Dropbox Problem Escalation Steps
This is in relation to the following problem, which reoccurs every 12 months or so for me on Windows.
I'm documenting the escalation steps here as it otherwise takes me days or weeks of back and forth with Dropbox support to work through all these steps in a scattergun manner (half the time the support rep recommends the same step that the previous rep recommended earlier).
It is good to get onto this problem early, since it gets steadily worse over time. Each time I've found fixing it produces quite a number of conflicted files, where the 'normal' file is quite old (weeks or months) and the up-to-date file that was there before resolving the issue is marked as a conflic file. Hence it is necessary to search the entire Dropbox folder, remove all the corresponding original files before renaming the confict file to the original name. Daymn.
I am running Windows 10 Pro 64 bit v1903 build 18362.535 on Virtualbox (now Parallels - same problem!) on a Macbook Pro.
I have been a Dropbox user for over 10 years, I'd say. I am a software developer.
Until recently (around the same times as the visual updates to the Dropbox window which appears after right clicking the system tray icon), Dropbox would sync up within an hour or so (Dropbox consumes too many system resources, so I leave it paused most of the time and sync at night time).
Recently, it says something like 'syncing 12,834 files . 2+ days'. There is some minor movement up and down as it indexes files but basically, it never completes syncing any more - it's probably a month now since I had a complete sync. I leave it on overnight, but in the morning very little has changed.
I'm on a fast internet connection, and have turned off all throttling in the settings. I can download a 5GB installation package in about half an hour, and the files I'm trying to sync would come to a single Gb at most. Speedtest reveals 24 ping, 20Mbps down, 17Mbps up. So the '2+ days' part is clearly absurd, unless there's some internal throttling or error taking place.
I have tried:
- logging out of the Dropbox account and in again
- uninstalling and reinstalling Dropbox
- double checking that the Dropbox folder is excluded from virus scanning (Windows defender)
So, to sum up:
- - it all worked fine till a month or two ago
- - never gets through syncing
- - no error messages or problems displayed
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Suggestion 1: Fix Hardlinks
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, and then click in the window under the tab (just anywhere will do)
5) Hold down the 'Alt' key and press 'h'
6) Click on the 'Fix Hardlinks' button
7) You may be prompted for your a username and password, this is your computer login credentials, not your Dropbox account ones
8) Please wait about ten minutes to see if Dropbox resumes syncing.
If the above steps don’t resolve your issue, please repeat steps 1→5, but at step 6, this time click on the “Fix Permissions” button. Operating system permissions can prevent files from being viewed or edited by unauthorized logins. Permissions can be set any number of ways and can be restored manually through a fairly simple process.
Please note that if you use “Fix Permissions” syncing will start back over. If you need to use this step, please allow for a few hours to pass and let me know if syncing becomes stuck again.
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Suggestion 2: Bad Files Check
Please check if your files contain an incompatible character in their name or path, because certain characters can be used on some operating systems, but not others.
If this is the case you can use Dropbox's "Bad Files Check" webpage to determine which files are not syncing due to incompatibilities:
https://www.dropbox.com/bad_files_check
In most cases you should be able to resolve the incompatibility by simply renaming the file and omitting the illegal characters. For a list of known incompatibilities and illegal characters, please visit our Help Center article:
https://www.dropbox.com/help/145
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Hi <Rep Name>, I've tried the bad files check multiple times, but it just sits there for an hour or more and displays a blank screen when it's finished.
I'm pretty certain anyway I don't have any bad files, I keep a tight reign on what's created on my drive, and I'm a power user so I'm familiar with the reasons bad characters creep into the file system.
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Suggestion 3: Manual Permission Reset
1) If Dropbox is running:
- Click on the Dropbox icon in the system tray
- Choose "Exit"
2) Press the Windows Key + R (at the same time) then type "cmd" and press enter to open the Command prompt.
3) Copy and paste the following lines into the Command Prompt, one at a time, and press RETURN after each one.
icacls "%HOMEPATH%\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":(F) /T
icacls "%APPDATA%\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":(F) /T
icacls "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":F /T
icacls "%PROGRAMFILES%\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":F /T
icacls "G:\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":(F) /T
4) Restart Dropbox from Start -> All Programs. Please also restart your computer.
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Suggestion 4: Advanced Reinstall
Please follow the instructions to perform an advanced reinstall from the following Help center article for your OS:
https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/advanced-reinstall
Before running an advanced reinstall
- Save and quit all programs accessing files in the Dropbox folder.
- If you use selective sync, take note of the preferences you applied.
- If Dropbox is not in the default location, note where it is located.
Windows
1) Quit the Dropbox desktop app. (To do so, click the Dropbox icon in your taskbar, click your avatar (profile picture or initials), and click Quit).
2) Uninstall the Dropbox desktop app from your computer.
3) Restart your computer.
4) Open the Windows Registry editor.
5) Double-click the folder named “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” to open it.
6) Inside that folder, find the “Dropbox” and “DropboxUpdate” folders by searching in the folders named “SOFTWARE” and “WOW6432Node”. They’ll be in either or both locations.
7) Delete the “Dropbox” and “DropboxUpdate” folders. (To do so, right-click each folder and click Delete).
Note: Don’t delete the main Dropbox folder on your computer. At no point in this process should you be deleting that folder.
8) Open File Explorer search for the folder “%LOCALAPPDATA%”.
9) Inside that folder, delete the “Dropbox” folder.
Note: Don’t delete the main Dropbox folder on your computer. At no point in this process should you be deleting that folder.
10) Repeat steps 8 through 10 with the following folders, deleting the “Dropbox” folder inside each: “%APPDATA%, “%PROGRAMFILES%”, and “%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%”.
Note: If you can’t find the folders, it means they’re already deleted and you can move on to the next step.
11) Download and install the Dropbox desktop app.
Since your original Dropbox folder is still on your computer at this point, if you don’t want to create a new one, click Advanced Settings during the download prompts and click the location of your existing Dropbox folder. For example, if your Dropbox folder is located at “D:\OtherDrive\Folder\Dropbox”, choose “D:\OtherDrive\Folder”.
