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How to view previews of online-only files on desktop (like how you can in the mobile app)? - macOS
I'm trying to figure out how to see previews, specifically of .jpeg online files, on my mac desktop. I use Dropbox almost exclusively for photo management and it's frustrating not even being able to ...
The response from DB appears to miss the crucial point, as the employee doesn't seem to fully grasp that our specific need isn't unique; it's a fundamental requirement for all content creators who rely on previews to identify files. It's our business we're worried about. Our concern isn't about DB continually improving its application and features. The current state of DB is a complete failure for us. We don't require an upgrade; we're simply unable to maintain baseline productivity. The absence of a clear timeline is incredibly frustrating. If this issue isn't resolved within weeks, not months, we're gone.
I implore the DB community to explore alternative cloud options that cater to creative professionals and share your experiences with those of us suffering due to DB's prolonged negligence. I operate within the media industry, and once we identify a viable DB alternative for creative professionals, I will actively pump out some media release to promote articles and content that expose this DB failure and recommend the alternative solution.
YEP I'm a creative professional and it's happening here too. Not having thumbnail previews for online only files on mac is SO frustrating and such a complete waste of time.
I have dropbox V183.4.7058
I have a M1 Mac Studio running macOS Sonoma 14.0
I also sometimes use dropbox from my M2 macbook air running the same OS - it is happening on that one too
It was happening on Ventura before that, from both computers.
I KNOW it's not a mac issue - all my dropbox files were perfect via my mac and I worked online-only every day until a dropbox update (can't remember when the update happened exactly, but its been at least since May) - and ever since that, all my online only files don't show preview thumbnails.
I work as a freelancer and have this issue on my personal account > which I use to access a paid dropbox teams account from a large business I sometimes do work for. The issue happens to their entire inhouse team too, and it's frustrating everyone!
The only practical way to use Dropbox as a designer is via finder. So please don't suggest accessing from browser, I can't place images in Indesign for example, from browser, or navigate easily to the 100 or so folders I might need, and thousands of files or images. So it's bad enough having to download each dropbox file and folder I need to work on, but if I want to check something in a previous design or any number of files I might look back on, I have to download each one to see it. When I need to view photos from a shoot and find a specific few to place or edit, I CAN'T SEE THEM! I HAVE to download either a ridiculous amount of data just to view 500 photos I might not actually need, or, well, there is no alternative. THIS IS A DAILY ISSUE.
So this creates another problem: Duplicates and version control.
With no image/thumbnail preview, you're forcing everyone to download all files and folders they need to work on or even check, so the files are now synced locally on their mac. Say two designers are working from the same area, on fairly large files, if we both rename or upload a photo at the same time, because it takes a while to upload big files, we sometimes get duplicates. Version control becomes hideous, the only way I can ensure another designer will see the right version of a file I've been working on is to make it online only, then download them again immediately since I need to see previews of every jpg and pdf myself too. We do fast paced work, I access a LOT of files and folders when I work for this company and what used to be seamless is now clunky, slow and frankly barely usable.
Embarrassingly for dropbox, they even had a warning message pop up in-app for a good few months after I noticed my issues started, saying there were issues on mac with online only files. This has mysteriously disappeared now - but the problem remains. It's surprising they aren't taking this more seriously in terms of prioritising a solution, considering macs are pretty standard in most households now, and certainly the standard for my industry.
A few of the team have started sending google drive file links, I suspect that is where we are exiting to, although I have no experience with drive myself so can't comment on the practicality of that solution. Personally I use and work from icloud drive, but there isn't really any way to share access as a team to icloud drive files and I can't see that working for teams using both mac's and PC's.
I agree with _MKT and No_Icons_No_Dragon.
I received an e-mail from Dropbox Support Team a few hours ago basically blaming third-party apps for the problem.
Instead of keeping my ticket opening, they closed my ticket as solved.
This is not what I expected from a Support team of a product that I pay monthly.
I'll migrate everything to OneDrive, that is working normally in macOS (offline and online files).
"I understand you are experiencing an issue with preview thumbnails not appearing within your Finder, for which I apologise.
Our engineering team is aware of the issue and here’s the latest update they shared with us:
After investigation by our team of engineers, it appears this issue is related to a third-party software installed on the machine, and how it generates previews for files within Dropbox.
Previews are still available while changing the file from being Online Only to Available Offline. In order to see the thumbnail preview of the file:
1. Select the file.
2. Right-click and choose "Make Available Offline" within the context menu.
At present, I wish we could offer more help with this however the problem you’re experiencing appears to be caused by another app or service you’re using, not by Dropbox. Please be assured this matter remains under review with our engineering teams and that we're always looking for ways to improve Dropbox. We regularly release new versions of our products with better performance, additional features, and security enhancements.
