Child Item

Dropbox folder in File Explorer in Windows 11 is painfully slow

I recently 'upgraded' to Windows 11 and the new File Explorer is now painfully slow when navigating the Dropbox folder. Simply navigating the hierarchy takes seconds and the Windows busy ring appears twice for each click.

I have tried:

- reinstalling Dropbox (currently 139.3.4798)

- enabling Smart Sync (this will likely save me disk space but seems not to affect performance)

- uninstalling any other software that interacts with the Windows context menu (WinZip etc)

- restoring the Windows 10 File Explorer (which changed the GUI) but not the speed

- running Windows File explorer full screen (F11) a common recommendation that does not improve performance

I am running Win 11 Pro on a decent enough 8th gen Core i7 with 16GB RAM that coped just fine under Windows 10, I have 346443 files on my DB. the issue is limited to the Dropbox folder which is why I'm here and not on the MS forum.

Any help gratefully received!

Find more posts tagged with

Desktop

Windows

Create

Insightful

Delivered

Accepted answers

All comments

prestacycle

I'm gad you connected with one user in private and hopefully solved it with him.

Did you find the solution for the rest of us?

My Details:

Sync:

Save hard drive space - OFF

Many selected folders

Folder location: C:\Users\david\Dropbox

Proxies:

Auto Detect

Bandwidth:

Don't Limit for both Up and Down

Enable LAN Sync: checked

Backups:

This PC - Not setup

External Drive Backup - unchecked

Devices (four listed) - all: Don't Import

Screenshots - unchecked

Account:

73.6% of 2.0TB used

General:

Start Dropbox on system startup - checked

Microsoft Office add-in - checked

Dropbox badge - always show

Language - System Language

Dropbox Version - v148.4.4519

Windows 11 Pro, latest updates as-of 5/13/2022

12th Generation Intel i7 CPU

Samsung SSD 980 PRO 2TB

32GB RAM

UserBenchmark:

Overall this PC is performing as expected (57th percentile). This means that out of 100 PCs with exactly the same components, 43 performed better. The overall PC percentile is the average of each of its individual components.

With an outstanding single core score, this CPU is the cat's whiskers: It demolishes everyday tasks such as web browsing, office apps and audio/video playback. Additionally this processor can handle intensive workstation, and even full-fledged server workloads. Finally, with a gaming score of 113%, this CPU's suitability for 3D gaming is outstanding.

91.7% is a very good 3D score, it's the business. This GPU can handle recent 3D games at high resolutions and ultra detail levels.
411% is an exceptional SSD score. This drive is suitable for heavy workstation use, it will facilitate fast boots, responsive applications and allow for fast transfers of multi-gigabyte files.

32GB is enough RAM to run any version of Windows and it's far more than any current game requires. 32GB will also allow for large file and system caches, virtual machine hosting, software development, video editing and batch multimedia processing.

Jay

Hi @prestacycle, I'd recommend getting in contact with the support team directly for further assistance.

Once you get a ticket ID from the automated response, please let me know the number here so I can locate it in our system.

liffeyd

Hi @prestacycle,

Unfortunately, I have no solution.I was told there is something on my machine that is causing the problem. So far I have not discovered what that might be 😞

Other cloud solutions work fine; Google, Microsoft, Apple. DropBox is the only one with a problem. I might just move away from DropBox to one that works.

dylanroscover

For anyone having a similar issue (slowdowns in Windows Explorer) and storing large numbers of files in Dropbox (1M+), I found that disabling Windows Search Indexing (or removing the Dropbox folder from it) sped up my computer significantly, aside from every few days when Dropbox does some sort of automatic "re-indexing" which takes awhile (v154.3.5344). To do so:

Click on the Start button
Type "indexing options"
Enter the Indexing Options panel, and see how many items are indexed. If it's in the millions, it might be Dropbox
Remove your Dropbox folder from the Included Locations list via the Modify button
Apply the changes and wait for the "x items indexed" to update
Restart your computer/Dropbox

As someone who stores over 2.6 million files on their Dropbox account, I am undoubtedly an edge case scenario... but I have a hunch that Windows search index wasn't designed to work with Dropbox with so many files at once. Hope this helps.

Dr_Data

Painfully slow for me just in the dropbox file structure. If I uninstall the dropbox client its snappy as a cobra again (should be since its an ssd). If I then reinstall dropbox client again the problem is back...

Must be something with the dropbox client.

deity

Hi dylanroscover, thanks for sharing with us your solutions.

after applying what you suggested, I can see the number of items indexed starts dropping significantly from 600k+ items to appx 412k. will restart and see how it goes.

regardless it works or not, thanks for sharing in advance.

