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I'm trying to back up 100GB of files to Dropbox, but it's super slow.

Hi there, I just started using Dropbox to backup 100 Gb of an external drive on the Cloud plus a few Gb from the system drive. I'm on Macbook & Sonoma 14.7.2 + Dropbox Desktop App.

I've noticed that sometime the uploading process is not moving...or super slow for like hours, an entire night. Then suddenly in 2 hours it uploads 20% of the whole folder. Then again...super slow progress or no progress for hours, even if it indicates that is syncing.

My connection is good, I'm also uploading parallel backups on Google Drive without problems. I tried stopping and resuming the sync without any significant effect.

Since I'm going to use Dropbox mainly to backup, I need to know if this is a standard behaviour, a kinda limitation on the bandwidth or if not, cause when you have to upload some big amount of data, wasting one night of upload with no progress at all it's not cool.

Thanks

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Nancy

Hey @stereosides! Thanks for posting on our forum and welcome aboard.

If you’re backing up files to a third-party app at the same time, then this may also affect the time needed to sync/back up your files to Dropbox. In general, please keep in mind that each file you upload/sync to Dropbox is divided and compressed into hashed components, transferred via secure data transfer, and then encrypted and stored on our servers.

During an upload, the transfer speeds are also dependent upon how quickly your computer can process and compress the components of the files to make them available for upload.

When saying you stopped syncing, restarted and you didn’t see any real improvement, do you mean that you paused Dropbox’s syncing for a bit or that you stopped backing up files to Google Drive, while the Dropbox app was running?

Have you tried adjusting the Dropbox app bandwidth based on the steps provided in this Help Center article?

Let me know if you need further help after this.

stereosides

My bandwidth speed is set to Auto. When the sync is working the speed is absolutely fine.

No conflict with Google Drive cause I use it on another computer. At the beginning of the backup process it took hours just to start the upload, but I though it was calculating and preparing the backup.

What I don't understand is why sometimes, in the middle of the sync, first it goes fast and then suddenly the uploading progress is zero or so slow that after many hours it has barely uploaded a few megabyte.

Like, for example, right now: I updated the external drive with 10 more Gb of data, I started the Sync with dropbox and it just uploaded the first 2-3 Gb of data pretty fast but now is kind of stucked and it will probably take many hours to get close to the end of the upload.

Nancy

Are there any other apps running in the background at the moment?

If you check the current syncing status of the Dropbox app, what does it report?

stereosides

The only apps I usually keep open are Whatsapp Desktop and Chrome, OneNote occasionally.

It was stucked at 100 Gb from yesterday...a few minutes ago it started progressing again. The App is always reporting "updating....number of files"

Looks like something is triggering the progress of uploading but I don't know what.

Jay

Hi @stereosides, could you try quitting all other open apps on your machine, and just in case, any other devices on your home network if there are any other machines also using bandwidth on your network.

stereosides

I quit Whatsapp and OneNote and before I tried anything else I've noticed that the upload progress was fast again. Can't guarantee 100% the two things are related cause I checked Dropbox only after I closed these apps, so maybe it was running good a few minutes before. But it finished the backup pretty fast.

I will try againwith next backup. Can Whatsapp or the sync of OneNote interfere with Dropbox in this way?

Thanks in advance

Jay

In general, any app that communicates constantly with the internet could affect bandwidth being used by Dropbox to upload or sync files.

OneDrive as a cloud provider could affect Dropbox in this way, and WhatsApp does perform backups occasionally, so temporarily disabling them would be a good way to test this out.

You could also check on your machine using some system tools to see if any other app is using up internet bandwidth in the background too.

stereosides

I can confirm, after trying with a new upload, that even with Whatsapp and One Note closed, Dropbox was still stucked into the upload with no progress.

At the same time, now that I've opened Dropbox checking around for its status, it started uploading.

Maybe anything related to energy saving in the Macbook ?

Here is the screenshot of the only activities moving datas in the background.