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Forum Discussion
39 files stuck syncing for weeks
Using the Mac version 88.4.172 of the Dropbox app on my 2015 MacBook Pro (with the latest Catalina macOS 10.15.2). Dropbox has been stuck for several weeks on 39 files syncing. I use Smart Sync for a...
Let's reset the configuration settings of the Dropbox desktop app.
Unlink and relink. The system will take some time to re-index your files and sync them all.
If the number of files remains stuck after this, I will create a ticket to check a few more things with you and provide the next steps.
Thank you for your patience yotimbo
Fiona
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffThanks for reporting the issue and all the steps you've tried so far yotimbo.
I appreciate your patience. It looks like you may have some files with permissions settings that block Dropbox from syncing them.
Here is what we can do now.
:pushpin: Please note that it is very important to follow these steps specifically as failure to do so may result in other issues
1) Make sure the Dropbox desktop application is running
2) Click on the Dropbox icon in your menu bar and then click on the gear in the Notifications panel
3) Select 'Preferences'
4) Click on the 'Account' tab
5) Hold down the 'Option/Alt' key
6) Click on the 'Fix Permissions' button (make sure you're still holding down the 'Option/Alt' key)
7) You may be prompted for your a username and password, this is your computer login credentials, not your Dropbox account ones
This will allow Dropbox access to your home folder, Dropbox folder, and any required settings.
Let me know if this worked for you. If not, let me know if you have your Dropbox folder or its system files are located in a mounted network drive or a remote location (like roaming profiles).
Looking forward to your response.
Hope this is helpful!
Hi Fiona -- Thank you for the quick response. The solution listed above did not change anything after the permissions were fixed. My Dropbox folder and system files are on my MacBook Pro, not on a network drive or remote location.
- Fiona
Let's reset the configuration settings of the Dropbox desktop app.
Unlink and relink. The system will take some time to re-index your files and sync them all.
If the number of files remains stuck after this, I will create a ticket to check a few more things with you and provide the next steps.
Thank you for your patience yotimbo
That did the trick. Thank you, Fiona!
- Fiona
Pleasure solving this with you.
Thanks for troubleshooting with me.
Have a nice weekend! :slight_smile:
I'm not yet using Catalina, and my Mac is a couple of years newer, but I just started having this problem too. Since I haven't upgraded my OS, I suspect it's a problem with Dropbox.
Unfortunately, I don't know how to do all the stuff yotimbo tried. And I'm currently only having problems with PowerPoint files. So, what I tried was force-quitting the application and restarting. Restarting the Mac. Taking the PowerPoint file out of Dropbox. And just opening PowerPoint without trying to open a file. In all the first steps, it just kept saying it was downloading (it wasn't) or opening (it wouldn't--except once when I could see the slides, but not do anything with them) and finally froze so that I had to force quit PowerPoint over and over. Even when I'd taken the file out of Dropbox. The file is fine. I can open it on the Dropbox website. But that doesn't do me much good as I need to edit it. When I tried to just launch PowerPoint without opening a file, I got a message that it was doing something with Smart Synching. Whatever it was, it froze the application again.Hi,
I have the same issue as the above user and had 5000+ stuck files.
I did the option-alt key on the acct preferences page then: Fix Permissions, and Fix Hardlinks.
That did nothing so I unlinked Dropbox and Re-linked and that reduced the stuck files to 103.
I have unlinked and relinked two more times and they are still there and stuck syncing. Can you please suggest what I could try next?
DropBox Version: 89.4.278 Current as at today.
Thanks
- Fiona
Hi psionic001, thanks for adding your experience to this topic.
Unlinking - Relinking is a good step to reset the configuration settings of the app. I do not suggest to unlink relink more than once though, because in this process, all your files will take time to re-index, so if you have many files this will increase your syncing time, without fully updating the files.
If the desktop app get's stuck syncing a specific amount of files again, what you could do is check if a security system or antivirus could be checking these files and whitelist Dropbox on such security apps.
Let me know if this helps and the version of your Operating system and I'll be happy to help you more with this.
Thank you!
After 3 monthos of this BS, I finally found a solution. I FIXED IT! With no help from anyone at this company. Seriously this was such an easy fix and it has dragged on for months making my job much harder and more time consuming. Customer support is a joke and if my clients did not use this company I would close my account ASAP.
Not even a phone number for support? WTF?
- What did you do? I haven't been able to fix mine yet and I have tried all the suggestions.
To tell you the truth, I didn't try all the suggestions because I couldn't. I didn't even understand most of them.
But all the files I was having trouble with were 1 file type--PowerPoint. So Dropbox tech support suggested I troubleshoot that. I went to Microsoft tech support. They reinstalled a new version and the problem resolved.
I still get odd, random messages about files syncing for no reason I can tell. But I haven't had that endless loop again.
