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Folders showing up empty when I send a link to someone
This has only been happening to me within the past week, but it is really hurting my business. I am always sending a folder with either video files or photos. Generally people are opening the link on their phone with the intention of saving them to their phone.
Basically what is happening is when I send someone the link to the folder, for them it either says that the folder is empty, or it shows the files but when they click on them it says the file type is not supported and so they can't view them or save them. This seems to happen whether they are using the Dropbox app or they open the link using Safari. The same thing also happens if they try to open the link to the folder on desktop.
Also it should be noted that I upload the files via the Dropbox website, and I know they are all synced before I send the link because I check on the app on my phone before I copy the link.
I have double checked and I know I am sending them the correct link and near the link when I copy it it literally says "anyone with this link will have access to these files" but I guess that is not the case for some reason. It also doesn't seem to matter if the person is signed in to their account or not.
Any idea on why this is happening? Need to fix it ASAP
Same thing happened to me. It's extremely annoying.
So far the thing that worked for me was to turn off tracking of viewers for that particular folder. Seems like when the person to whom you're sending the link refuses to be tracked, the folder appears empty. (Dropbox!!! Why should the priority be on tracking instead of actually doing your primary job - sharing the files?!)
So the way to do this: log in Dropbox.com via a browser -- find your folder -- click Share -- click the Settings gear icon -- under the tab "Folder settings" uncheck the option "Viewer info. Show who’s viewing files in this folder to people who can edit." -- click Save
(you might need to generate the sharing link again after this, not sure)
The tracking can also be turned off by default in your account settings -- under General tab find the option "See info about people who view my files" and switch it off.
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I'm having the exact same issue with Dropbox as of late. None of my clients can see any files within a folder that I send when they try to view it from their phone. They can only see it if they are on a computer. This is very obviously a bug of some sort. I usually have Photoshop PSD files as well as JPEG files. After using Dropbox for years, this has never been an issue until recently. There are other people who send dropbox folder links via text and I cant see their content on my phone, but it shows up when I'm on a computer.
Hopefully there's a solution for this ASAP because it is affecting my business in a negative way.,
Hi, I can do that for you.
Here is a link to a folder with .jpg files that, at first, showed up as empty to my clients. But after resetting the share link it became visible.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/e2jhwcg4hvw3no91e3aqy/h?dl=0&rlkey=d8ub946udq98fknkc337um34n
I cannot send you a link to the folders that I am having trouble with because for some reason they no longer have a sharing link and I get an error when trying to create one.
But for reference those folders contained .mp4 files.
Also, As far as my troubleshooting goes, with the folders I have had issues with:
I have tried resetting the link, sending/receiving via mobile AND desktop, Signed in or not signed in to Dropbox, with the mobile app and with a browser (on mobile) and even tried iPhone vs Android and nothing seemed to change the result in any way.
For me personally (as referenced in my last post) this seems to only happen to me with a folder that contains video files. With photos it usually works but sometimes I have to reset the link 1 or 2 times before it does.
My temporary solution is that I have to send individual links to each video file.
- To all:
I’m sorry that you’re all dealing with the same issue(s) that I’ve had for weeks now! Dropbox still hasn’t done anything to fix this but I noticed they released an update today on the App Store (at least for iPhone, v. 292.2 as of this writing). Perhaps this will fix it!? I appreciate all of your feedback… started thinking I was the only one.
If I go back to using iCloud after this Dropbox, well, you know why. Thank you for this! It worked for me!
please help!!
when i share link to my friend it shows that the folder is empty!
- Nancy
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi seasons studio, I hope you’re doing well.
Can you check the workaround given by maara here and let me know if it works for you?
This solved the problem! Thank you so much. I can't believe DropBox did such a dumb thing.
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