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Can't open PDF files with new beta on my mac
Issue is that the file info says open with Dropbox, not Adobe. If I change back to Adobe then it opens. (Or if I open it from inside Adobe.) But I have hundreds of PDFs that now have the wrong app to...
Hi everyone,
Thanks for reporting this, and sorry for the inconvenience. We think we have a good idea of what is causing the issue, and we're looking into a fix.
In the meantime, the following workaround might help:- Open a Terminal window.
- Run the following command:
xattr -drv com.apple.LaunchServices.OpenWith ~/Library/CloudStorage/DropboxThis command will remove the custom "Open With" settings for all files in your Dropbox folder, including the incorrect/broken setting that is forcing some files to open with Dropbox.
It's possible that Finder won't notice the change right away, so you might need to relaunch it for that to take effect:
- Hold Control + Option and click on the Finder icon in the Dock.
- Select "Relaunch".
I got this error as well.
radical_exponent
Dropbox Engineer
Dropbox EngineerHi everyone,
Let me try to level-set on what our understanding of the problem is and where we're at, solution-wise:
* When migrating from an existing 12.3+ install of Dropbox to the new Dropbox for macOS, any files that were Online Only prior to the migration had a "com.apple.LaunchServices.OpenWith" xattr that stores a setting telling the OS to open the file with Dropbox. This xattr was part of our existing implementation of Download on Demand.
* When users double-click a file with this xattr, depending on the exact circumstances, they could see: (1) nothing, (2) .docx/.pptx/etc files opening in the web browser rather than the native app, or (3) receiving a scary warning dialog about an unidentified developer.
* We're now removing these xattrs as part of the migration to the new Dropbox for macOS. This was fixed as of version 166 - so new users migrating/upgrading after that release shouldn't see this issue.
* We've also deployed a fix in 165 that should fix the symptoms for most existing users, by making sure our app responds correctly to open requests. The xattr should be removed from files for you as you interact with them (e.g. double-click).
* There are a small remaining set of users where this fix doesn't work, who will need to manually remove the OpenWith xattr
As posted previously, the command to do this is:
xattr -drv com.apple.LaunchServices.OpenWith "~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox"
(adjusting appropriately in case your Dropbox folder has a different name - e.g. "Dropbox (Personal)")
Some users reported that running this command via the Terminal app ran into a Permission Denied error. We believe this is likely caused by Terminal not having permission to read/write files in your Dropbox. This is a built-in protection in macOS, designed to protect your data from malware on the machine.
In order to temporarily bypass this protection, you can go to (apple menu, top left) -> System Settings, then look for the "Privacy and Security" section, then "Full Disk Access", click the "+" in the list (authenticate if prompted), navigate to /Applications/Utilities/ in the file open dialog that pops up, click "Terminal.app" and then click Open.
After that, you'll need to quit and re-launch Terminal, and re-run the "xattr -drv ..." command mentioned above. That should hopefully work correctly now.
When you're done, you can optionally remove the additional permissions granted to Terminal.
Please let me know if you encounter any issues with that!
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