Child Item

Syncing is interrupted. But why?

jdr2

Receive "Syncing Is Interrupted" error message. Took the following actions to resolve:

1. Disabled firewall

2. Disabled antivirus

3. Made the Windows user an admin

4. Disabled OneDrive

5. Ran Check Disk on Windows

Can't think of any other solutions. Please help.

Find more posts tagged with

Desktop

Error Messages

Insightful

AcceptAnswer

Accepted answers

ElChoko

That didn't work for me yesterday...

I have solved it syncing every big folder one by one, instead of all at the same time. A process which took me about 4 hours but in the end it worked.
With some of the folders, the Syncing being interrupted happened, and I solved it pausing the syncing, and then activating it again a few times (3 or 4). Not a very good solution, but effective in the end.

All comments

Megan

Hey @jdr2, let's see what we can find together on this!

First of all, you took some amazing troubleshooting steps on your end!

Can you also try signing out of the app, re-starting your device, and then singing back in to see if that changes things?

Keep me posted!

owaiskhan

Dear Supporters,

I am facing an issue of not syncing with other devices. the error show is "Unable to sync while file in this folder is in use. Close the file to resume syncing" while no file is opened in any system. i have two devices, one is my laptop and other one is my PC.

Please help in this regard.

Thank You

Mark

Hi @owaiskhan

Something on the device throwing that error up is accessing the file - what other services do you have running? What type of file is it (i.e. is it a Music file that say iTunes is trying to control). Could it be a backup programme or Antivirus tool doing a check?

jesus-angeles-from-singapore

i have the same issue. signed off, restarted mac, still the same

jesus-angeles-from-singapore

I logged in via browser and I see below. It is therefore not about my storage getting full.

Using 1.32 TB of 2 TB storage

Mark

What version of Dropbox @jesus-angeles-from-singapore ?

Are you able to try a different network at all maybe via mobile tethering just to check its not your ISP blocking things?

jesus-angeles-from-singapore

Screenshot 2024-04-07 at 12.21.04 PM.png

jesus-angeles-from-singapore

I saw a 'Sync Issues' option. When I clicked it I see the list in the pic attached. It is saying like 'close the file...'. I dont think it is open. No software is using it.

Megan

Hey @jesus-angeles-from-singapore, one last thing to check, are you running any antivirus, firewall, VPN or proxy that could be causing issues?

Can you also check the name and path of the file, to make sure it doesn't have any invalid characters, or doesn't use more than 260 characters? You can see more about this here.

Feel free to also take a look at this Help Center article, and let me know if you have any questions.

ElChoko

The same issue here. No way to fix it.

jesus-angeles-from-singapore

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. Attached here is a pic. In the same exact folder, and whole filename are of exact length (and not invalid characters), as you can see, some are synced, some are not. So this does not qualify to a file or filename issue on my side.

I do not have any firewalls.

This seems an issue that dropbox itself can diagnose, instead of asking customers random questions. Dropbox can put logs and send back to your server for your own debugging. That will be more accurate for finding the issue in this case. Screenshot 2024-04-08 at 6.41.07 PM.png

Walter

Hi all, sorry to jump in here, but for anyone who's still affected by this, could you let us know approximately how many files you're syncing on the affected device and if you've ensured you have enough hard drive space?

Also, have you tried the 'view sync issues' option from the app?

jesus-angeles-from-singapore

Before I reply to your answer, I will add an information.

Whereas the file stuck is only 3kb, I added a new file now in my local with a size of 70mb and it was synched successfully with no issue; while the 3kb still remain stuck There seems something on specific files, and only your Dropbox app would know why. It is better to improve you app to diagnose and report issues, instead of generic messages that is the reason all of us are here. Asking the customer to diagnose so many possible things seem so not user-friendly.

========

Why is the number of files we are synching relevant? Does dropbox have a limit on the number of files to synch? Please let us know as this is a ridiculous limit, if any.

For hard drive space, I still have 300 gb free and it is stuck on a 3kb file.

