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Forum Discussion
Slow Upload & bandwidth settings ignored
Hi, I recently started to use dropbox again, but I do have a problem with the desktop app on windows. When I try to upload a file, I get ~1MB/s. My settings are set to "no limit" for both download and upload. When I then change the settigns to either a fixed upload speed or the auto regulation one and then back to no limit it nearly instantly goes up to my max speed of ~6MB/s. It will stay there for about 1 minute at most and then go back down to ~1MB/s. I can repeat this process over and over again and it feels like only the auto regulation option is actually used because it was the default option. The fixed upload limit option doesn't work at all and also ignores any value >=10.000 (KB/s). My network itself is fine, the speed to the web is fine, and so is the local network. If I use the dropbox webinterface to upload a file I get a somewhat bouncy 3MB/s and rclone gives me also at least the same speed. I do get the exact same behaviour when downloading a file, changing the setting mid download/upload fixes it for a minute and then it goes back down again.
Some information: My internet is a business conenction with 1000/50 of which I usually get 95%/98% of the advertised speeds. I am running Windows 7 and the latest version of the dropbox app which reinstalled today just to make sure it really is the latest one. All connections are wired and working correctly.
We have been in contract with our ISP now and it seems there really is a connection related problem. I guess it's a waiting game till they can solve it.
Thank you very much for the help though. Sadly it's nothing you or we can solve :/
I did some more testing today and found, that rclone can do full speed upload just fine when it uploads more than 1 file at a time. The dropbox app seems to only upload 1 file at a time. Adding more than 1 file to a dropbox folder to be uploaded with the app results in the same ~1MB/s as before. Any ideas how to upload multiple files in parallel?
Also some clarification on the part with the fixed bandwidth limit. Any number <10.000 can be set but is ignored and all number >=10.000 are reset to 10 every time I hit apply. The 10KB/s is also ignored as limit btw.
- Jay
Dropbox Staff
Hi Dominic13, thanks for posting today!
There is a possibility that a proxy, VPN, firewall, security software, or even ISP/router issues that could be restricting traffic to the following Dropbox domains.
Could you check each of these possibilities with your IT admin (as you mentioned this is a business connection) to see if this could be the case?Keep me posted!
Hi Jay,
thank you for your reply. We did some more testing and could replicate the behaviour on both Windows 7 and Windows 10 clients. We also tested the webinterface as well as rclone on both Windows versions and linux (headless) without problems concerning the upload speed. The webinterface doesn't give us full speed, but still at least 2x as much as the desktop app does. rclone uploads with full speed as long as there are more than ~4-5 files.
There are no proxies or VPNs inbetween the clients and the outside in any production scenario. Firewall and security software have near to no impact on the real world speeds, which can be seen by the rclone results. There are no special traffic restrictions to any domains either, be dropbox or anything else.
I really do feel like it's a problem on our side, but I can't put my finger on it. A friend of mine has the exact same ISP&business contract and the same dropbox business subscription and zero problems with the desktop app. The sudden uptick in speed after changing the settings in the desktop app lets me think otherwise thought, so I'm really confused.
Any hints/tips/ideas are appreciated.
- Jay
The sync speed of the desktop app is also affected by the CPU of the machine, since it needs to process and hash files during the upload.
As you've already tried on another machine, there are two possibilities remaining, either network is still soemhow preventing the Dropbox desktop app from connecting correctly, while allow rclone to do so, or it's the machines themselves.
If at all possible, it might be worth testing with another machine which didn't have any issues elsewhere (such as your colleague's device) on this network, to see if the speed is affected. If it is, then the connection is the issue, if not, then it's machine related.
If you do get this chance, let me know.
