Child Item

The desktop app suddenly "downloading" 500 files forever and not making any progress

Device
Ryzen 7 5800 CPU, 32 GB DDR4 RAM, Dropbox folder is on a 1TB SSD, 26 GB of Dropbox storage.
Operating System/Browser (if using the web)
Windows 10
Dropbox App Version (if using the app)
238.4.6305
Syncing Status
"Downloading"

Question or Issue
Since yesterday, my dropbox desktop app has been stuck "downloading" 580 files, making no progress at all and using 10-20% CPU usage indefinitely. I have tried pausing, unpausing, restarting the app, and rebooting my computer, to no avail.

The diagnostics from clicking "Sync & Storage" shows 0 sync issues. Is there something wrong with the servers?

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Accepted answers

Yoyo4

Yes, everything was as it should be. I just solved this issue by running error checking on the drive my dropbox folder is on. Errors were found (which is a first for this drive) and were repaired without even needing to reboot. Now my dropbox is finally syncing normally again.

Thanks for trying to help, sorry the solution ended up being a random hardware fault that had nothing to do with dropbox or any of this troubleshooting haha.

All comments

Hannah

Hey @Yoyo4, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Do you possibly have some kind of security program like an antivirus, VPN, firewall, etc. that could be affecting the Dropbox app?

If you have any, please temporarily disable them, to see if it helps and let us know what happens.

Thanks!

Yoyo4

I've already tried disabling Windows Defender, sadly no luck.

Hannah

I see, thanks for checking, @Yoyo4.

In that case, can you sign out of the Dropbox app and back in to see if it helps?

Yoyo4

Would signing out prevent me from signing back in since I'm signed in to over 3 devices? My free account only allows me to sign in to 3 devices, but it's an old account from before there was a 3 device limit, so it's currently on 15. I'm worried if I sign out, I will need to sign out on all my other devices so I fall below the 3 device threshold before it would let me sign back in.

Hannah

If that's the case, @Yoyo4, and you have 15 connected devices with a Basic free plan, then yes, you won't be able to sign back in unless you bring them down to less than 3.

Are you still using all 15 devices or are they just old ones?

Yoyo4

Thanks for confirming. So signing out is not an option, I'm afraid. Still no luck with the app syncing. It's strange considering I've had Dropbox installed for well over a decade now and this is the first time I ever encounter such an issue.

I am using more than 3 devices, yes.

Jay

HI @Yoyo4, can you see if the files that are trying to sync within the same folder in your account, or are they random files in different folders?

Have you tried clearing the Dropbox cache folder to see if this helps?

Yoyo4

Thanks for trying to help, sorry the solution ended up being a random hardware fault that had nothing to do with dropbox or any of this troubleshooting haha.

Jay

No worries, I'm glad to hear you were able to resolve this issue!

Enjoy the rest of your week. If there's anything else we can assist with, feel free to reply back here!