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Forum Discussion
Josi B.
9 years agoHelpful | Level 5
Why is my download speed slow?
Hi, I don't understand why I'm having such a big problem downloading a movie from my Dropbox file onto my MacbookPro laptop. The file is only 1.2GB, I'm connected to my router with an ethernet cable,...
- 7 years ago
Don't forget your data is transmitted encrypted and must be decrypted. That happens on the drive, along with checks to make sure the enitre file reaches you. It will take some time.
Dropbox will never use the complete full download bandwidth. It also is affected by you using other things, like mail, web etc during those times Dropbox may slow the process to allow you to continue working. It could be affected by things like you allowing the computer to sleep.
Have you checked your bandwidth settings ? https://help.dropbox.com/syncing-uploads/faster-sync
Many, many, factors can contribute to each users individual experience.
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- 7 years agoAs Tom said, whenever files are uploaded or downloaded, the computer needs to encrypt or decrypt the files, which depends on the processor. Naturally desktop devices fare better than laptops and netbooks.Other things that can affect syncing are ISP issues, router problems, or strict security or bandwidth settings in either of these, or any software that scans network data.
[This thread is now closed. If you have a similar or new question, you can ask here.]
- 7 years agoAnd just for completeness, remember that the speed you see reported by Dropbox is not simply the transfer speed of your data. Tom and Jay have already mentioned the encryption, but also, each file that you upload is hashed, compressed, then transferred, encrypted, and stored on the Dropbox servers. That entire process is included in the aggregate speed that's displayed in the Dropbox sync status. In other words, the speed reported by Dropbox is not just a transfer speed, but the speed at which the entire process is being completed. It can never be compared to the advertised speeds from your ISP.
Felix Lars S.
9 years agoNew member | Level 1
After the ridiculous speeds I've been getting on my 50/10 connection (in the ballpark of 40kbyte/s when synching files to my computer) I can only advise everyone to drop Dropbox and move to OneDrive or even a Hetzner Storagebox.
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