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Dropbox stopped syncing on Win11, but the app says there aren't any sync issues.

Hi,

About a week ago any file/folder I add on my PC (Windows 11) has stopped syncing, while the app says that I don't have any sync issues.

What's even stranger is that these new files and folders don't indicate Dropbox in the drop-down list when I right-click on them. So as far as Dropbox is concerned, they don't exist.

My Dropbox app does show a problem, saying "Updating 2 files" permanently.

Also, I was able to send a file from my iPad to a Dropbox folder, which also appears on my PC. This is a folder that I modified a few days ago by adding a new folder, moving some files to the new folder, and by creating a few new files. These changes on my PC do not update in Dropbox. The new files that I created in this folder don't show Dropbox in the drop-down list when I right-click them, but the new file sent from my iPad has Dropbox in the drop-down list. So it looks like the problem is with my PC, but I can't figure out what to do about it.

Can anyone help?

Thanks!

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silvia24

One more update, a happy one! I think that my syncing issue has been resolved. I've found some thread in Reddit that talks about offending files. According to one person, after these files are removed Dropbox will go ahead and sync. The problem is that it takes some detective work to find the offending file(s), since the files Dropbox is continually updating may not be the offending files, as it turns out.

I tried to follow the instructions in the thread about how to indentify such files in Task Manager but didn't succeed with it. Then I've decided to look through some folders on my PC that I modified recently, and found one folder with hundreds of files which was indicated with a red instead of the usual green circle, and indeed this entire folder did not have Dropbox in the drop-down list when right-clicking on it. I bulk downloaded from the internet the hundreds of files in this folder about 10 days ago, so I deleted all of them and repeated the bulk download. I was asked repeatedly if I trust the source, since these files could be harmful to my computer - this may have something to do with the Dropbox syncing issue, I'm not sure. Anyhow, for now this folder with tons of files (and sub-folders) has a green circle, Dropbox appears in the drop-down list when I right-click on it or on any file or folder within it, and my desktop app says "up to date" instead of trying to download some file(s) perpetually.

So, for now my issue has been resolved. I hope that this might be helpful for others with similar syncing issues.

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malutjie

EXACT same issue, driving me nuts.

And I can't even download or open documents on either.

Help!

Have reinstalled about 7 times - same issue every time.

silvia24

Hi Malutjie,

My desktop app now says that it is indexing 1260 files, uploading 18 files, downloading 2 files. This is new, but I don't dare to hope that this will resolve the issue...

My desktop app is version 217.4.4417, apparently it's a recent update. What is yours?

Could this be the issue?

Silvia

Mark

silvia24 wrote:
downloading 2 files.

Sounds like its stuck on 2 files which means nothing else sync's and its stuck in the queue. Have you tried rebooting? Can you see what these files are - are any applications open for example? If so try closing them?

silvia24

Hi Mark,

Thanks so much for trying to help but it's none of these issues. I can see one file which is a pdf that I've actually sent from my iPad to Dropbox, and it is not showing up in the local folder on my PC. It is, however, in my Dropbox folder online. But this same folder has been updated on my PC, and those updates are missing from the online Dropbox. I cannot see what the other file is, but the first file is the one that is being continuously synced, or is "next" for syncing. None of the applications are open, and of course I restarted my PC many times.

Oddly enough, another folder that I updated on my PC after the previous folder that is not updated from my PC to the online depository, has now synced in the meantime. But it took almost a day. Anyhow, I guess this means that the two stuck files didn't hold up further updates, or at least not permanently. Now I'm testing whether further changes on my PC that I'm making now are updating.

Also, the indexing of thousands of files has stopped now, and I'm back to the two files that the desktop app says Dropbox is downloading.

Thanks,

Silvia

silvia24

Just to follow up, new updates on my PC are not syncing. The desktop app is now working on "updating" a different file, not the one that it was stuck on previously (I don't know why this file, I have not touched this in a while). And the app still says that I don't have any sync issues. Back to square one...

silvia24

So, for now my issue has been resolved. I hope that this might be helpful for others with similar syncing issues.