PJFLEROUX

Hello all,

I just upgrade from Windows 11 to Windows 11 Pro and the same issue happen.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling dropbox and dylanroscover solution but it did not work.

By any chance is their some other fix that I could try?

Thank you

deity

Sadly we are all still suffering just like everytime there is a ‘new’ windows system

liffeyd

I don't know what changed. Either a DropBox update or a Windows update but all is good now; DropBox is fast now in File Explorer 🙂

PJFLEROUX

Hello all,

For information after removing iCloud from my computer dropbox seem to work properly again.

JR76

Thank you for this! Removing iCloud for Windows resolved the issue for me.

imaginaestudio

Removing iCloud App worked for me

Bruno MC

I have the same issue but I have not ICloud installed on my computer (not in my service for example).

I have found some threads that explain how to remove the dropbox icon displayed in the explorer and then I have better performances, but the icon come back after some days (even with permissions unset in the registry !).

I'm about to change to another provider to be able to work on my directories, but I would prefer to solve this issue. So if someone has any clue, I'm interessting !

My bandwith is high, so no network issues. And yes, just working in a "non dropbox" directory is fine.

Using commands in CMD works well also, it's really Windows Explorer that is not fine.

Walter

Hey @Bruno MC, sorry to hear about this.

Could you clarify the OS version of your computer and the version and status of the Dropbox desktop app installed there as well?

Also, approximately how many files are you syncing locally to your computer?

Do you happen to be running any other 3rd party apps that could be causing issues, like antivirus programs, backup or cloud services etc.?

Bruno MC

Hi Walter.

My OS is Windows 11, Dropbox application is v184.4.6543

I have Windows Defender installed and I do no use any cloud app (like ICloud or One Drive). One Drive is installed but for many years already.

I have about 250 000 files sync (and more offline)

The issue is only with the Windows File Explorer, not with a tool like XYExplorer, nor with CMD commands.

The issue is only when Dropbox is running.

So probably there are some hooks, directory change notifications or something else that take a lot of CPU when I just create a directory (2s !).

Megan

Hi @Bruno MC, could you try to right click on your Dropbox folder, and send me a screenshot, please?

Bruno MC

This way (sorry, I'm french so my menu is in french also 😅 ) ?

And this screenshot if it can helps :

Indexation could also been an issue with too much files ?

Thanks !

Walter

Hey @Bruno MC, are those screenshots the info you get when you right click on your Dropbox folder?

Have you tried using selective sync to lessen the desktop app's load by un-syncing some folders from your computer perhaps?

Bruno MC

Hi. Yes and yes. I have only one third of my files on my desktop, the remaining is not synchronized.

Furthermore, these slow-downs are clearly an issue between dropbox and Windows file explorer. If Dropbox is shutdown, there is no more slow-down. More I rename and add/move files, more the slow-downs are long, sometimes crashing File Explorer. I'm also pretty sure that it's far slower if I have more than one file explorer opened. But as soon as I used another tool than File Explorer to rename or add files, there is no slow-down anymore.

Jay

Hi @Bruno MC, thanks for the info, I'd recommend getting in contact with the support team directly for further assistance.

Once you get a ticket ID from the automated response, please let me know the number here so I can locate it in our system.

offpistesau

Hi Jay

i have exact the same problems on Win 10 machine. It occured couple of month ago for the first time. The browsing speed is somewhat ok but when adding new files or renaming files, the response is very tedious....

Cheers Peter

Nancy

Hey @offpistesau, sorry for jumping in here.

Does the issue persist even if you quit the Dropbox app?

If not, what's the app version of your Dropbox app?

Did the issue occur after a specific update?

leao

Hi,
after the migration to a new pc, and reinstaling dropbox desktop app and downloading the files the explorer opens the files ok. After restarting the PC, the explorer opens the files very slow and it seems he is downloading the files one more time online.

After deinstallion the desktop app the file explorer opens regularly , so the files are on the harddisk.
Any ideas?

Nancy

Hi @leao! I can see you’ve also posted in our German-speaking section, so I’d suggest waiting for our team’s reply there. They’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks!

ray5640

I want to fix it.... I am suffering the same issue.

Jay

Hi @ray5640, what steps have you performed so far to resolve this behavior on your device?

ray5640

@Jay

I updated to the latest version of Dropbox, which is listed below.

Hardware

CPU 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1240P 1.70 GHz
RAM 16.0 GB (15.7 GB usable)

Windows

Windows 10 Pro
Version 22H2
OS build 19045.3930

Dropbox

192.4.4605

This is my PC's spec and Dropbox version.

I don't have iCloud in my computer.

Thank you.