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Corrupted Word Documents
I am at my wit's end! I didn't realise that DropBox would corrupt files. I now have several Word documents in a folder that I need for my course work assessment which are no longer Word documents and which won't open. I'm actually really worried - I trusted DropBox and am actually thinking I shouldn't have...Can anyone tell me what has happened please?
Also my tutor is unable to open the PDF files - they open with a padlock and are so tiny he can't read them...he is one of those listed as being able to open them (TM ).
Please help me - I need all this for my assessment and am now seriously worried.
Thank you.
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- Thank you Lusil, you've been GREAT! π
- Lusil
Dropbox Staff
I had the same problem after cancelling my 2TB subscription and moving all folders to a new one. Loads of corrupted files. This is a tragedy for me.
Hi Mark, hope you can help with a similar case. I had to temporarily downgrade my 2TB Dropbox subscription plan and moved all my Dropbox folders to a new one synced with a different and cheaper cloud service (Google Drive). After that, hundreds of, mostly pdf, files became corrupted. That is almost a tragedy for me and my company and i'm desperately looking forward to resolve this situation . Could anyone helm with that? Cheers
Here's a print of the message i got every time i try to open a pdf file
- Megan
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey andrepaixao, thanks for posting to our community!
Based on your info, it sounds like you have chosen to sync your files online-only, right?
Also, did you copy the Dropbox folders, or drag and drop them to their new path?
Let me know. I have a similar problem. I have Word documents in Dropbox on my desktop that when I attempt to open them, I receive this message:
Word was unable to read this document. It may be corrupt. Try one or more of the following: Open and Repair the file. Open the file with the Text Recovery converter.
I can't figure out how to repair them. The same files on my phone in Dropbox are fine. Help, please!
- Megan
Hey holpolshuf, let's jump right in!
If you try to use these steps, in order to download the files from your Dropbox account online to your device and then preview them there, do they preview like they normally would?
Also, what are the syncing icons that you see next to these files when you check them within your Dropbox folder?
Feel free to send any screenshots our way.
Keep me posted, and we'll take it from there!
When I download the file, the preview is fine and I am able to open and save it to my Dropbox folder on my desktop. The corrupted Word and PDF documents all have x's in the lower left hand corner of the document in the folder. Do I just need to download all of the corrupt documents again? And why did that happen in the first place?
- Megan
Hey @holpolshuf, do you use any other cloud services along with Dropbox?
This is a Windows icon and not a Dropbox icon. Keep in mind that while in File Explorer, a gray βXβ icon can appear in a file or folder in your Dropbox folder sometimes.
It indicates that your file or folder may not be syncing with Dropbox.
To fix this, please try the steps in this article about fixing syncing issues in Dropbox. If that doesnβt fix it, you can also contact Microsoft support.
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