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files with .icloud extensions not opening
After upgrading to Mac Catalina OS, I found 408+ of my files in dropbox now have .icloud extensions and won't open. Apple says it is dropbox's issue. I need the files. How do I retrieve them from dro...
Hi Jay,
Thanks again for trying to help me. The Apple technicians say that there is no way to change or reverse the extension on the file that will make it so that I can retrieve the files themselves. Yes. It appears that iCloud went into Dropbox and replaced the Dropbox links with aliases, but they still say that the actual files are in the Dropbox cloud and not in the iCloud. So what I am asking you is where then are my actual Dropbox files now, and is there some way Dropbox can make them available to me? By the way, what I've discovered by rummaging the internet and iCloud is that these are called "icloud synchronization files," if that is any help.
Thanks,
Susan
Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
Dropbox Community ModeratorYou can try and see if the files were deleted so you can recover them.
Otherwise, try checking the version history on one of the .icloud files to see if the full file is in the history.
I've tried both delete/restore and versions. None of the files are in the "deleted" folder. When I drag them off Dropbox to my desktop, they disappear from the desktop, but appear in the Dropbox deleted area. When I "restore" them to Dropbox, they still have the .iCloud extension and won't open.
There are no other "versions" for these files.
If it's any help, they're identified in my Mac finder as "iCloud extension files," not pdf, docx or jpg.
Where exactly does Dropbox keep the actual files (not the mere links to them)? How can I access them? Are they lost forever? If I upgrade to another level of Dropbox, can I get telephone support?
Thanks,
Susan
- Jay
It sounds like the files are no longer on the Dropbox site, if you're not seeing any version history, or deleted files. This would mean that the files are no longer on your Dropbox account to be able to recover them.
When did you upgrade to Catalina? Was it within the last 30 days?
Regarding phone support, this is only available on Dropbox Business teams, which requires a minimum purchase of 3 licenses.
Hi Jay,
I upgraded to Catalina on August 23. The computer kept crashing afterward, so I had to send it to Apple for a clean install. That took 10 days. Everything was backed up on Time Machine before the upgrade except, of course, the files that were in Dropbox. I didn't realize what had happened until I tried to open one of the affected Dropbox files two weeks ago, and I have been trying to figure it out ever since. Apple says they can't help me with dropbox files–they claim they don't know your system. I've spent hours on the phone with them.
If Dropbox no longer has the files, that is very bad news indeed. Did iCloud take the files out of Dropbox? How could Dropbox have allowed that to happen? I thought they were safely stored there, away from the upgrade, and didn't have to be backed up.
-Susan
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