DropBox operations very slow

[jd]

I have noticed that using xyplorer to add and remove files from a DropBox folder is very slow (running v9.50)

Details: using an xyplorer backup folder for testing purposes (30 files, 5MB). If I use xyplorer to copy the folder to DropBox, it takes more than 2 minutes; Windows explorer takes approx 1 second. If I used xyplorer to delete the folder, the operation appears to complete quickly, but xyplorer cpu usage goes up for a minute or two and the user interface is sluggish.

Interesting observation: I was going thru the configuration options to see if there was anything that might be causing this problem. I turned on background file operation with queueing. With this setting, the file copy (xycopy) operation finishes in about 10 seconds, but xyplorer cpu usage still remains up for a couple of minutes.

Another observation: when xyplorer cpu usage goes up, so does DropBox. Could xyplorer be doing something differently than Windows Explorer, such as verifying the copy?

-- jeff

[nas8e9]

Could you post your Windows version (including x86 or x64) as well as any security software you run?

[jd]

Running Windows XP SP 3.
Sunbelt Personal Firewall
Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition (ancient copy)

[wraithdu]

I have this same problem:

Win7 Ultimate x64
XYplorer 9.50.0114
Dropbox 0.8.107

I've found the problem seems related to drawing the icon overlays. If I turn off overlays, there is no freezing of XYplorer any more. After searching, this problem was supposedly reported and fixed quite some time ago, perhaps in the 8.x branch. Maybe it's back now? Seems like it's worth looking into again.

Another idea (feature request?) may be to allow the icon overlay setting to be selectively turned off for specific folders. So I could turn it off just for my Dropbox folder, for example.

[admin]

Indeed I might have been able to improve this (never could repro it) -- check next beta...

[wraithdu]

9.50.0115 doesn't seem to have made any difference. I'm still experiencing about 2 seconds or so where the XY interface is totally unresponsive.

I'm starting to think that my antivirus might be involved as well. I use Eset's NOD32, and it scans the file system as well as network traffic. I use Dropbox mostly for synchronizing my AutoIt scripts and compiled executables. It usually takes NOD32 a little extra time to scan compiled AutoIt scripts. So maybe there is a conflict between NOD32 and XY where XY can't access the file (in some way to do with the icon overlays) while NOD32 is scanning it? I'm really grasping at straws here...

[admin]

9.50.0115 doesn't seem to have made any difference. I'm still experiencing about 2 seconds or so where the XY interface is totally unresponsive.

I'm starting to think that my antivirus might be involved as well. I use Eset's NOD32, and it scans the file system as well as network traffic. I use Dropbox mostly for synchronizing my AutoIt scripts and compiled executables. It usually takes NOD32 a little extra time to scan compiled AutoIt scripts. So maybe there is a conflict between NOD32 and XY where XY can't access the file (in some way to do with the icon overlays) while NOD32 is scanning it? I'm really grasping at straws here...

Don't know. Test it: turn off NOD32 and see what happens.

[wraithdu]

Hmm, no difference really. Worth a shot anyway.

[serendipity]

FYI. I use DropBox on two of my Win7s and it works fine with overlays except for a brief (a second or so) freeze which is really very insignificant for me. My AV is avast!

[wraithdu]

That "insignificant" freeze is the problem I'm talking about. While it may not bother you, the freeze duration is dependent on a lot of things like network bandwidth, size of the file, and speed of the computer. What is a second for you, could be 10 seconds in other circumstances. When working in an environment where content changes often or is created / deleted often, those few seconds are an eternity. Point is, it is a real problem, and shouldn't be ignored if a cause can be determined.

[michaelbeijer]

I'm on 14.20.0300 and have a very fast computer (tons of RAM, Haswell i7, etc), but when Dropbox is syncing anything at all, I have to switch off ‘Show icon overlays’ at General > Reresh, Icons, History or I can't use XYplorer because it is becomes unresponsive. However, these overlays are important, because they tell me whether my files have been synced (blue icon) or not (green icon).

Another way to deal with the problem is to pause Dropbox, which also makes XYplorer responsive once again.

Obviously, neither of these ‘solutions’ are great.

Has anyone figured out a way to use Dropbox without bringing XYplorer to a crawl? Are there any other cloud syncing solutions that do work with XYplorer?

[bdeshi]

Enabling "Show icon overlays" for network locations makes network browsing freezy too.

[michaelbeijer]

Thanks SammaySarkar!

I’m not sure I understand why or how, but this seems to have fixed it.

[michaelbeijer]

Hmm, spoke too spoon. XYplorer’s stuck on ‘(not responding)’ again and very slow. Had to pause Dropbox as usual.

[admin]

Does it help to turn off Auto-Refresh? (Just to isolate the cause of the problem.)