"333.01 GB available of 2 TB"

In case you havent read the messages here, I did try the View Sync Issues, and just like another guy in this thread, I see the same message which is like 'the file is open'. How can the file be open, no software is using it. Please try diagnose this using dropbox app because only the app knows why it is giving such behavior.

owaiskhan

Facing the same issue for several days and there is no way to fix it. I have checked every file in the taskbar if the files are running or not. I closed all the files except the Windows files but nothing happened. i restarted my PC but no change. Initially, there were only 3 errors but after doing this activity, the number of errors increased to 7.

ElChoko

I am just syncing in the "online only" mode. It's not a matter of hard disk space. It is a bug of the software. I am using MacOS.

"Sync issues" make no sense and the number always remains in 120.

ElChoko

Screenshot 2024-04-08 at 20.51.31.png

Hannah

Hey all, we really appreciate your input in this.

Can you also take a look at the number of files you're currently trying to sync?

The Dropbox app has a (soft) limit of 300K files, so exceeding that number will cause the app's performance to decline.

If you're over this limit, can you remove some folders from the Dropbox folder using selective sync, to see if that helps?

SDRSF123

I am beyond perplexed and exhausted, I have spent my entire day trying to force DropBox to finish syncing with my new macbook. It partially synced, there are several hundred thousand files that appear to have been synced, but I cannot force it to finish the job. It has been stuck for five hours on 'syncing is interrupted' and I have no solution. It has been indexing files on and off during that entire time without any progress. I have:

Updated my OS to the most current version.
Quit the desktop application multiple times and restarted my computer multiple times.

I don't really know what else to do because the application doesn't give you many options to manipulate the application.

Nancy

@SDRSF123, I’ve merged your post here, as it’s similar to the issue discussed in this thread.

Can you please check Hannah’s post above, and let me know what’s the file count that your Dropbox app is syncing? Is it possible it’s more than 300k files, which could potentially cause a syncing issue?

owaiskhan

Here are my suggestions for you. I had the same issue and I resolved it personally because the dropbox team was unable to give any solution. They were just asking to do many things related to firewall, hidden running apps etc.

Logout dropbox from PC, remove dropbox from and reinstall.

Logout dropbox from computer/laptop also from which are syncing.

Relogin in all devices and issue will be resolved automatically.

Thank You.

ElChoko

DanijelD

Our organization also seems to have this issue now. We have everything setup up for online only and marked the team folders that automatically need to sync. This always worked prefect, until now.

Today i've setup a new mac and now I also got sync interrupted. Never seen this error before? So, it seems Dropbox has made some changes with big folders syncs. But this is a big issue for teams like ours.

Walter

Hey @DanijelD - sorry to hear about this.

Did you try any of the mentioned troubleshooting steps or maybe got in contact with our support team for assistance?

jesus-angeles-from-singapore

Im tired of all these. If the customer service officers just ask us to do things here and there, and be quiet with this suggestion of reinstalling etc., instead of escalating to their i.t. team, i would consider leaving already. Ill come back after a month on this thread and see where this went; at this rate, this will give pain for the customers, and no fix will be offered in the dropbox app.

DanijelD

@Walter Not sure what they can do, as it seems Dropbox changed something in the sync behavior for big folders / Team Folders? People are getting all of the sudden a new error message, which we haven't seen before? @ElChoko your sollution also worked for our team folder; but this is not a feasible option for large teams with big team folders.

So it would be great if Dropbox staff could explain what changed in the last week?

Walter

I see where you're coming from and I understand this is far from optimal, but you can also reach out to our support team directly for further assistance on this, since the issue seems to be resolved from some users @jesus-angeles-from-singapore

As for you @DanijelD, did you try the 'view sync issues' from the app to see if there's anything listed there?

glassfull

Also having this issue.

Signed out, uninstalled, reinstalled, still the same issue. Another Fup by DB...

andyincolorado

Walter, I am getting the same on a new MacBookPro install. I have a 4Tb DB account and set almosrt every folder to online-only and a handful of folders to offline. When I go to sync problems it shows a bunch of files and claims some of them were in use... THEY WERE NOT. No actions or reccomediations for fixing the issue. I NEED to get this synced.

andyincolorado

online-only sycing, 3.2 Tb. offline about 400Gb

amalajaya

Hi y’all! I had the same "syncing is interrupted" and “file in use” issue after rebuilding my iMac. The solution (for me) was to give Dropbox full disc access in System Settings. Hope that helps!