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TWISTY's avatar
TWISTY
Helpful | Level 6
5 months ago
Solved

Upload app sync speed is very slow on macOS.

macOS: Sonoma 14.6.1

Dropbox desktop App, auto update is on, currently v209.4.3661

Dropbox Advanced - 310TB

Speed Test: 110Mbps Download/24Mbps Upload

 

Been using dropbox for 10+ years with no problems.

Last two weeks upload speed has become painfully slow on my desktop.
Download speed is fine.

 

I have read through a few threads and tried the following.

- Custom Bandwidth Settings is disabled

- Custom Proxy settings is disabled

- Removed NordVPN 

 

What else do you suggest?

 

Thank you so much for your help.
Twist

 

  • I might've fixed it.
    I logged out of dropbox then uninstalled and reinstalled dropbox.
    Logged back in.
    It has a lot of indexing to do but it is moving quickly, I'll let it run overnight and reassess in the morning.

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

    Hey TWISTY, I'd be more than happy to help! 

     

    Are you certain that you have no other software that could be monitoring the Dropbox folder or app?

     

    Have you contacted your ISP for further assistance on this matter?

     

    Also, how many files do you have inside your Dropbox folder at the moment? You should be able to check its Properties, if you need to find out more. 

     

    Let me know how it goes.

    • TWISTY's avatar
      TWISTY
      Helpful | Level 6

      Thanks for the reply.

      Are you certain that you have no other software that could be monitoring the Dropbox folder or app?

      No new software has been installed in the last 6 months or so.

      Have you contacted your ISP for further assistance on this matter?

      Yes, they said if it isn't affecting other apps then contact dropbox. I checked by uploading a 500MB file to Google Drive via browser which took 3 minutes.
      I uploaded the same file to dropbox via browser which also took about 3 minutes.
      This same file would take hours on dropbox via desktop app.

      Also, how many files do you have inside your Dropbox folder at the moment? You should be able to check its Properties, if you need to find out more. 

      On my desktop there are 235,535 items, most of those are "online only".
      I do use selective sync so there is a lot more within dropbox that I do not need access to.

      • TWISTY's avatar
        TWISTY
        Helpful | Level 6

        I might've fixed it.
        I logged out of dropbox then uninstalled and reinstalled dropbox.
        Logged back in.
        It has a lot of indexing to do but it is moving quickly, I'll let it run overnight and reassess in the morning.

    • TWISTY's avatar
      TWISTY
      Helpful | Level 6

      Hello Megan
      This thread is marked as solved, but it is not solved. Can you change that please.
      My fix is a temporary work around but it has not solved the issue. 

  • TWISTY's avatar
    TWISTY
    Helpful | Level 6

    The slow syncing issue came back. But once again doing the following solved it. Hopefully it doesn't happen every 2 months....

    1. logged out of dropbox on desktop app (preferences > accounts > sign out)
    2. uninstalled drobox
    3. reinstalled dropbox
    4. logged back in
    • alex g.33's avatar
      alex g.33
      Helpful | Level 7

      I've been having this problem intermittently for years. Currently it happens at least once per month. This is torture. I'm getting ready to switch to a different cloud storage provider. 

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

        Hey alex g.33, thanks for the nudge here and sorry to hear about this.

        Do the steps that the OP provided above, help at all?

  • TWISTY's avatar
    TWISTY
    Helpful | Level 6

    This happened again.
    Logging out and back in worked but I lost an hour or more of work time while re-indexing happened. Seems to happen every 2-3 months. Frustrating and terrible service considering we are paying for 365TB of storage.

  • ravenmb's avatar
    ravenmb
    Explorer | Level 4

    Hey all... I may be a bit late to the game here, but I too was experiencing this issue.  I was about to uninstall Dropbox and reinstall as this thread suggested, but then I realized that I had recently uploaded a ton of files (hundreds of GB's) and it occurred to me that I didn't make them 'online only' after the upload.  I checked my hard drive space and it was nearly full because so many files I had just uploaded were still local in my Dropbox folder (IE- taking up space on my computer's hard drive).  I made the folder in question 'Online Only' (you can do this by clicking on the folder in question in your local Dropbox folder once, then Control>click on the folder; from the menu, select "Make online-only".  Moments later, the space on my hard drive opened back up, I dropped 50GB's of fresh video files into my Dropbox folder and it uploaded in about 2 minutes (I have gig speed internet... Fios).  Viola!  Back to normal.  

    Don't forget to make the folders within your local Dropbox folder "Online-only".  If your hard drive is almost full because you fail to do this, files will stop uploading to Dropbox.  At least locally.  

    I'd imagine to work around this, to upload via web browser all the time.  That way, the files should automatically be set to 'online-only'.  

    I'd put money down that the folks who re-install only to find it happening again a few days, week or months later is because they're not making the files "Online-only".

    • TWISTY's avatar
      TWISTY
      Helpful | Level 6

      Thanks for trying to help but you are definitely wrong. I'm well aware of the "Online-only" and "Make available offline' feature. I'm only using 1/10 of my local hard drive storage.

      • ravenmb's avatar
        ravenmb
        Explorer | Level 4

        I may be wrong for your situation, Twisty, but it was 'right' for my situation.  And may be for others, too.  I apologize that you didn't find any value in my post.  Just another reason why to not even post to try and help folks out.  

  • itsTYT's avatar
    itsTYT
    New member | Level 1

    Same issue here but reinstall didn't help. Also what's weirder is it's only happening on one computer on the network. Laptop runs fine. Desktop is mucked

    • ravenmb's avatar
      ravenmb
      Explorer | Level 4

      You may have already done this, but just in case... make sure all files are 'Online Only'.  My issue was on my desktop and not my laptop... but I realized one of my larger folders was set to save locally and it took up all my hard drive space.  I made it 'Online Only' and things got back to normal.  

      • itsTYT's avatar
        itsTYT
        New member | Level 1

        I desire it to live locally though and I've set it to an external drive. One thought is to try it on the local ssd but this doesn't explain the slow browser upload. It's almost as if something in the MacOS doesn't like the Dropbox servers

    • TWISTY's avatar
      TWISTY
      Helpful | Level 6

      Yes, same here, when this happens with my desktop my laptop is fine.

      I presumed you logged out of dropbox before uninstalling, that seems to be key.

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