Why is my Dropbox upload stuck?

Dropbox is one of the best-known cloud drive services in the market, providing many nice features. You might choose it to save your files and data. However, it is possible that you will meet different errors during the uploading process. Dropbox taking forever to upload is a common issue among them.

Since many of you said your Dropbox upload 1 second left or your Dropbox taking forever to sync, we have prepared 9 effective solutions for it. Before learning something about them, you can check if the cause is in the list:

• The network connection is not stable.
• You have set up limitations on bandwidth in Dropbox.
• There is a lot of cache in Dropbox or in your browser.
• Extensions in the browser have influences on the uploading process.
• The filename is not supported in Dropbox.
• Your Dropbox app is out of date.

How to fix Dropbox taking forever to upload

Once you encounter the Dropbox upload taking forever issue, you can try the 9 solutions below one by one until your problem is solved.

Fix 1. Restart Dropbox

First, you can try to restart the Dropbox app on your computer, which can solve most errors in Dropbox, such as Dropbox not working, Dropbox not syncing files, Dropbox desktop app not opening, and so on. To close the Dropbox application completely, you can open Task Manager to locate it and choose it, then press the End task button.

After this, relaunch the Dropbox client from the menu to see if your upload task can finish successfully.

Fix 2. Check the network connection

One of the causes of uploading stuck issue is the unstable network connection. Thus, you need to check if the Internet connection on your computer is normal. If not, please fix it at once.

To fix network connection errors, you can go to Settings > Network & Internet > Status. Then use Network troubleshooter here to fix the network connection issues.

Fix 3. Disable limitation on bandwidth

There is a bandwidth setting in Dropbox. If you have enabled it in Dropbox, maybe your uploading task will stuck. So you can go to disable the limitation on bandwidth when you need to upload to Dropbox without local copy. Run your Dropbox and follow the easy steps:

1. Click on the Dropbox icon in the taskbar. Then choose the gear icon > Preferences.

2. Click on the Bandwidth tab. Check Don’t limit under Download rate and Upload rate here.

Fix 4. Clear browser cache and Dropbox cache

Too much cache will lead to the Dropbox upload stuck issue as well. If you have used your browser or Dropbox client for a long period of time, it is advisable for you to clear cache in both of them.

• To clear the browser cache, you can refer to the easy guideline. Here we take Chrome as a common example.

1. In your browser, choose the more icon > More tools > Clear browsing data.

2. You can choose All time next to Time range. And check the Cookies and other site data option and the Cached images and files option. Then click on the CLEAR DATA button.

• To clear cache data in Dropbox, you can press the Windows and R keys to open the Run box. Then input %HOMEPATH%\Dropbox\.dropbox.cache and click OK. In the cache folder, you can delete cache data directly.

Fix 5. Remove extensions in browser

Extensions in the browser may cause the Dropbox taking forever to upload error, too. Before you upload files to Dropbox, you can remove or turn off extensions in the browser to avoid it. Follow the clear guideline here:

1. Open your browser and click on the more icon > More tools > Extensions.

2. You can choose to Remove extension or turn off it.

Fix 6. Update Dropbox to the latest version

If you are using the Dropbox client to upload files, please check if your Dropbox is the latest version. If it is out of date, you may meet the Dropbox upload taking forever issue.

Fix 7. Rename your file

At the same time, you need to check if the filename is supported in Dropbox, or if there has been a file with the same name in your Dropbox account. Filename with special characters like /, \, <, >, :, “, |, ?, *, ., &, *, and emojis or emoticons is not supported in Dropbox. If you find it in the filename, please rename your file.

Fix 8. Reinstall Chrome

Some users said reinstalling Chrome is effective to the Dropbox taking forever to sync issue. So you can try to uninstall Chrome on your computer first. Then go to get the latest version of Chrome again.

Fix 9. Check Dropbox cloud storage space

The Dropbox upload taking forever error might mean that there is not sufficient cloud storage space in your Dropbox account. You can go to check it on the Dropbox website.

If your Dropbox is full, please upgrade your Dropbox account to the plan with larger cloud storage space. Or, you can consider get Dropbox free storage with a professional tool in the next part.

Tip: Upload files to Dropbox without errors

If you always meet the Dropbox taking forever to upload issue or other errors in Dropbox, you can switch to a better way to upload files to Dropbox without any error - using a free cloud backup service named CBackup.

● CBackup is a professional cloud service, providing comprehensive backup and sync features to help you upload files to the cloud including Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, CBackup Cloud, and more.
● There is no limitation on file size, file type, uploading speed in CBackup.
● All types of data is supported to upload containing files, folders, programs, hard drives, and even the whole computer.
● The uploading task can be performed automatically and regularly with the Scheduler feature.

Now, you can get such an easy-to-use cloud service client on your computer first. Here is a simple guideline to upload files to Dropbox via CBackup:

1. Sign up for a new CBackup account and open the application to log into your account.

2. Click on Storage, and choose Dropbox > Authorize Now.

3. Choose the Sync tab in the left panel, then select Sync PC to Public Cloud here.

4. Just select any file from computer as the source. And select a Dropbox folder as the destination. Finally, click on the Start Sync button to upload files to Dropbox without the Dropbox taking forever to upload error.

★Tips: CBackup offers some other effective backup and sync features for free. You can try them when you need:

Backup PC to public cloud: You can also backup files to Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, and more cloud drives in CBackup.

Combine cloud storage: You can use this feature to get unlimited Dropbox storage by merging unlimited Dropbox accounts into a combined cloud.

Free cloud storage: There is 5GB free cloud storage in CBackup Cloud. You can upgrade it to 1TB, 5TB cloud storage as well.

The bottom line

Next time when you meet the Dropbox taking forever to upload error, don’t panic, you have known some solutions for it now. Or, you can try a better way to upload files to Dropbox easily - using the free cloud service called CBackup.