Forum Discussion

New member | Level 1

10 years ago

Desktop app is stuck 'Starting' when it loads up and doesn't sync

I am a paying customer and very frustrated with Dropbox. I am ready to drop DropBox and look for other alternatives.

Since Friday of last week it has been trying to sync 100Gb in files and it is taking an eternity. Now is stuck in "Starting."
I have rebooted the Mac (10.6.8). I am using Dropbox 3.0.3. I have tried going to Preferences, holding the option key and "Fixing Permission." I also read in the Internet about deleting the hidden cache folder but I have not done it yet since I don't know what to expect.

Any assistance is appreciated.

Desktop

Mac

Sync

Jay
7 years ago
Reading through this thread, everyone seems to be experiencing similar and yet slightly different issues, so I’ll go through the general troubleshooting steps to fix all of them.

Feel free to stop whenever your app begins to sync normally, not all steps are needed.

Install the stable version:

The first thing we need is to be sure you’re running the stable version of the Dropbox desktop application, and not the beta.

To do so uncheck the box next to "Early releases" here. Then, do an advanced reinstall to ensure that all beta functions are removed fully.

Instead of the download link on that page, I recommend using the offline installers for this purpose:

Windows

Mac

Confirm there are no symlinks

Secondly, if your app is fine, but it’s still starting, then it could be stuck in a loop trying to parse your symlinks.

What are these? Long story short for those not in the know, these are files or folder that refer to another file or folder in your Dropbox account, or even outside the Dropbox folder.

This can include, but is not limited to, iPhoto/Photos library on Mac, system folders such as Documents/Pictures/Music/Downloads, databases, programming code, and many more.

Removing these symlinks is vital since they can cause these issues, high CPU usage, and permissions problems.

Follow step 7 on this article in order to detect the symlinks in your computer and remove any from your Dropbox folder. Generally, moving the specific files or folders to another location should remove the links.

Check your internet connection

Hilariously, this is more common than you think. You have a stable WiFi/ethernet connection to the web, other sites work, and yet the app isn’t connecting.

If multiple users are having this problem on the same network, there is a possibility that a proxy, VPN, firewall, security software, or even ISP/router issues that could be restricting traffic to the Dropbox domains.

We can’t really narrow things down for you, since you need to check this out yourself as there are so many programs out there.

We’ve had cases more often than not about built in security software on routers for home internet users, meant to protect users and children, but in doing so preventing the Dropbox desktop application from loading.

Using a remote login

Getting a black or white screen on the Dropbox app when you’re trying to sign in is a different issue.

This usually occurs when using a remote login or even a virtual machine to another device. The graphics for remote logins are usually reduced in quality, and since the Dropbox desktop application connects to the Dropbox site to sign you in, it won’t render the login page in the app while on a remote login.

Best thing to do would be to access the machine directly to login from there.

---

Overall, there are many reasons for this cause, however hopefully this post should help in resolving most of the issues!

[This thread is now closed. If you have a similar or new question, you can ask here.]

elichaver
New member | Level 2
8 years ago
I have the same issue, and its making my computer slow as hell...

I cannot get anything done!
mlaw
New member | Level 2
8 years ago
I just got a new computer issued at work today. first thing I did at 11:15 this morning was install dropbox. It's been "starting" now for about 4 hours. I intentionally disabled selective sync for everything but a few folders with lightweight txt files in it so there's no reason for it to be taking this long. My work dropbox has about 40+ Tb worth of data in it but I'm only trying to get at a couple megs of it. What can I do to speed this up?
- Rich
  Super User II
  8 years ago
  Even though you're not syncing it all, Dropbox likely still needs to build its database which will contain information about all the files in your account, and not just those that you're syncing. With 40TB of data, that process will take a while.
  
  There's no way to speed up any of Dropbox's processes. All you can do is just let it work.
  - Jim B.45
    Helpful | Level 7
    7 years ago
    "There's no way to speed up any of Dropbox's processes. All you can do is just let it work."
    
    This is the standard response to the fact that Dropbox is a buggy piece of crap. A properly implemented sync client does not take hours to start, then turns red and says that it can't access my Dropbox folder and asks for my password -- the Dropbox folder is owned by me, in a folder owned by me, and dropbox is running as me. And then after I enter my password, it says "starting..." again and probably will do so for hours and then fail. I'm a good programmer with over 50 years of experience and I don't write crap like this and I know that crap like this is not acceptable.
    
    The reason that Dropbox is starting is because I had to restart it after it hung for hours, loading no files but with a tooltip saying that it was processing at over 6MB/sec with 17 seconds to go ... lord knows what that time means, when it still had hundreds of thousands of files to download. This is incompetent, buggy crap.
    
    Before Dropbox hung for hours, it managed to download 40GB in a DAY. This is buggy incompetent crap.
    
    Dropbox has said for years that performance "declines" if you have more than 300,000 files ... they have never explained why and have never fixed this. Properly designed sync clients don't have this limitation. Dropbox's "solution" is selective sync, which is no solution at all. And selective sync deletes the local files (but not all of them!). There's no way to move the files elsewhere, turn on selective sync, then move them back and sync ... Dropbox insists on reloading everything. Properly designed sync systems don't work like that.
Leon E.
Explorer | Level 3
7 years ago
I have exactly the same problem since about a couple of months. I have tried all the "possible" solutions and still stuck on restarting. I am driving myself crazy as I totally have become dependant on dropbox.
If somebody has the solution to fix it, will be greatly appreciated.
- Jane
  Dropbox Staff
  7 years ago
  Hey Leon E, sorry to hear you’re experiencing an issue with the Dropbox desktop app.
  
  As I’d like to work on that with you, let me just do some basic troubleshooting, so as to narrow down the possible causes.
  
  Firstly, are you running the latest Beta or a Stable Dropbox client?
  
  Have you checked whether there are any external locations Symlinked to your Dropbox folder?
  
  I’d appreciate a screenshot (omitting personal info) of what you’re seeing in your next post here as well, so as to get a better insight of what’s happening.
  
  Once I have this info, I’ll do my best to analyze the case with you.
  
  I’ll be awaiting your next reply here!
  - boazs
    Explorer | Level 3
    7 years ago
    i have the same problem too. it is only on one computer. it is so frustrating, especially since i am a paying customer. is there any solution?