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JpFortran's avatar
JpFortran
Explorer | Level 4
2 years ago

Massive download at startup is consuming huge download bandwidth

Hi there,
Every morning, when I log in my linux box,  I see dropbox consuming huge download bandwidth and remain doing so during several minutes, til the point I have to kill it process to be able to load any other web app/page  (as example, I just had to kill dropbox process to be able to load this page I'm writting on).
Of course I have to turn dropbox process on back later to enable it to work, and then it begins again (not always inmediatly) downloading massive of dont-know-what  -say this coz I have no big files to tranfer at all, almost all of my up/down files are text ones.

Want to remark this behaviour is not constantly all of the time, but yes every single time I turn pc on, and randomnly about 3 o 4 times during my workday, being the 'log-in one' the worst coz it's the longer in time -more than 5 minutes- and have to kill it process to be able to begin working, and the others 3 or 4 takes less time -about 1 or 2 minutes.
My dropbox bandwidth settings are: upload and donwload speed: no limit (I've tryied to limit donwload to 50Kb/s but even so, this unjustifiably download is consuming up to 300kb/s)

Lan sync: off (I had it on, but turn off coz I share files with no one).

Dropbox version v185.4.6054

Linux kernel: 5.15.0-88-generic

Linux distro: Linux Mint 21.1

 

I'll appreciate any help or hint on this issue.

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    2 years ago

    Hi JpFortran, as we currently support Ubuntu and Fedora installations of Linux, the amount of support we can provide is limited for Mint. 

     

    Most likely there is something occurring with the app during the startup. Could you try delaying the startup, or preventing it entirely, and then starting it up later to see if this helps?

  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

    Hey JpFortran, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

     

    What's actually the sync status of the Dropbox app as shown on your Dropbox icon?

     

    Is it actually syncing new files to your computer? Have you checked the sync history to see what kind of files they are?

     

    Keep me posted.

    • JpFortran's avatar
      JpFortran
      Explorer | Level 4

      hi @Hannah, thank 4 answering.

      the dbox icon status is 'idle' (white - without spinning arrows) during this massive downloads, and no new file showing on the sync history list - just the last 30 files modified, but no one new.
      Aside this mysterious downloads, dbox works just fine, up/downloading files as they're created and showing the spinning arrows on it icon during the process -which is fast coz my files are text ones or lightweight images.
      It looks like 'background download' being in process, like server data or kinda stuff, but takes so much bandwidth during several minutes! 
      Maybe we have to look at 'side processes' of dropbox and its transfers (let's say) more than regular up/download file process -of course this is just a hunch ~ don't know how dbox works.

      Hope U can help me with this issue, coz it's quite annoying.
      Regards,
      Jp.

      • JpFortran's avatar
        JpFortran
        Explorer | Level 4

        this is how it looks:

        no 'viewable' activity seen (idle icon / no new files added) 

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