Child Item

My macOS desktop app has been stuck syncing 10MB for 3 days.

Application Affected

Dropbox
Device

MacBook Air
Operating System/Browser (if using the web)

OS 15.7.3
Dropbox App Version (if using the app)

238.4.6305

Question or Issue

Three days ago I noticed an error message at the top of the finder window which was open to my Dropbox folder (stored in "locations"). The message said something to the effect that my Dropbox app couldn't be found. I thought that was strange, because Dropbox was open. So I quit the app and then reopened it, and that's when things really started getting strange. Now, day three, Dropbox is constantly in sync mode. The icon up in the task bar shows the circle of arrows, and when I click on it says syncing down at the bottom. But for most of the last two days there was no progress bar and no information about what was syncing. Now I'm getting "syncing [x number of files]." When I first looked this morning it was at 500+ 10 MB. Now it's down to 444 files, 9 MB. Progress! The thing is, I only use Dropbox for syncing one particular application, Scrivener. My entire storage on Dropbox is only 275 MB. It usually takes seconds to sync the updated files.

The other strange thing is that on the activity monitor Dropbox never rises above 4% CPU. It's been going for more than 48 hours at a snail's pace to sync relatively tiny files.

Possibly relevant, or just coincidental: about two weeks ago I cleared the data from the MacBook and reinstalled everything. After that, everything appeared to be in place and working just fine. This problem appeared after I returned from about 10 days travel over the holidays in which I was rarely on the computer.

I've quit and reopened Dropbox multiples times. I've restarted the computer. None of it has helped.

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Desktop

Error Messages

Sync

Mac

Insightful

AcceptAnswer

Closed - Partially Delivered

Comments

Nancy

Hi @sniffly! Thanks for your post and for all the details you’ve shared so far.

To clarify, are you still seeing the error message that you mentioned at the beginning of your post? If you are, I’d appreciate a screenshot of it, to have a visual.

Other than that, I’d also like a screenshot showing the current syncing status of your Dropbox app.

Finally, have you also tried reinstalling the Dropbox app in the meantime? If yes, did that make any difference?

Let me know, and we’ll go from there.

sniffly

Well, in predictable fashion, now that I finally posted about the problem, it has suddenly and miraculously vanished.

To answer your questions, though, no, the error message was gone as soon as I restarted Dropbox. And now 60 hours later, the syncing status is saying all files are up to date. I can confirm this because I just finished saving edits to the Scrivener files that Dropbox syncs, and it did so instantly, as it always has.

I reinstalled Dropbox after the data wipe two weeks, but I hadn't done it again.

Nancy

Thanks for keeping me updated! Happy to hear your desktop app is now syncing once more.

In case something else occurs though, don’t hesitate to ping me here.

Theresa

Hi there @sniffly , and welcome to the Dropbox Community! 😊

I am glad to see your issue is resolved - having the your dropbox account stuck syncing such a small amount of data for days can definitely be puzzling and frustrating, so it’s great to hear things are finally moving normally again. Thanks so much for coming back to update the thread as well.

By the way, I’m Theresa 👩‍💻, one of the community managers here at Dropbox HQ.

I’d love to know… what do you usually use Dropbox for? Whether it’s work files, personal projects, backups, or something else entirely, I’m always curious how people fit Dropbox into their day-to-day workflows.

Looking forward to hearing more,

T 😺 (Dropbox Community Manager)

sniffly

It's happening again.

Today I was working on the file I sync through Dropbox. I then changed locations, joined a new network where I was having connectivity problems, got the connectivity straightened out, went to reopen the file, and just like last time, the finder said Dropbox couldn't be found. I restarted the computer. Now, for 2 hours, Dropbox has been claiming that it's syncing but showing no evidence of actually syncing. The icon up in the task bar shows the circle of arrows, and when I click on it says syncing down at the bottom, but the arrows aren't turning and it's showing no files being synced. Again, I use Dropbox for only one file, so it should never take more 10 seconds for it sync.

Worse still, because the thing it's supposedly syncing is the file I'm trying to work on, when I try to open it, the program (Scrivener) crashes. Three or four times I've restarted the computer but I can't get Dropbox to finish doing whatever it think it's doing.

According to my Activity Monitor, something called fileproviderd is working at 70–100%.

sniffly

An update: on the fifth or sixth try, I finally got the file and program to open without crashing. So that's good. I can at least get back to work. But Dropbox is still stuck syncing and my laptop sounds like a jet engine because fileproviderd is hovering around 99%.

Walter

Thanks for the update on this @sniffly - much appreciated.

Can you close and relaunch the Dropbox desktop app and/or reboot your computer and let us know if this persists?

If it does, please send us a screenshot of the app's exact status as shown in your menu bar.

sniffly

Quit and rebooted. Tried twice, both times I got messages that it can't restart. Nevertheless fileproviderd is still going crazy.

