DropBox operations very slow

[michaelbeijer]

Not sure, I just switched off ‘Auto-Refresh’ (under General > Refresh, Icons, History), but couldn't really see any difference. But it's kind of working OK now. A bit slow, but almost acceptable. I will keep investigating and report back. I suspect that when Dropbox is actively syncing, any file manager is going to be a little slower.

[michaelbeijer]

So I switched off ‘Auto-Refresh’ (under Tools > Configuration > General > Refresh, Icons, History: Auto-refresh), and this seems to help somewhat. However, two things:

(1) obviously now I have to keep pressing F5, and
(2) copying or moving entire folders or several files at once also slows down XYplorer to a crawl (with Dropbox syncing)

None of this happens in Windows Explorer, which is really annoying because no matter how much I prefer XYplorer, I have had to temporarily return to Windows Explorer because I just now tried it and it is MUCH faster at file/folder copy/move operations than XYplorer.

Here are my settings, just in case you notice that I set something incorrectly:

http://wordbook.nl/screenshots/XYplorer ... istory.jpg
http://wordbook.nl/screenshots/XYplorer ... essing.jpg

[michaelbeijer]

OK, so the problem got so annoying that I actually gave up on XYplorer for a while and started using Clover. However, I recently had to do some complicated stuff involving masses of folders and files and wanted a dual-pane file browser again so here I am, back again. However, the only way I can use XYplorer together with Dropbox is to switch off ‘Show icon overlays’.

Clover can handle syncing Dropbox file and folders just fine, as can Windows Explorer. I also just installed the trial of Xplorer², and I can do anything I want with folders and files (copy/move large amounts of files or folders in the current folder, etc.) while Dropbox is on … and all files and folders are permanently and instantly accessible.

If I try the same thing in XYplorer (with Dropbox on + ‘Show icon overlays’ on), I have to wait around 7-15 seconds every time I do anything.

I hope there is a way to fix this as it is really bumming me out.

[admin]

(since it is still ticked in your recent screenshot) UNtick this: Configuration | Refresh, Icons, History | Icons | In network locations as well

[michaelbeijer]

OK, I unticked them both (see: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/680 ... ttings.png). However, now I have no more overlays, which, although very fast, is not ideal either of course.

[admin]

Tick only one of them. The first one.

[michaelbeijer]

OK, just did that, but I am getting 6-7 second periods where XYplorer is frozen whenever I do things in a folder. E.g., just tested it by selecting four Word files, and copying and pasting them. If I then try to rename one of the files in the folder, immediately after clicking Ctrl+V, I can't. I have to wait up to 10 seconds before anything becomes unstuck.

[admin]

How many items are in that folder?

[michaelbeijer]

19 folders + 5 files (all .tmx)

I tried again. So I selected the 5 TMX files, copied them, and clicked paste. They all get pasted into the folder as copies.So far so good. I immediately try to rename one of the folders and it is accessible.
However, I then selected the 5 new copies, and clicked Delete.
Now I have to wait around 10 seconds before I can do anything with anything in the folder (rename or click on any files or folders). Halfway through, ‘(Not Responding)’ is shown in the title bar.

[admin]

A delay on delete is usually caused by a very full recycle bin. (But that would be independent of overlays, of course.)

It's strange. Nobody else seems to have this issue?

[michaelbeijer]

Hmm. Note that the second I pause Dropbox, everything is lightning fast again. Copying. moving, deleting, everything.

[Filehero]

Shot in the dark: Do you have Auto-Refresh enabled? Maybe this somehow interferes with the DropBox background sync job.

[TheQwerty]

I'm going to make the undesirable suggestion of uninstalling and then re-installing Dropbox.

I recently had it apparently screw up one of its updates such that by all appearances their icon overlay handler or its cache was corrupted and endlessly trying to update icons for malformed paths. Uninstalling and re-installing Dropbox fixed the issue immediately.


The real odd part was programs started from the shell (taskbar/desktop) instance of Explorer were extremely slow to start and refresh, but those started from a different instance were fine. XY went from starting in under 2 seconds to taking over 30 seconds and then refreshing crazily while running. Windows Explorer even showed similar behavior when I forced it to run in the shell's instance of explorer by disabling the 'Launch folder windows in a separate process' option.

[michaelbeijer]

OK, so this is weird. I checked everything at:

Code: Select all

‘Refresh, Icons, History
(×) Auto-Refresh

(×) Auto-refresh
(×) Include network locations
(×) Include removable drives
(×) Refresh during file operations’

… and that seemed to have fixed it. For a few minutes, everything was super fast and responsive.

However, then I went to Dropbox’s ‘Camera Uploads’ folder, and deleted a hell of a lot of JPGs (no idea how many, but a lot). BAM! The problem returned, a millionfold. Now XYplorer is 100 stuck and all I am getting is the ‘(Not Responding)’ message.

I then tried to switch OFF all Auto-refresh features, but am still having the terrible slow-downs and glue-like UI.

The only way I can use XYplorer at the moment (together with Dropbox) is to either
(1) Switch off overlays, or
(2) pause Dropbox.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*
I'll maybe try re-installing Dropbox when I have a moment to spare. Up against a deadline for tomorrow morning now…

[michaelbeijer]

OK, so I "solved" the problem, by switching from Dropbox to Crashplan Pro

There is just no way not to stop Dropbox from slowing you down in XYplorer (and Directory Opus for that matter), so I ditched it.