Child Item

The desktop app is creating many log files on Linux

Application Affected

cloud synchronization engine - CLI and Nautilus extension
Device

Thinkpad
Operating System/Browser (if using the web)

Ubuntu 24.04
Dropbox App Version (if using the app)

2024.04.17 or v238.4.6305

Question or Issue

Currently, a sync never ends and is creating log files like 160 GB. Dropbox has to sync around 25,000 files. I have already deleted the logs and restarted the client. But it looks like that the issue still persists.

> dropbox status
Syncing 23,915 files • 10 secs
Indexing 23,904 files...
Uploading 11 files (149.6 KB/sec, 10 secs)

> du -chs .dropbox/logs/
25G .dropbox/logs/
25G total

PS: A discussion gets deleted when you create one and try to edit it afterwards.

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Desktop

Sync

Linux

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Closed - Partially Delivered

Accepted answers

Jay

Hi @Moerkey, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

If you're not on a Dropbox Basic plan with more than 3 devices connected, could you try an advanced reinstall of the app using the steps in this link?

Keep me updated with any progress!

All comments

Jay

Hi @Moerkey, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

If you're not on a Dropbox Basic plan with more than 3 devices connected, could you try an advanced reinstall of the app using the steps in this link?

Keep me updated with any progress!

Moerkey

Thank you. It solved the issue.

But I found another one with your current list file for apt.

> apt-get update
...
Fetched 8.959 kB in 2s (3.989 kB/s)                        
Reading package lists... Done
E: Failed to fetch http://linux.dropbox.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/main/binary-i386/Packages.bz2  File has unexpected size (517 != 512). Mirror sync in progress? [IP: 3.165.206.121 80]
   Hashes of expected file:
    - Filesize:512 [weak]
    - SHA512:787192374b6e97f00c38555ba47953208a4b24bf5cd864c70ab23a4bc6d2162cb7f715aee7f989d86d89efd42b01ec60520dd991fa1e128313d8ff6d76c4d08c
    - SHA256:174149e0929bfd0718fc33776b1dea042baccc118b6eedcb538cc569804d4836
    - SHA1:069b50dda6038462a4667cced6882d96e3479d8d [weak]
    - MD5Sum:bb5dbbfa74e333678e8f9a81d61c5cd8 [weak]
   Release file created at: Wed, 17 Apr 2024 23:48:24 +0000
E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

IMHO, I don't know why i386 is needed nowadays anymore. amd64 should be sufficient.

Also, I updated the shell commands for linux on https://help.dropbox.com/installs/advanced-reinstall#reinstallDropboxlinux.

dropbox stop
dropbox status  # Should report "not running"
rm -rf ~/.dropbox-dist
# sudo was missing
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/dropbox
rm -rf ~/.dropbox*
# purge removes everything and does not leave configs like remove
sudo apt-get purge nautilus-dropbox
sudo apt-get purge dropbox
# sudo & the current list file was missing; maybe the first file is outdated
sudo rm -f /etc/apt/source.d/dropbox /etc/apt/sources.list.d/dropbox.list
sudo chown "$USER" "$HOME"
sudo chown -R "$USER" ~/Dropbox
sudo chattr -R -i ~/Dropbox
sudo chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox

Hannah

Thanks for the reply and the feedback, @Moerkey.

I'm glad to see that the advanced reinstall resolved your issue and I'll be passing your other comments along to our team.

Let us know if you need anything else!