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Dimples's avatar
Dimples
Helpful | Level 5
4 years ago
Solved

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'...
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  • Megan's avatar
    Megan
    2 years ago

    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!

Megan's avatar
Megan
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
2 years ago

Allow me then to share the response here as well: 

 

A change was made recently which surfaces these issues in Dropbox's Sync issues UI, but this specific issue previously existed before that recent change.

 

When Dropbox on macOS uses File Provider, macOS specifies certain filenames types that they will ignore, including filenames ending in a '~'. This ignore list is built-into macOS. Because of this, Dropbox can't sync files that match one of these ignored filename patterns.

 

If you have a file that matches this ignore list in your Dropbox on our servers (maybe you uploaded it from a different device for instance), we cannot download that file onto a device running macOS. It is still safe on Dropbox's servers. You can either ignore the warning or you can remove the file from your Dropbox through the website if you don't want to sync it to any of your devices.

utpmg's avatar
utpmg
Helpful | Level 7
2 years ago

But these files were originally stored using a Mac. I've never used a PC. I understand that something has changed, but users should be notified that a change has been made, not surprised with dozens of "errors" suddenly. 

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