I tried to back up all my files last night and they seem to have vanished from my laptop and are now only on my dropbox. When I tried to download them back to my mac, all of my powerpoints now have a spaceship symbol next to them (word and excel documents still have the normal symbol next to them and open fine) and wont open. Dropbox says there is an error previewing them but gives me the option to download however when I download my laptop says there is no availible application to open the document with (depsite it being a ppt and I have ppt). I have no idea what to do as im new to dropbox and fear I may have lost 3 years of uni work.

In your Dropbox folder on your computer sophiieallan, do you see the "My PC/My Mac" folder there to try and open the files within locally? If you don't see this folder (or any of the contents), please make sure that you have the option to show hidden files enabled on your computer. You can do a quick web search on how to do this depending on your OS version if you're not sure how.

Hey there sophiieallan; welcome to our Community! Can you please clarify if you're able to preview your files normally on our website and how did you upload them in the first place? For example, did you install the desktop app and copied or moved those files in your Dropbox folder or maybe you enabled the computer backup feature? If you are using the desktop application indeed, can you send us a screenshot of its status as shown in your menu bar? Is it 'up to date' or still syncing? Thanks so much, Sophie.

Hi Walter, No I cannot view them on the website version either. I believe I had automatic syncing switched on? The desktop app is saying up to date yet my files will still not open. Thanks

Hi Daphne, Thank you! That shows the folders however they still wont open. I have tried to copy and paste these items into my main documents folder but this doesnt work either. Any ideas on how to open them?

When I try to preview the documents on dropbox it says '.icloud files can’t be previewed.' despite the file not being a .icloud.

Can no longer open powerpoint files | The Dropbox Community

11 Replies

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Walter
Dropbox Community Moderator
5 years ago
Hey there sophiieallan; welcome to our Community!

Can you please clarify if you're able to preview your files normally on our website and how did you upload them in the first place?

For example, did you install the desktop app and copied or moved those files in your Dropbox folder or maybe you enabled the computer backup feature?

If you are using the desktop application indeed, can you send us a screenshot of its status as shown in your menu bar? Is it 'up to date' or still syncing?

Thanks so much, Sophie.
sophiieallan
Explorer | Level 4
5 years ago
Hi Walter,
No I cannot view them on the website version either. I believe I had automatic syncing switched on? The desktop app is saying up to date yet my files will still not open.
Thanks
Daphne
Dropbox Community Moderator
5 years ago
In your Dropbox folder on your computer sophiieallan, do you see the "My PC/My Mac" folder there to try and open the files within locally?

If you don't see this folder (or any of the contents), please make sure that you have the option to show hidden files enabled on your computer.

You can do a quick web search on how to do this depending on your OS version if you're not sure how.
sophiieallan
Explorer | Level 4
5 years ago
Hi Daphne,
Thank you! That shows the folders however they still wont open. I have tried to copy and paste these items into my main documents folder but this doesnt work either. Any ideas on how to open them?
sophiieallan
Explorer | Level 4
5 years ago
When I try to preview the documents on dropbox it says '.icloud files can’t be previewed.' despite the file not being a .icloud.
Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
5 years ago
Hi sophiieallan, it definitely sounds like the file is now a .icloud file. If you attach a screenshot, it should be visible in the file name. The UFO icon indicates that it can't be previewed on Dropbox, so most likely all those files you see are now .icloud files.

This happens if you use iCloud to backup your files, it stores files in the Documents folder, and others, in their servers. If you enabled the computer backup feature, it's possible that Dropbox saved these .icloud files from the Documents folder instead of the full versions.

Could you try recovering the files from iCloud to see if this helps?
sophiieallan
Explorer | Level 4
5 years ago
Hi Jay,
Thanks, I've managed to access my iCloud drive however they aren't on the iCloud drive either or in my recently deleted on iCloud. Furthermore the un-openable files have no vanished from my dropbox app. I have no idea what's happened? Any more suggestions?
Thanks
Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
5 years ago
Could you check the version history of one of the files to see if you can recover an old version with all the data in it?

You can also try using a third party app or service to recover files from your computer.
sophiieallan
Explorer | Level 4
5 years ago
Hi Jay,
That doesn't seem to do anything as the older version also seems to be corrupted too. Is it due to it being a .icloud file?
Thanks
Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
5 years ago
Yes, a .icloud file is a file that has been uploaded to iCloud, so the file is simply a placeholder, which you can see by the file size being only 178 bytes, which is extremely small for any file.

Since it looks like the files can't be recovered by Dropbox, you'll need to see if there's another recovery service or app that can help on your machine.

I'm sorry I can't be more helpful on this matter.