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hteran's avatar
hteran
Helpful | Level 6
2 years ago

Dropbox sync never finishes: MacOS Monterey 12.6 onwards, Dropbox 176.4.5108

Hi,

 

My Dropbox keeps on syncing 6825 files since months ago, I tried removing and reinstalling Dropbox, no luck. It is not responsive and not usable, I checked similar problems on this forum, none of them helped. I appreciate advice. Thanks

  • Hi there,

     

    After a few weeks break (of this problem and everything indeed during summer!), I came up with some inspiration and detected and solved the problem, Here I post because I think brings some useful info for others:

     

    1- When reinstalling Dropbox, DELETE both:

    1a- the  $HOME/Dropbox folder (which contains a .dropbox subfolder)

    1b- the $HOME/.dropbox directory

    Note the difference between the two paths, and both .dropbox dirs are evil for our purposes as they contain logs and stuff that otherwise will be taken into account for the updated instalation and prevents it to be a real "fresh start".

     

    2- Only after doing this, Dropbox checks the requirements for synking et voilà! Seems I had surpassed the max number of devices (max 2 for free accounts like mine). Thing is that I only have my mobile phone and my work computer so I dig on the others. Apparently, the name of my computer changed in the last months, still not clear the cause. Could be because the central services of University took it to register and upgrade (second evil of this story), could be because the name dynamically changes depending on the network I am connected to (I have seen this before. Pending to check and definetly mark as "solved" this last issue of the computer naming, this is on me, I alert all users here (and the IT support of Dropbox to which I am very grateful for the help so far):

     

    3- If for WHATEVER reason your computer that has Dropbox app and syncing changes name, Dropbox central station will register it as a new device and you will probably surpass the number of allowed devices, but what is more problematic: at least on MacOS12.x,  IT DOES NOT ALERT OF THIS  unless you doo a fresh re-installation of theDriopbox app (see point 1).

     

    I hope this helps others, stay synced!

    Hugo

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

    Hey hteran, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

     

    Do you remember following the update process to the new Dropbox for macOS version?

     

    Is syncing completely stuck or just moving really slowly?

     

    If it's completely stuck, try the steps in this article as well, to see if they help.

     

    Let me know how it goes.

    • hteran's avatar
      hteran
      Helpful | Level 6

      Hi,

       

      Yes I followed all the steps provided in the link, I have uninstalled and reinstalled the Dropbox app, and I confirm that the sync is just stuck (does not move at all)

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

        Hi hteran, it might sound trivial but have you checked online for your account's quota

         

        Do you have enough space in the account, to sync these files? Also, how large are they? 

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