Walter

Can you also forward us the whole error log as shown in your screen after you click on the hyperlink shown in your screenshot's error message @sniffly?

sniffly

bn.BUILD_KEY: Dropbox
bn.VERSION: 241.4.4795
bn.constants.WINDOWS_SHELL_EXT_VERSION: 89
bn.is_frozen: True
machine_id: db23d940-45b0-57f5-86d9-b08a6b0fef65
pid: 1217
ppid: 1
uid: 501
user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=501, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx', pw_dir='/Users/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx', pw_shell='/bin/zsh')
effective_user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=501, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx', pw_dir='/Users/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx', pw_shell='/bin/zsh')
euid: 501
gid: 20
egid: 20
group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root'])
effective_group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root'])
DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH: None
cwd: '/'
real_path='/'
mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0
parent mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0
HOME: '/Users/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'
appdata: '/Users/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/.dropbox/instance1'
real_path='/Users/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/.dropbox/instance1'
mode=0o40700 uid=501 gid=20
parent mode=0o40755 uid=501 gid=20
dropbox_path: '/Users/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox'
real_path='/Users/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox'
mode=0o40700 uid=501 gid=20
parent mode=0o40755 uid=501 gid=20
sys_executable: '/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox'
real_path='/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox'
mode=0o100775 uid=501 gid=20
parent mode=0o40775 uid=501 gid=20
trace.__file__: '/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'
real_path='/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'
not found
parent not found
tempdir: '/var/folders/s9/mrydg93j4971_lgxny5vq1gw0000gn/T'
real_path='/private/var/folders/s9/mrydg93j4971_lgxny5vq1gw0000gn/T'
mode=0o40700 uid=501 gid=20
parent mode=0o40755 uid=501 gid=20
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "desktop/dropbox/client/main.py", line 7214, in _setup_root_for_account
File "desktop/dropbox/client/main.py", line 7548, in _get_root_for_account
File "desktop/dropbox/sync_root/helpers.py", line 594, in get_root_for_account
File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.py", line 934, in result
File "../mac_x86_64_dropbox_virtual_env/lib/python3.8/threading.py", line 890, in _bootstrap
File "../mac_x86_64_dropbox_virtual_env/lib/python3.8/threading.py", line 932, in _bootstrap_inner
File "desktop/dropbox/db_thread.py", line 100, in run
File "<string>", line 1, in _x__db_thread__sleep_thread
File "desktop/dropbox/db_thread.py", line 39, in set_name_and_run
File "../mac_x86_64_dropbox_virtual_env/lib/python3.8/threading.py", line 870, in run
File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/runtime/__init__.py", line 731, in decorated
File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/sleep/__init__.py", line 169, in _run
File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.py", line 751, in set_result
File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.py", line 714, in _on_post
File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.py", line 1114, in _stage1
File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.py", line 451, in _then_callback
File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/helpers.py", line 527, in <lambda>
File "desktop/dropbox/sync_root/handlers/macos/file_provider.py", line 607, in _get_mount_path
dropbox.mac.internal.MacError: [Errno -2001] Error Domain=NSFileProviderErrorDomain Code=-2001 "No valid file provider found with identifier ‘com.getdropbox.dropbox.fileprovider/89d34a8c-ea13-4711-8cea-a576164c7c98’." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=No valid file provider found with identifier ‘com.getdropbox.dropbox.fileprovider/89d34a8c-ea13-4711-8cea-a576164c7c98’., NSUnderlyingError=0x600003b385d0 {Error Domain=NSFileProviderErrorDomain Code=-2012 "(null)"}}

Hannah

Thanks for the error log, @sniffly, I hope it's okay if I jump in here as well.

Now, the error you’re getting is temporary and should be fixed by restarting the desktop app.

If the issue persists, check whether you have a copy of the Dropbox.app file on your computer in these locations:

/Applications
~/Library/Application Support/Dropbox

If you see this file in both locations, delete the file in the second location(~/Library/Application Support/Dropbox).
If you see the file in the second location but not in the first, move the file to the first location(/Applications).

Let me know how it goes!

sniffly

It took four or five times, but Dropbox has now restarted. Unfortunately upon restarting it resumed the same behavior as before, the endless syncing going nowhere. It's using up so much CPU I can barely attach a file here.

I don't see Dropbox.app in the application support Dropbox file, but I took a screenshot in case I'm missing it.

sniffly

Now that it finally restarted, here's a screenshot of the status as shown in the menu bar.

sniffly

The latest development: finding it impossible to open the file I need, I decided to try to work from my backup. The backup file, opened from within the backup folder, was fine. Needing to relocate it out of the backup folder, I decided to save it to the Dropbox folder, thinking it could replace the file I could no longer get to work. However, once copied to the Dropbox folder, the backup file could no longer be opened, and my Finder crashed.

So I tried moving the file from the Dropbox folder to a non-Dropbox folder. That didn't work either. It's as if, having touched the Dropbox folder, the file was destroyed.

Then I went back to the backup folder, recopied the backup, moved it directly into a non-Dropbox folder, and everything is fine.

From all this my takeaway is that something is profoundly broken in the Dropbox folder.

Nancy

Hi again, @sniffly. If you haven’t already and you’re not on a free Basic plan with more than 3 devices currently linked, I’d like you to relink your Dropbox app next (basically sign out and back in again).

If that doesn’t help either, please perform an advanced reinstall after that.

sniffly

I've done this. I also scrapped the file that was in the folder and replaced it with the updated file based on the backup. So far Dropbox has managed to sync it.

No clue why this is happening in the first place? For almost ten years I've been syncing files from this one program through Dropbox, and there's never been a problem till recently.

Megan

Hey @sniffly!

Can you confirm that the app shows as up-to-date now, and that the file has successfully synced?

Please keep in mind that since we're not able to see any logs, we can't be certain as to what happened there. In any case, if you notice a similar behavior again don't hesitate to let us know.