Why is Dropbox syncing thousands of files?

Sometimes, you will find that your Dropbox syncing thousands of files but do not know the reason. Why is Dropbox syncing so many files and uses high CPU on your computer? Maybe programs on your computer like security apps, anti-virus programs, or backup apps are able to access your files, which makes Dropbox regard it as edits.

It is also possible that when you set up the Dropbox sync task, you set all files as the sync source by mistake. Bugs in your Dropbox may lead to such a Dropbox error as well.

No matter what the reason is that your Dropbox has been syncing thousands of files, you can find a corresponding solution for it in the following part.

How to fix Dropbox syncing thousands of files

If you exactly know what leads to the Dropbox syncing too many files issue, you can go to try the solution to it. If you do not know the exact reason, you can try these solutions below one by one until you stop Dropbox sync effectively.

Solution 1. End apps in Task Manager

If you find that your Dropbox syncing files forever, and it slows down your computer running process, you can go to Task Manager to end the apps that have the authorization to access your Dropbox files. Thus, your Dropbox will not keep syncing thousands of files accessed by other apps all the time.

1. Open the Task Manage window.

2. You can see all the running apps and processes here. Select the apps that may access your Dropbox files, then click on End task.

Solution 2. Pause Dropbox sync tasks

Maybe you can try to pause all your sync tasks temporarily. After that, restart them to see if Dropbox sync thousands of files have stopped.

To pause syncing in Dropbox, you can refer to the easy guide:

1. Hit the Dropbox icon from the taskbar. You can click on the gear icon to select Pause syncing. Or, you can pause sync from the status of the sync task at the bottom left of the pop-up window in the taskbar directly.

2. When you need to restart Dropbox sync, please click on Settings to choose resume sync. Or hit the icon on the lower-left corner again to resume your sync task.

Solution 3. Try Dropbox Selective Sync

You can see if you have put too many files in your Dropbox sync task, especially more than 300000 files, which will influence your Dropbox app’s performance. For this, you can try Dropbox Selective Sync to reduce files in Dropbox sync effectively. Let’s see how to enable such a core sync feature in Dropbox.

1. Click on the Dropbox icon from the taskbar to run it.

2. Hit your avatar icon and go to the Preferences page.

3. Under the Sync tab, click on the Select folder button in the Selective sync section.

3. Untick some folders that do not need to be synced. After configuration, click on Update.

Solution 4. Reinstall Dropbox

Sometimes, there will be a few Dropbox sync issues in your Dropbox if your Dropbox has not updated to the latest version. Thus, to avoid many types of errors in Dropbox, you can go to uninstall Dropbox and install the latest version of the client properly. Follow the steps here to do it.

1. Go to the Windows Settings page. And find the Apps section.

2. Under Apps & features, find Dropbox and click on the Uninstall button next to it.

3. After the uninstall process finishes, please go to the Dropbox official website to get and set up the latest version of the Dropbox client on your computer.

The easy way: sync files to Dropbox selectively

If you have been troubled with Dropbox issues for a long time, we advise you to switch to use a free cloud backup service - CBackup. You can select certain files or folders to sync to Dropbox, and CBackup will never keep syncing many files all the time.

There is no limitation on upload speed and file size in CBackup, which can help you perform Dropbox upload task fast and smoothly.

CBackup is powerful and professional, and it provides many shining points and advantages in both backup and sync features.

• CBackup allows you to sync any type of file to Dropbox, including documents, pictures, videos, folders, hard drives, and even your entire computer
• Many leading cloud drive services are supported in CBackup like Google Drive, OneDrive, etc. And you can back up or transfer files to cloud storage in CBackup directly.
• CBackup uses OAuth Authorization System and 256-bit AES Encryption to protect your data and account security completely.

Here is a simple guideline for you to sync files to Dropbox with CBackup.

1. Download and set up the CBackup desktop program on your computer. Sign up for an account and run it to log into your account.

2. Click on the Storage tab. Choose Dropbox > Authorize Now. Please follow the step-by-step instructions to let CBackup access your Dropbox account safely.

3. Click on the Sync tab on the left side, then hit Sync PC to Public Cloud.

4. Choose any files on your computer as the sync source. Then choose a folder in the Dropbox account you just added as the sync destination. After that, press the Start Sync button to begin the sync task.

To sum up

When you encounter your Dropbox syncing thousands of files, this post can give you a useful solution to it. If you want to get away from such a Dropbox issue, you can try the free cloud storage called CBackup. CBackup will perform Dropbox sync tasks totally as you like.