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Couln't download. Remove incompatible characters from the filename
Recently all of my computer with Dropbox have started showing a sync error "Couln't download. Remove incompatible characters from the filename. e.g. emojis, /\"<>:|?*"
The problem filename isn'...
Hey Roy2010, no worries let me share Sam's response here as well.
Hi everyone,
Sharing an update on the topic: our team is working on adjusting this, and it's expected to roll out in our next Stable Build (V190).
You can check our releases here, and we'll keep you informed on the progress.
Thanks,
Sam
I appreciate your patience on this, thank you!
I think this has to do with symlinked files, at least that is what it looks like for my 108 files that suddenly stopped syncing a couple of weeks ago between my Mac and windows systems.
I should add that they sync fine on the Mac, only windows has the problem. I haven't found a way to correct it and they worked fine for many many years...
It has started to happen on my iMac. Luckily it still syncs new files but there is a notification on the Dropbox icon that says the old files won't sync....so perhaps this is more of a Dropbox problem as opposed to a Windows/Mac OS problem...
We have been experiencing this same issue as well on our Dropbox Business account. Some of our computers have even gotten stuck in syncing, whether due to this issue or not. I had to delete the Dropbox app from those computers, reinstall and resync, which took over 2 days. That didn't solve the original issue of mis-named files not syncing - that is still present.
DROPBOX NEEDS TO PROVIDE A SOLUTION TO THIS.
Hi, I am also receiving the incompatible characters message. However, for me, it is on recent files - but none of them have strange characters or spaces (or at least none that I can spot). They are files created on my Mac but which won't synch onto my PC.
Since I cannot see where the problem is (no illegal characters) I cannot fix the issue. And as others have said before me, it is really not feasible in any case to change the names of so many files. Please help!
- Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi cathstoneman, do you have an example of a file or folder name that isn't syncing from your Mac to your PC to confirm what characters are being used?
For example NA22-CBC-005-ES_merged.pdf
- Jay
This file should sync normally, could you attach a screenshot showing the error message you're getting specifically?
- For what itβs worth OneDrive runs into a similar issue, but offers to automatically rename the files in question. It seems like a utility in DropBox to do this would be simple as I just noted that direct downloads from DropBox.com remove all special symbols.
Since these symbols are supported on Mac I am going to try A find and replace to rename from there. so it's late 2023 and I just had to rename 9 files which have been in our Dropbox for years. Why did this come up today?
Anyway, we're moving to OneDrive / SharePoint which is included in out Microsoft subscription, and saving over $1,000/year by ditching Dropbox
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