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Forum Discussion
High CPU usage even when not syncing or indexing
For the past couple of days, Dropbox has been consistently using around 30% of my CPU, when not syncing or indexing anything (i.e., the menu bar drop down says `Up to date`). Any idea why this might ...
Jay
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffYea he has symlinks. Symlinks are a standard part of the mac and saying "most likely you have symlinks" is not a reasonable answer. Ok, "most likely he has files" would be just as unreasonable. Traverse the symlinks or leave the application alone.
I don't think the symlinks have anything to do with the issue.
I agree with pikatchum, it seems like a Swiss knife reply to any quesiton about CPU.
Dropbox on my PC uses 20-30% of CPU when it is NOT syncing anything. Just "Up To Date".
And the PC does NOT have symlinks in Dropbox folder.The method described in https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/high-cpu-usage returns NEITHER <SYMLINK> NOR <SYMLINKD>.
(Strangely enough, it returns some files from the Dropbox itself: C:\Users\MyName\Dropbox\.dropbox.cache\qebcobkqbgpbzfynfuwbof)
The files look like this:
8.10.2019 03:16 (1 024) placeholder.vsdx
08.10.2019 03:16 (1 024) placeholder.wav
08.10.2019 03:16 (1 024) placeholder.wmv
08.10.2019 03:16 (1 024) placeholder.xls
08.10.2019 03:16 (1 024) placeholder.xlsb
Let me reiterate:
Nothing to sync.
No symlinks.
CPU 20-30%- Fiona
Hi Wrangler!
Symlinks are not supported, as already mentioned, they do create syncing difficulties and high CPU usage: https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Files-folders/Syncing-when-using-symbolic-links/td-p/312221
Please read more here about the place holders you see in your Dropbox at the time:
https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/sync-uploads/symlinks
I hope this is helpful. Feel free to ask questions!
But my Dropbox folder doesn't have symlinks.
And the CPU usage is still 20-30% while the folder "Up to Date".
Thank you for suggestion for reading, Fiona . As soon as I have a free second, I would love to read about placeholders. :)
The only thing we, users, need is a bit of free CPU to do our work (not Dropbox's).
Thanks, Jay. I do have symlinks in my Dropbox folder, but they've been there for years, and this problem only started yesterday. They're there because they link to files that can only be synced by a different service (OmniPresence), so it's the only way of keeping all my project files organised and 'together' on Dropbox.
Still, if that's what's really causing the CPU usage to spike, I'll have to work out some other solution.
'you have symlinks' is dropbox's way to tell you 'our app sucks, so we give you a canned answer'
The symlink issue could be solved in a minute with 3 lines of code by simply NOT FOLLOWING them, a child can understand this, and yet they won't do that.. why? because then they have no excuse for all the problems their app creates.
Recently, I complained about the app replacing a file I was working on with a copy of that file they had online, somewhere, which was 3 weeks older!!! They put my good file on the side and renamed it 'conflicted etc' and proudly replaced it with the old file. Without any warning! When I complained about that, guess what was the answer? "It's the symlinks"... it's their swiss army knife for all problems.
It's simply impossible to work without symlinks or remove them: there are inside applications, inside my python development environment, even inside their own .dropbox.cache. And yet they dare to ask you to remove them all.
When I used automator to search for those conflicted files, I found out in horror there were 150 of them... They do this behind your back with zero warning. I had to painstakingly go through them one by one and fix it.
my oldish asus windows 10 laptop kept getting 100% cpu/disk acces and regularly crashing. uninstalling Dropbox seems to have fixed all the problems.
I found another cause for high CPU use. I had some very large Outlook archives (pst files) that were stored in Dropbox and used by my Outlook application. Dropbox keep trying to sync them but couldn't as they were always in use by Outlook when it was open (which it tended to be quite often). I moved the Outlook archive copies locally and out of the Dropbox folders. Problem solved!
This fixed it for me (after years of trawling, trying fixes and finding out that the "symlinks" are presumably, in english, shortcuts and that bug was fixed in 2019).
Windows
- Quit Dropbox by clicking the Dropbox icon in the system tray, clicking your profile picture or initials in the notifications panel, and selecting Exit Dropbox from the menu.
- open the command prompt.
- Copy and paste the following lines into the command prompt, one at a time, and press Enter after each one.
- Be sure to copy-and-paste these commands, rather than typing by hand, as entering the command incorrectly could cause some harm to your computer
- Paste by right-clicking and then selecting Paste
icacls "%HOMEPATH%\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":(F) /T
icacls "%APPDATA%\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":(F) /T
https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/desktop/move-dropbox-folder - permissions
(I tried this first, got "file not found", not sure if it had any effect)
Windows
- Press the Windows + R keys (at the same time) on your keyboard.
- Type cmd and press Enter on your keyboard to open the command prompt.
- Copy and paste the command line below and press Enter on your keyboard.
dir "%HOMEPATH%\Dropbox" /a:l /s
https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/desktop/high-cpu-usage
Don't thank me, Dropbox, for doing what your (Edited per Dropbox Community Guidelines) "community moderator" failed to do, (WHO MARKED THIS PAGE SOLVED???) but do feel free to pay me. 🙂
Thank you so much V P.1 - dropbox had crippled my machine until this fix.
One point though, these commands assume that dropbox is in your personal folder. If you have moved dropbox, you have to run them on the location dropbox has been moved to. so if your dropbox folder is in e:\drobox, replace %HOMEPATH% with e: . Someone please correct me if I am wrong
BTW does this have to be done every time dropbox or the computer is restarted? It's just the effect seemed to disappear after some time and I had no choice but the force stop dropbox from Windows task manager. Is it better to set dropbox not to startup on logon? Or is it time to ditch dropbox? The app is so bad that even right clicking the icon in the tasbar displays the horrible logo doing a dance. What a waste of a once great app.
