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Dropbox update has caused Windows File Explorer to slow so badly I cannot work

Ever since this update was forced upon us, my File Explorer no longer works properly. It takes forever to load with a green bar at the top and white icons. When it does finally load, if I click on a file to either open it or copy it or whatever, I get the blue donut and nothing happens for ages. I have to go away and do something else for 5 or 10 minutes before it will finally allow me to right-click or open it. I am beyond frustrated now. It took me over an hour to complete a simple copy and paste task this morning that would normally take less than 5 minutes. I simply cannot run my business this way.

I've tried various things such as the obvious rebooting etc. I also tried to rename the Shell Icon Overlays as there is apparently a limit in Windows and Dropbox was apparently causing an overlay limit conflict. I also cleared my thumbnail/icon cache. Nothing I do is working. It's awful and I hate the change. I just want it to work. File Explorer isn't great at the best of times as it's so unreliable and I've always had to restart it 2 or 3 times a day. But now it's not working for me at all.

Please can someone help? I am incredibly busy at work and have now wasted a good 4 hours on this. I really desperately need to get on with my work. I'm using Windows 10 Pro and it's up to date.

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mlefebvre

I have the exact same problem and this is driving me insane. It is now impossible to do my job having this issue.

And I'm not the only one. My entire organisation is having this issue and we are now thinking of switching all of our accounts to OneDrive.

There are multiple posts about that same exact issue in this forum and none of them is bringing solutions.

Does Dropbox have a fix for that? Are you at least working on it?

I think you will lose a lot of subscriptions if nothing is done fast enough.

vladgasan

Hi @SeoulGalVP and @mlefebvre,

I am sorry to hear that you're experiencing issues with the recent update. We started investigation into this matter and will let you know when there's a solution available.

If you're still experiencing problems with the Windows update you can opt-out of it by following the instructions in this article.

Let me know if you have any other questions in the meantime!

SeoulGalVP

Thank you for this. I may try this but for now I've managed to get it work okay ish by gradually making more and more available offline. I'm afraid to make changes now because Dropbox is the worst for suddenly deciding to reindex or reup/download the entire file system of several hundred thousand files with the slightest change! It loses me hours and hours at work which I cannot afford. I would have liked an opt out at the start.

vladgasan

Glad that you managed to get it to work!

Lene54

Have you found a solution on the matter - rather than opt-out of the Windows update?
I am experiencing the same frustration when I try to open files in my File Explorer (Stifinder). It takes "forever" to open the files.

mlefebvre

Hi Lene54

No, unfortunately I haven't been able to fix the problem. There's another similar post that I'm following on this platform, but there's no solution that works there either.

I also opened a support ticket with the Dropbox technical team, and after various endless attempts, there's still no solution. The ticket has been closed.

So I still have the same problem and no solutions.

Dropbox doesn't seem to be able to help either.

I'm using a different file explorer than Windows while waiting for a solution, and I'm considering switching to another cloud service provider.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Lene54

Hi mlefebvre

Thanks for responding. Which file explorer are you using now and which cloud service provider are you going to switch to - if I may ask?

SeoulGalVP

I haven't found a solution either. It eventually settled to a state where I can work but it's frustratingly slow. I have to close Windows File Explorer at least 10 times a day and restart it. Every file I click on gives me a turning blue doughnut. Even just to right-click a file to copy or cut takes ages. Sometimes it's as long as 20 seconds just to click on a file. This is totally unacceptable and is all due to this ridiculous update that was pushed out by Dropbox to somehow integrate with file explorer. It's awful! I wish I had an alternative.

I've tried making everything online only, that makes it worse. If files are available offline, it's not as bad but we have hundreds of thousands of files and it's not possible to have them all available offline. They are the whole purpose of having Dropbox in the first place. I never know which files I'll need so it's impossible to work out which to mark as online/offline.

All in all, the worst update yet and that's saying something!

SeoulGalVP

I'm using Windows 10 Pro. I haven't switched yet as it's not straightforward. We use it in the office and share it and have hundreds of thousands of files. I wouldn't know where to start. When I upgrade my computer again, I'll find a professional and get advice on how to switch.

Mark

Theres a similar post regarding Windows 11 which may be worth looking at? The Dropbox desktop app is slow when navigating my Dropbox folder or viewing files on Windows 11 | The Dropbox Community

SeoulGalVP

Thank you for that, I've had a read and it's interesting. Sadly there's no obvious solution for me as I don't want a new OS profile (way too much on my computer to even think about trying to change it all) and anything at all to do with then adding Dropbox would take days. The slightest change in Dropbox causes it to resync thousands and thousands of files. It's crazy. And turning off every single app on my computer one at a time to figure out what the issue is... barking. The issue began with the new Dropbox update so that's where it should be fixed. I'm no IT person and cannot spend days trying to work everything out, I'm too busy with work and running my business. And then the next update will come along and there will be something else that doesn't work. Sooo frustrating! But thanks anyway, that thread is definitely the same issue.

mlefebvre

Someone found the solution guys!!!!!!!

Lokk at this:

https://www.dropboxforum.com/discussions/101001016/navigating-within-the-dropbox-folder-in-file-explorer-in-windows-11-is-very-slow/839405/replies/842329