DB on MacOS is corrupting my files (now irreversibly)

Thanks for reporting this experience WHardy. 

I understand there is a corrupted file you have locally in your Dropbox folder and were not able to open or sync it. :slight_frown: The cloud had a previous version of this file saved. To solve your syncing issue you moved it to another location in Dropbox and this helped it sync. But it still has the previous date on the cloud and the other devices. Please feel free to correct me if I didn't get somthing right, so we can be on the same page with this. 

:pushpin: Note that Dropbox doesn't have the ability to corrupt your files. Corruptions can be the result of third party app editions.

How does this file show locally when you try to open it? Is it corrupted in your local Dropbox folder and showing a functional previous version on Dropbox.com?  :thinking:

Please add screenshots to show me what you see. Thank you!

Hi!

Thanks for your reply!

"I understand there is a corrupted file you have locally in your Dropbox folder and were not able to open or sync it. The cloud had a previous version of this file saved."

Yes, that's correct.

"To solve your syncing issue you moved it to another location in Dropbox and this helped it sync. But it still has the previous date on the cloud and the other devices. "

I copied it to check if it will change anything to another Dropbox folder. Now, the corrupted 'original' still has the new date. The copy has the same new date, BUT it synced on the PC (so I got a copy there too), but with the old date (Nov. 5).

So it's like the file is on both devices (both the copy and the original), but Mac has a new date corrupted file, and PC has an old date working file.

Dropbox.com also shows the older, working version. If I switch for the copied file to be stored locally (right-click -> intelligent synchronisation -> local), the date reverts to Nov 5 (the old date). I dare not try it with the new-date corrupt file.

I'm not sure which part would you like a screenshot of, so if anything's still unclear please let me know and I'll add it.

Thanks,

WH

Thank you for clarifying this for me WHardy . 

If the corrupted version of the file was synced to Dropbox, you would see the file corrupted on the website as well. We cannot fix the corruption made by a third party app, nor tell which part of editing went wrong in the third party interface to result to this. To solve this, we would have to recover the previous functional version from your Dropbox version history. 

Have you contacted Microsoft support for the Excel error you mentioned "Excel could not open the file ....xlsx due to an incorrect format or file extension." ? This error could be related to the corruption. 

Is this corrupted file missing its file type indeed? If it does, please add the file type extension manually. 

Test. :tools: We will need to make sure the device is syncing in general. Please drop a test file in your Dropbox folder and let me know if you see it syncing :arrows_counterclockwise:. 

The corrupted file isn't syncing (i.e. DB stores a previous version and somehow doesn't recognise that the corrupted file has a different date or that something changed).

The syncing, in general, works. As I described, if I copy the file within Dropbox (so I create a new instance of the file), it syncs across devices, but Mac still retains the corrupted version with a new date, and the other device (PC) gets the ok file with the older date. Somehow DB has these two versions still linked to each other.

And yes, the file has the proper extension.

And I don't want to recover an older version. I want my new one, but I understand that's not doable.

And I'm not contacting Microsoft - the issue is directly linked to Dropbox. The problem occurs only in the Dropbox folder and only on my Macbook and it also pertains to non-Microsoft files (e.g. the PDFs I store on DB are unopenable on my Mac as well, but they work on my PC).

I've seen other similar concerns around here, usually unsolved. Something doesn't sync as it should and I believe the burden of solving this is, unfortunately, on you (Dropbox).

I understand you want the version you last edited. We can not use previous versions to solve this, as it is not saved, so all I can suggest is to try to repair the Excel workbook manually. Instructions from Office support: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/repairing-a-corrupted-workbook-7abfc44d-e9bf-4896-8899-bd10ef4d61ab

Keep me posted! 

Fingers crossed.

Thanks. Tried it but didn't work.

I get that my problem is unsolvable, but you should probably try to get to the bottom of this so that more people don't end up in my situation.

Good luck,

WH

Since the file was edited with Excel when it got corrupted, I encourage you to look into this further with Microsoft to figure out how the file got corrupted and make sure it will not happen again. 

On our end can only restore previous versions to help with corruptions. 

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful with this WHardy.

Have a nice day!

Dear Fiona,

again, this is not a Microsoft issue. Other files (not related to Microsoft) get corrupted as well (the difference being I have an online copy for most others).

The problem is most likely with Dropbox. I'm not using any third-party apps that could cause this. Even if it's something related to how Dropbox interacts with the MacOS file system, I'd say that solving this is on your side of things.

Best,

Wojciech

Thanks for the additional info. Dropbox cannot corrupt your files. But we can try to help you figure this out and solve it. See which apps are saving the files corrupted. Please let me know the other file types that you get this issue with. 

Some screenshots of file examples you can't open, would be very helpful for this thread as well. 

How long has this been going on for? Have you scanned your devices with a security system?  Help Center article about this.