# Payload too large error on sync to Dropbox

**URL:** <https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/payload-too-large-error-on-sync-to-dropbox/33884>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [26 November 2023 09:39 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/payload-too-large-error-on-sync-to-dropbox/33884 "2023-11-26T09:39:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dgtsf](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/discourse.joplinapp.org/dgtsf/32/18978_2.png) [@dgtsf](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/dgtsf)\
**Post date:** [26 November 2023 09:39 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/payload-too-large-error-on-sync-to-dropbox/33884/1 "2023-11-26T09:39:12Z")

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### Operating system

macOS

### Joplin version

2.12.19

### Desktop version info

Joplin 2.12.19 (prod, darwin)

Client ID: 7b4e6bdb0eac4c3dacbc20e11e42aa9e  
Sync Version: 3  
Profile Version: 43  
Keychain Supported: Yes

Revision: 7081046

OCR: 0.3.2

### Sync target

Dropbox

### Editor

Markdown Editor

### What issue do you have?

Running Joplin on macOS Sonoma 14.0. I have not yet downloaded any Joplin mobile, Windows, or Linux apps. Waiting until I have everything running smoothly on my primary workstation (macOS) first.

I'm brand new to Joplin - I've been using it just a few hours. I migrated several thousand notes out of Evernote and imported all the ENEXs into Joplin. Organized the notebook structure. All good so far.

I turned on Dropbox sync. I'm somewhat inclined to use my AWS S3 account, but for simplicity for the time being, as I migrate away from Evernote after 19 years, I opted to just Dropbox.

It ran for a while synchronizing everything. It seemed to complete the process.

I went off to to do some other work on the machine, and later returned to Joplin and changed a couple minor things (tags on two particular notes). It showed it was synchronizing:

Created remote items: 1.  
Deleted remote items: 3

But it also reported the following error in the bottom left corner of the main window:

Completed: 26/11/2023 1:23 AM (114s)  
Last error: Error: POST files/upload: Error (409): {"error\_summary": "payload\_too\_large/..", "error": {".tag": "payload\_too\_large"}}

I am baffled by this error.

If it was synchronizing the notes I had just modified, neither of them are large. They're each 153 lines of text according to Tools \> Statistics (5,883 characters -- no media files and just plain, straight up text sans any formatting. Both notes are identical but stored in different notebooks.

So why am I getting an error about the payload being too large?

If it is not referring to this note, how can I tell which note it is synchronizing and thinks is too large? I really do not have very many large notes of any kind. There are a few with a handful of images or PDF files in them, but none that are particularly large.

I exported a Debug Error under Help \> Syncronisation status \> Advanced Tools. But the CSV file it generates merely lists all the encrypted IDs, updated time, sync time, and has an is\_conflict column. Not a single row in that file has any error references, nor anything under is\_conflict.

Is there somewhere in Joplin I can get more specific information about why I'm getting error?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![laurent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@laurent](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/laurent)\
**Post date:** [26 November 2023 09:45 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/payload-too-large-error-on-sync-to-dropbox/33884/2 "2023-11-26T09:45:51Z")

</div>

If you go under Tools =\> Attachments, is there any particularly large file?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![personalizedrefriger](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/discourse.joplinapp.org/personalizedrefriger/32/13210_2.png) [@personalizedrefriger](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/personalizedrefriger)\
**Post date:** [26 November 2023 14:28 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/payload-too-large-error-on-sync-to-dropbox/33884/3 "2023-11-26T14:28:13Z")

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Dropbox has a different API for large files (I think \>150 MB). Joplin's Dropbox sync doesn't use this API and is thus limited to attachments smaller than about 150 MB.

Relevant issue:

> <https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/issues/9106>
>
> I have some PDF files of around 150MB as attachments to Joplin notes that won't …sync. This is an import from Evernote and 40k other notes and attachments have synced without issue.
> 
> These PDFs repeatedly and consistently fail to sync via Dropbox.
> 
> I have encryption enabled, so as I understand it, the actual size of the encrypted files is larger.
> 
> The error on the sync page is:
> 
> \> eye\_opener\_tog\_paper\_highres.pdf (d71a39a688ba48fc94c8d265376a0ab3) could not be uploaded: network timeout at: https://content.dropboxapi.com/2/files/upload
> 
> This Dropbox forum post suggests that 150MB is the official limit for the endpoint being called:
> 
> https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-API-Support-Feedback/API-V2-Upload-File-size-above-300MB/td-p/389687
> 
> and suggests using the upload sessions API instead.
> 
> I have not looked at Joplin source code, but initial thoughts are:
> \- Does Joplin use upload sessions API for large files?
> \- If so, is it choosing which upload API to use based on the attachment size before encryption instead of after?
> 
> \## Environment
> 
> Joplin version: Joplin 2.12.18 (prod, win32)
> Platform: Windows
> 
> \## Steps to reproduce
> 
> 0. Enable encryption
> 1. Download the paper PDF from https://www3.cs.stonybrook.edu/~cvl/content/eyeopener/eyeopener.html
> 2. Attach to note
> 3. Sync to Dropbox and you should get an error like:
> 
> \> eye\_opener\_tog\_paper\_highres.pdf (d71a39a688ba48fc94c8d265376a0ab3) could not be uploaded: network timeout at: https://content.dropboxapi.com/2/files/upload
> 
> \## Describe what you expected to happen
> 
> Successful sync without error

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/uploads/cozic/original/3X/1/c/1c948e33314e232a0927789508474d8624f4270b.png) [@system](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [26 December 2023 14:28 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/payload-too-large-error-on-sync-to-dropbox/33884/4 "2023-12-26T14:28:25Z")

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Closed on 26 December 2023 14:28 UTC

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