Dropbox indexing all files on external drive when drive is detached

#1

Hello, I just bought Boxifier. Unfortunately without testing how it would behave, when I detach the drive. I bought Boxifier because you wrote on another topic, that the drive can be detached and there would be no problems with this.

Unfortunately there is problems with this, since Dropbox starts synchronising all files on the Boxifier folders on the external drive after it is detached. When adding a new file to my Dropbox folder on the C-drive, it now has to wait several days to synchronize. Dropbox is now useless here at work where my colleagues expect the files on my C-drive to be synchronised immediately after I save them.

#2

Actually Dropbox successfully synchronizes new/changed files after a short while, so the problem is not as big as I first thought. It is just annoying that Dropbox says “Indexing 21520 files… Cannot synchronize… Access denied…”. Dropbox never finishes this task or gives up. It is always the same amount of files it says that it is trying to index. I guess this also hogs resources.

#3

Seeing this same issue. It’s a shame because I wasn’t getting it for a little while then I let Boxifier do an update and that made the “Indexing 145,585 Files. Can’t sync…” start happening again which makes Dropbox run 40% CPU and do nothing at all.

Is there any work around for this?

#4

I have the exact same issue. Is there any way to prevent Dropbox from doing this? In my case, it’s 174,221 files that it can’t sync when my external drive is not connected. It indexes all day and takes up 30-40% of cpu (with the associated battery drain). I really appreciate the product otherwise. Thanks!

#5

Hi everyone,

Just as a reminder, this is a known issue and it is something that we are currently working on.

Hope to have more details on this soon.

Thank you for your patience!

#6

Hi, any further news about this issue?

#7

Any news about this?

#8

The new Boxifier engine (coming in v2) will take care of this.

I will post more details here when it is ready.

#9

Hi bogdan, morten,

I’m seeing the same problematic behavior. When I’m on the road, Dropbox keeps indexing the 50K files on my disconnected NAS, and stuff I actually need synced never is. When I’m back home, reconnected to my NAS, Dropbox takes hours to index the NAS files.

Bogdan, you mention that this will be dealt with in the new engine. That was almost a year ago. Do you have an ETA for this v2 with the new engine, and is this version still supposed to fix this issue?

Thanks!
Floris

#10

Hi Floris,

Please check your inbox. We are testing the fix for this with a few users before releasing it for everyone next week.

Thanks,
Christine

#11

Hi Christine,

That’s awesome, and so quick! I’ve installed 1.6.21.0 and tested what happens when I disconnectand reconnect my NAS.

When my Dropbox is up-to-date, and I disconnect the NAS, what happens is precisely nothing at all. Dropbox remains updated, I don’t even see any work being done by either Dropbox or Boxifier.

When I then reconnect the NAS, the same nothing happens :slight_smile:

All of this is perfect, of course, exactly the behavior I want as a user: if the external folders are unavailabe, don’t bother attempting sync.

When the NAS is disconnected, and I change something in one of the Boxified folders in Dropbox Web, Dropbox does attempt to sync. I don’t know if that is by design, nor if it can be fixed/avoided. In any case, I can easily live with that. A handful of actual Dropbox-sided changes take less effort for Dropbox to sync, I assume, than repeated attempts to sync all content in the external folders.

So, my conclusion so far:
Unnecessary sync attempts of disconnected Boxified folders: fixed!
Doomed-to-fail sync attempts of server-sided changes to disconnected Boxified folders: it would be great if those could be eliminated as well, but the firstf fix is a major improvement already. And I imagine Dropbox initiates those without Boxifier’s intervention, so I can understand it if that’s not someting Boxifier can fix.

Thanks again!
Floris

PS: What’s the status of 1.6.21? Can I keep using it? Beta, pre-beta, release candidate?

#12

Thank you for the feedback, Floris!

This version should actually solve both. It’s just that at this stage in order to see it you need to restart Dropbox. The way it works at the moment (with 1.6.21) is that you can find yourself in one of these two situations:

  • If Dropbox starts and the folder is not accessible (in a missing/disconnected location) then the folder will not sync. Changes made to it (either server-side or locally) will not sync during that Dropbox session (that means, as long as the Dropbox desktop client is not restarted).
  • If Dropbox starts and the folder is accessible then the folder will sync. Changes made to it (either server-side or locally) will sync. If the folder becomes inaccessible/disconnected and server-side changes occur they will try to be synced (obviously without any success as long as the folder is inaccessible). However, if Dropbox is restarted then the situation will change into the one described with the previous bullet point.

To sum this up, based on the state (accessible or inaccessible) in which a folder finds itself when Dropbox starts, that makes the folder sync or not-sync during that Dropbox session.

You can keep using it as it is stable, but it is not the final version of this fix. What we want as behavior is that when the folder started as syncing, but at some point becomes disconnected and stays like that for some time, the Boxifier application would offer to restart Dropbox so that the folder would switch to not-syncing mode.

#13

I would like to try this update too, please push the update to my computer as well. Feedback will be provided.

#14

I would like to try this update too, please push the update to my computer as well. Feedback will be provided.

Glad to hear that, Ryan. Please check your inbox.

#15

Could I please try 1.6.21 too. Thank you, Chris

#16

Hi Christine. I have been struggling with this issue for some time and would like to try 1.6.21 if you are able to make it available. Thanks

#17

I’d like to try 1.6.21 as well. It’s taking forever for co-workers to have access to updated files early in the morning. I use a external drive at home, not at work.

#18

@ChrisO, @Christopher, @Manny_Avila please check your inbox.

#19

1.6.21 Seems to be working fine. I’ve started my computer w/ EHD connected and everything sync’s properly. Restarted my computer with the EHD disconnected and DB does not go into indexing mode or try to sync EHD. Will keep everyone posted.

#20

Cold I try the 1.6.21 beta also, I am getting sync problems on disconnected or shared drives.