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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't shown, the "Go to File" link just takes me to the root directory of my drive, and I obviously can't search for those bad characters. How do I find this file to solve the sync issue?
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!
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- This is silly. I haven’t had this problem for 15 years and now Dropbox decides it’s a problem?
There once was a time when Dropbox was best-of-class. At this point Dropbox is just running out of advantages over Google Drive.
It’s been a good run, but time to say adieu. - Megan
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi hzee, thanks for posting here!
It seems that other than the tilde character at the end of the file name, you're also using our beta version 189.3.8308.
Just as a test, and to check more on this: would you mind renaming the file name through the web, to see if it then syncs without an issue?
I'll be waiting for your results!
If I remove the ~ character, the sync works just fine.
The ~ character blocks the sync and triggers daily errors in my macOS menubar.
This happens in both cases: the file is created on my MacBook and the file is created in the web app.Yes, I hope that you can take that as feedback for the beta developers.
There's nothing special about the ~ character. It causes no problems with any OS or system. So it should not cause errors.- Megan
Hi hzee, definitely keeping a note of this!
Your comments on syncing and how it works in this particular case have been quite helpful, and I will do everything I can to ensure that your voice is heard.
I'll forward your feedback to the appropriate areas so we can continue to improve. Thanks!
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
DROPBOX THIS IS A CLEAR REGRESSION BUG THAT IS YOUR PROBLEM AND NEEDS TO BE FIXED, in my case there are no illegal characters in my filenames, Dropbox the software is wrong and bugged, FIX IT!!!
Dropbox is on a downward spiral and getting worse and worse. Time to evaluate alternatives that work better.
I have about 200 files with tildes in them, and like @hzee they haven't caused any problems until today. I'm on 189.4.8395, also on Mac arm 13.6.2. Among these new errors are a couple other files that start with a dot and end in '.swp' like '.test.swp'.
Also, I noticed that dot is listed among the special characters that are not allowed in file names. I hope that doesn't mean all my files with multiple dots will cause problems in the future.
Yep, It's been years and suddenly the bug is back. Same bug. FIX IT DROPBOX!
Same issue here. The tilde is used in many systems to create backup files, especially, in my case, when I use Latex. I guess I can remove them all, or ignore the sync errors, but this wasn't a problem and now it is. Please do feed back to the developers.
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