploads via the web are just as slow. As you can see from the Google Drive results my connection speed is fine.

Uploads via the web or app are about 4x slower than via google drive.

@RogueXLR where are you based how is your problem going?

Screenshot 2023-06-17 10.28.08.png

James M.58

Just a heads up. This really needs to be fixed. If I was depending on Dropbox I would have missed a deadline tonight. Luckily Google Drive is working well with Australian servers.

Sam DBX

Hi all,

Thanks for the input.

To clarify, our storage servers are located in data centers across the United States.

We have storage servers in Australia, the European Union, Japan, and the United Kingdom for eligible Dropbox business users.

If your team's data is kept in the US but your billing address is somewhere else, you might be able to transfer your data to a server closer to your billing location. Here are the instructions: https://help.dropbox.com/security/physical-location-data-storage

Regarding the upload speed, you've mentioned you actioned on this step, but leaving here as future reference as well: to set Dropbox to the maximum amount of bandwidth that’s possible, and potentially increase the speed of the Dropbox desktop app, choose Don’t limit on Dropbox desktop app preferences.

Ps: If you're still unsure about your storage location and speed limits, we can take this on with our support team to check this for you.

Thanks!

James M.58

Sadly, I do not meet the requirements to move my data. I'm on a professional plan as and don't have at least 10 licences. Can you please escalate this issue?

Nancy

Hi @James M.58! Unfortunately, if you’re not on a Business plan, it’s not possible to migrate your data over to our Australian servers.

However, we can log a ticket for you and look into your speed issue. Let us know if that’s OK, and we can message you to the email address that’s tied to your Community profile here.

James M.58

A support ticket won't improve the upload speed between Australia and Singapore.

I'm asking you to move all Australian user's data to Australia. It's a shame this won't happen given you've already provisioned servers for some Australian users. I've been a client for over 10 years but now I'm leaving. I'll also recommend other Australian users leave too.

James M.58

Just a heads-up to Australian users on professional plans who are experiencing slow speeds. Your data is located in Singapore is so you'll never get the same performance with Dropbox as you do with One Drive or Google Drive as their servers are in Australia.

Hannah

Sorry to hear that you feel that way, @James M.58.

We'll make sure to pass your feedback onto the team and if you change your mind, let us know and we'll be happy to help.