You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.
Forum Discussion
Tara88
5 years agoHelpful | Level 5
Files stuck syncing but queue shows nothing
Hello! About three weeks ago, I got a refurbished Macbook Air and transferred all the content from my old Macbook Pro over using Time Machine. Relinked my work and personal Dropboxes from the new com...
- 5 years ago
So I finally fixed it, if anyone else has the same issue. I unsynced every single other folder so that none of them appeared locally anymore except the ghost folder, and then I just deleted the ENTIRE DROPBOX FOLDER that included the ghost folder and emptied the trash. This automatically unlinked my Dropbox account, and when I relinked it again, the ghost folder was gone. I was then able to proceed with re-syncing all my other files back to my local folder.
Tara88
Helpful | Level 5
Hi Daphne,
As far as I can tell, doing both of the steps that you instructed led to the following small changes:
1. The number of syncing files was 674 instead of 679
2. The syncing data amount changed (it used to be something counted in MB but I forget the exact number, and now it is 237 kb)
But it's still getting stuck syncing, and the sync queue is still stuck on "checking for updates."
The version of Dropbox I have running is 104.4.175 and my computer has Mac OS Catalina 10.15.6.
VERY INTERESTINGLY, when I hovered over the icon to check the version number, I was able to see the name of a file that was supposedly uploading, and I found the file and saw that there was another one in the same folder with the little "syncing" icon next to it. Out of curiosity about what would happen, I renamed both of those files and then they synced just fine, and the number went down to 672, where it has hung ever since. But I cannot see the names of these 672 because all it says when I hover is "Downloading 672 files (LAN)..." and I think that even if I did know the names of them, I couldn't change it from this computer if they hadn't downloaded yet. Any further ideas?
I might be able to isolate the folder that they're in by trial and error, but it seems like there must be a better solution!
Tara88
5 years agoHelpful | Level 5
The plot thickens: I did end up narrowing it down by trial and error, and it seems that there's a locked folder that a colleague shared with me that has been trying to sync since he shared it, which roughly coincided with the date of acquiring my new computer. I removed myself from the shared list, but instead of deleting the folder for me, that seems to have spawned a copy of it that only I am a member of, which I cannot delete from my list because it's locked and I don't have permissions. It's deleted in the browser view, but the desktop app thinks it's still there. My colleague says that I successfully removed myself from it on his end and suggested that maybe I just need to reinstall Dropbox. So I am going to try that and see what happens.
- Tara885 years agoHelpful | Level 5
All right, so, I uninstalled Dropbox, deleted it from the trash, and restarted the computer. But the moment I did a fresh reinstall and linked the account, the stupid folder reappeared. I am at my wits' end. How do I delete a locked "ghost" folder that won't stop syncing?
- Tara885 years agoHelpful | Level 5
So I finally fixed it, if anyone else has the same issue. I unsynced every single other folder so that none of them appeared locally anymore except the ghost folder, and then I just deleted the ENTIRE DROPBOX FOLDER that included the ghost folder and emptied the trash. This automatically unlinked my Dropbox account, and when I relinked it again, the ghost folder was gone. I was then able to proceed with re-syncing all my other files back to my local folder.
About View, download, and export
Need support with viewing, downloading, and exporting files and folders from your Dropbox account? Find help from the Dropbox Community.
Need more support
If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.
For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.
If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!