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msheppard's avatar
msheppard
New member | Level 2
2 years ago
Solved

Won't stop indexing on Mac

I installed the mac dropbox update and the application began indexing my files. It has now been stuck for the last few days. I can only access some files. Many are now only available through dropbox....
desktop
Mac
sync
  • BenDBX's avatar
    BenDBX
    2 years ago

    Hi Everyone,

     

    Thanks for your patience while we investigated. We have confirmed that the problem with resyncing has been resolved with macOS Sonoma 14.1. Users should not experience a resync when upgrading to 14.1.

     

    Upgrading to 14.1 will prevent resyncing, but it will not resolve this issue for users who have already become 'stuck' on the resync upon upgrading to 14.0. We can help, but we're asking that users contact support for individual assistance.

     

    Regards,

    Ben

jpglutting's avatar
jpglutting
Explorer | Level 4
6 months ago

I know what version I have, I posted it two responses ago. "I have version 205.4.5765 - I am on Sonoma 14.6.1. The menu bar icon says it is indexing 17,077 files, and this has not changed for at least a week. "

 

I was wondering what the latest is.

I did finally figure out the "press option to change the interface" trick. That is an incredibly obscure way to hide functionality, I must say.

 

I tried both fixing permissions and hardlinks, without any change. Earlier I did search all the files in my Dropbox folder for the characters that block indexing (?, \ / *, etc.). I did find one file with a "?" in it, and edited the name. It now says it is indexing 17,076 files, for what that is worth, but it has said that for 4-5 hours. Also, I looked at "Sync Issues" and it doesn't show any. 

Megan's avatar
Megan
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
6 months ago

Hey @jpglutting, our latest version is this one. 

 

Would you mind performing a quick re-install, please? 

 

Also, it sounds like your app has migrated to File Provider, so you might also need to take a look at this Help Center article, to make sure you've tried the steps there. 

 

Do you have any proxy, VPN, firewall, security software, or even ISP/router settings that could be restricting traffic to the following Dropbox domains?

  • jpglutting's avatar
    jpglutting
    Explorer | Level 4
    6 months ago

    Thanks Megan,

    I don't seem to have the latest version. I downloaded Dropbox from the website yesterday, and I have installed it four times now (twice over the existing install, twice after deleting the existing install). It still says version 205.4.5765, while your link says the latest version is 206.4.6506. Update - I downloaded from that link, deleted and reinstalled, and it is updated to 206. Not sure why the standard install/update package is out of date. 

     

    I have my VPN turned off. Dropbox.app is allowed access through the firewall. I even turned the firewall off for a while, no change. I also allowed Dropbox Accessibility rights. Still no change. 

     

    Is there a way to download all my content from the Dropbox web interface? That might just be easier to do and move to another service.  

  • jpglutting's avatar
    jpglutting
    Explorer | Level 4
    6 months ago

    If it helps at all, I am not getting status icons in my Dropbox folder (updating, green-check-mark, etc.).

     

    Thanks

  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    6 months ago

    Hey @jpglutting, can you make sure that Dropbox has full disk access? It might help in this case as well.

  • jpglutting's avatar
    jpglutting
    Explorer | Level 4
    6 months ago

    Thanks Hannah,

     

    Ok, I have given Dropbox a ridiculous level of access and control on my computer. No syncing so far, from what I can tell.

     

    It is interesting that it is keeping an up-to-date list of all the files it wants to index, because if I move some, it changes the total (I removed some old directories, and the total increased to 17,083, not sure why that is). But it doesn't seem to be able to do any indexing. 

  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    6 months ago

    Thanks for this info, @jpglutting, it's really interesting indeed.

     

    Does refreshing Finder, by force quitting and re-launching it, help at all?

  • jpglutting's avatar
    jpglutting
    Explorer | Level 4
    6 months ago

    Thanks Hannah,

     

    I didn't try that, but I did restart the OS, so that should have done the trick. I just force-quit. I do see the little cloud icon on each directory (it might have been there already), but it looks grey. I marked "Make available offline", but that doesn't seem to have an effect. The cloud icon doesn't have a down-arrow. A directory in OneDrive does have a cloud with a down-arrow, indicating, I think, that it could be downloaded.

     

    In the CloudStorage directory, Dropbox has a clock icon with very little progress. Perhaps an indicator of indexing?

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    6 months ago

    Hi @jpglutting, that sounds like this icon, showing that the syncing is in progress in the Dropbox folder, which could also indicate indexing of files.

  • jpglutting's avatar
    jpglutting
    Explorer | Level 4
    6 months ago

    Thank Meghan,

     

    Yes, apparently the directory is syncing and all the contents are syncing. No sync errors. No sync. 

     

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