nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Dropbox keeps eating memory on my Mac--30 gigs and counting--and eventually crashes the system

jsruzicka

Dropbox starts out using about 400 MB of memory or so on my Mac running Tahoe 26.6.2 and within a few days it is consuming 30 GIGS or more of RAM and eventually my system crashes and I have to restart.

How do I stop this from happening? Thanks

Find more posts tagged with

Mac

Accepted answers

ChristiYest

Severe memory leaks like this are usually tied to corrupted index caches, conflicting file extensions/metadata, or issues with macOS File Provider integration. Here are the most effective steps to stop Dropbox from consuming excessive RAM and crashing your Mac:

1. Perform a Selective Sync Check

If you have folders containing hundreds of thousands of small files (like node_modules, developer build caches, or temporary asset folders), Dropbox's indexing process can get stuck in a loop and balloon memory usage.

Unsync heavy non-essential folders using Selective Sync in Dropbox Preferences.

2. Reset / Clear the Dropbox Cache

Corrupted cache files often cause background indexing memory leaks:

Quit the Dropbox app (Cmd + Q).
Open Finder, press Cmd + Shift + G, and navigate to: ~/Library/Application Support/Dropbox
Locate the .dropbox.cache folder and delete its contents.
Relaunch Dropbox and monitor memory in Activity Monitor.

3. Reinstall Dropbox (Full Clean Install)

If clearing the cache doesn't resolve it, existing settings or File Provider hooks may be corrupted:

Uninstall Dropbox and remove its application support directory.
Download the latest release directly from the official Dropbox download page rather than relying on auto-updates.

4. Toggle File Provider / Smart Sync Settings

If you are using online-only files via File Provider, try toggling your offline/online settings for large directories to force Dropbox to rebuild its local file database cleanly.

For additional Mac optimization tips, technical troubleshooting guides, and web development resources, feel free to contact.

Hope this helps stabilize your setup!

All comments

ChristiYest

1. Perform a Selective Sync Check

Unsync heavy non-essential folders using Selective Sync in Dropbox Preferences.

2. Reset / Clear the Dropbox Cache

Corrupted cache files often cause background indexing memory leaks:

Quit the Dropbox app (Cmd + Q).
Open Finder, press Cmd + Shift + G, and navigate to: ~/Library/Application Support/Dropbox
Locate the .dropbox.cache folder and delete its contents.
Relaunch Dropbox and monitor memory in Activity Monitor.

3. Reinstall Dropbox (Full Clean Install)

If clearing the cache doesn't resolve it, existing settings or File Provider hooks may be corrupted:

Uninstall Dropbox and remove its application support directory.
Download the latest release directly from the official Dropbox download page rather than relying on auto-updates.

4. Toggle File Provider / Smart Sync Settings

If you are using online-only files via File Provider, try toggling your offline/online settings for large directories to force Dropbox to rebuild its local file database cleanly.

For additional Mac optimization tips, technical troubleshooting guides, and web development resources, feel free to contact.

Hope this helps stabilize your setup!

jsruzicka

Thanks gave these things a try. Will see how it plays out in a week or so.

ChristiYest

You are welcome.
Hope your issue is resolved.