Recently moved my Dropbox folder to an external SSD following Dropbox's procedures. Everything seemed fine to start with however I have noticed some issues cropped up that do not seem to be clearing themselves. Three linked problems: * The menu bar has been stuck on Updating ".fseventsd" for weeks. It never clears on its own, even after the drive sits idle overnight with fileproviderd fully calmed down. .fseventsd on this volume is owned by my user (not root, as it'd be on the boot drive) and had ballooned to ~309 MB. I deleted it (Dropbox quit first) and macOS regenerated a clean ~4 KB version, but after the next index it climbed again and the "Updating" status returned. * Every startup, Dropbox does a full re-index rather than a quick verify — sometimes a long one. I'd expect a launch to just confirm state via FSEvents and settle in seconds. * During that startup index, if I edit and save a file on the drive, I get conflicted copies. If I wait for indexing to finish, I don't. (I run two machines but am careful to work one at a time, so this isn't simultaneous editing.) What I've already tried: * Deleting/regenerating .fseventsd (helped the bloat once, but it came back and the status returned) * Full reboots (startup re-index still happens) * Quit/relaunch Dropbox (triggers the same index) * A LaunchAgent that waits for the volume to mount before launching Dropbox, to rule out Dropbox starting before the drive is ready The .fseventsd updating issue does not affect syncing of files.

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Dropbox on external SSD re-indexes every startup and stuck on 'Updating .fseventsd'

allann

Recently moved my Dropbox folder to an external SSD following Dropbox's procedures. Everything seemed fine to start with however I have noticed some issues cropped up that do not seem to be clearing themselves.

Three linked problems:

The menu bar has been stuck on Updating ".fseventsd" for weeks. It never clears on its own, even after the drive sits idle overnight with fileproviderd fully calmed down. .fseventsd on this volume is owned by my user (not root, as it'd be on the boot drive) and had ballooned to ~309 MB. I deleted it (Dropbox quit first) and macOS regenerated a clean ~4 KB version, but after the next index it climbed again and the "Updating" status returned.
Every startup, Dropbox does a full re-index rather than a quick verify — sometimes a long one. I'd expect a launch to just confirm state via FSEvents and settle in seconds.
During that startup index, if I edit and save a file on the drive, I get conflicted copies. If I wait for indexing to finish, I don't. (I run two machines but am careful to work one at a time, so this isn't simultaneous editing.)

What I've already tried:

Deleting/regenerating .fseventsd (helped the bloat once, but it came back and the status returned)
Full reboots (startup re-index still happens)
Quit/relaunch Dropbox (triggers the same index)
A LaunchAgent that waits for the volume to mount before launching Dropbox, to rule out Dropbox starting before the drive is ready

The .fseventsd updating issue does not affect syncing of files.

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Walter

Hey @allann - thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Can you please clarify your computer's OS version and the version of the Dropbox desktop app as shown in the app's preferences?

Did you try reinstalling the app since you first noticed this?

Let us know more and we'll take it from there.

allann

@Walter

MacOS version: Tahoe 26.5.1 (25F80)

Dropbox Version: 260.3.2873

I do think that I tried to reinstall but not 100% sure on that. I tried a bunch of things originally.

Walter

It seems that you're using a beta version of the app @allann. Could you try the latest, stable one from this page directly and let me know if the issue persists?

Just make sure to toggle off the 'early releases' from your account's settings first.

allann

@Walter Thanks for that. I did get off early access (actually forgot that was even still on) and have installed the stable build. Currently Dropbox is re-indexing again which is what I would expect but we'll see if it calms down after it finishes that.

Jay

Thanks for the update, @allann, keep us posted on the final result!

allann

Thanks for following up, @Jay & @Walter! I let Dropbox reindex and left it untouched overnight to try and get it all to settle out. When I woke my computer up this morning, I noticed that Dropbox was still attempting to sync '.fseventsd'. I rebooted the computer this morning to attempt to clear some stuff out and when Dropbox booted back up it immediately went in to Indexing mode again.

Any thoughts? I did just confirm that the currently installed build is 258.4.3749 so I am definitely on the stable build now.

Walter

How many files have you stored in your Dropbox folder approximately @allann? Could you send us a screenshot of the app's exact status so that we can have a visual too?

Also, are you able to navigate the app's preferences through the Dropbox icon in your menu bar and find the "Sync & storage" option to see if there are any syncing issues reported there?

allann

@Walter Roughly 72,021 files by Terminal's count.

This is essentially what I saw before rebooting this morning (I didn't snag a screenshot before reboot but this is what I see after it does its reindex and is stuck on .fseventsd.

Then after a reboot, this is what it goes to. Takes about 15-20 minutes to do an index where if I attempt to work on any file in Dropbox I will then get conflicted copies generated after the index finishes (which is what I would expect).

After the indexing finishes, then Dropbox gives me a Downloading files thing for a few minutes, after that, everything is good to go, minus that .fseventsd is still trying to update.

No sync issues are appearing.

Genuinely lost on this and I would generally just say forget it but it's the rebooting then indexing issue that prevents me from immediately getting to work after a reboot due to the conflicted copies that will be generated.

Walter

I see, thanks for the screenshots and the additional info @allann - most appreciated.

Can you try logging out of your account through the app's preferences and then back in? If that doesn't improve matters, you can try an advanced reinstall as well.

Keep us posted anyhow!

allann

Hey @Walter,

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner, was trying everything to get this rectified. I did do the log out and back in through the app's preferences. Got the same issue.

I then did an advanced reinstall as you suggested. That also didn't fix the issue.

Finally, I did a full wipe of the drive, fully uninstalled dropbox, formatted the drive to Dropbox specs, then did a clean install of Dropbox. Honestly, that seemed like it might work, it actually got to the point where .fseventsd had almost a full bar like it was almost complete syncing it (sorry I don't have a screenshot of it). I actually then went out of town for a day and just left my computer and dropbox running to see if it would finally complete. Got back to the computer this morning and it was still 'Updating .fseventsd.' Rebooted the computer and Dropbox is right back to Indexing the drive again (which makes the drive unusable for about 15-20 minutes unless I want a myriad of conflicted files).

At a loss for this issue.

Allan

Walter

If you'd be willing to troubleshoot this further, the next step would be to create a brand new OS profile on your computer and try to install and run the Dropbox desktop app there.

That said, at this point, it would be better to reach out directly to our support team to have a further look with account and device specific information.

You can also share this post in your ticket to speed things up a tad.