I apologise for any inconveniences this may cause."
"Previews are still available while changing the file from being Online Only to Available Offline." This is such a weird response and beside the point we are all making here. I'm really curious WHAT is going on. This is so fundamentally at the base of the DB service that they should give it top priority instead of this BS responses. I'm not a tech person but really how hard can it be to solve this? Anyone?
luizfernandomiller that is such a ridiculously unspecific response, ohhh a mysterious third party is to blame, sure sure 🙄. Firstly, any computer will have third party software, mac or pc, in fact, technically dropbox is third party as otherwise you'd be stuck with apple apps the mac came with and never do anything on your actual computer. Secondly, finder isn't a third party app, it's native to mac, and since we are all experiencing an issue viewing files via finder with dropbox after a dropbox update, I fail to see exactly what third party app they're blaming. Personally since I use my mac for heavy creative work I install very few programs on my mac beyond the big reputable ones, I can't think of anything I've got at all that could be considered minor/potentially unstable/untrustworthy. They surely aren't blaming Adobe or Microsoft, and again, since those programs aren't used to view dropbox files anyway, I fail to see how this would impact their service.
Dropbox need to speak to Apple and sort out a solution, it's not Apple's doing either, but I'm quite sure they'd be informed enough to sort out what the issue is exactly. Mac's account for upwards of 30% of the US market as a whole, according to this article from Computer World in May. I'm from Australia and would add if we cut school students from the data that figure would likely grow exponentially, and certainly in the creative industries it's higher again. My point here being, mac use is no longer small fry, the excuses of the tech teams of years past that "oh it's a mac issue it's your fault for using mac" don't cut it any longer, especially not a service like this which is specifically targeted at industries known for being heavy mac users.
I've gone back to sending wetransfer links for all clients except the one that forces me to use Dropbox. I've moved all my file storage to icloud drive. The previous comment is true, this is a fundamental part of Dropbox service and without it, Dropbox is pretty useless.
- I agree with you. The basically it’s not working.
If I look into my "Camera Uploads" folder, which is online only, I see previews of all images until September 3. Then, from September 5 onwards, all I can see are the generic jpg icons. So something must have happened between those dates – a new Dropbox app update which broke something perhaps?
Yes. With me was the same symptom (until beginning of September everything was alright).
But as I deleted Dropbox and Dropbox folder from my Mac and reinstalled again, now all the online folders are without thumbnails.
I noticed that if you download a file as offline and then turn this file as online, the thumbnail is kept for a while. So probably the problem is with Dropbox when downloading files as offline to your Mac.
Best,- Sam DBX
Community Manager
Hi all,
Beta Build 185.3.5963 is now available and our team has worked on the previews of online-only files on desktop. If you've opted for early releases in your Settings, it will auto-update.
If you prefer to wait for the next Stable Build release, it should also include this fix.
Let us know if this resolves this issue for you, if not, we'll continue to investigate.
Thank you,
Sam
Hello Sam DBX
I tested here and is not working. 😞
I force close the Finder to see if was the problem and I try to resync an online folder, but none thumbnail was showed.
Best,Same as luizfernandomiller. Still not working here. I've restarted my computer.
M1 Max MacBook Pro, Ventura 13.5.2 (22G91)
- I’ll check when I get home which version I have - can’t remember if I opted in to beta. But I noticed today all of a sudden .ai and .eps files aren’t previewing as thumbnail view suddenly - even if downloaded aka “available offline”. This is a new and fun problem that WASN'T the case before 🫠. Still having issues with online only previews too.
I'm glad that this is finally getting officially recognized and developement is happening.
Unfortunately still not working for me too, m1 max macbook pro 16, macos ventura 13.5.2 (22G91).
- Sam DBX
Thank you for the feedback luizfernandomiller , HappyTales, pizzamargherita and _MKT.
We'll share this with our product team today and continue to keep you all posted on any progress.
Sam DBX It's not working for me either. My beta version appears to be slightly newer, and I just updated to Mac OS Sonoma.
But still getting the same behaviour, thumbnails do not appear unless downloaded.
Sam DBX I did also check my personal Dropbox (Plus) and the offline thumbnails are displaying correctly.
So this does appear to be a problem that only occurs with Dropbox Teams.
- Sam DBX
Thank you CharlotteR for the feedback.
For the ones who saw no changes, we have available the Beta Build 185.3.6023, that should have our team's work on the previews of online-only file, instead of the Beta Build 185.3.5963.
If you've opted for early releases in your Settings, it will auto-update.
If you prefer to wait for the next Stable Build release, it should also include this fix.
Thank you, and let me know how this runs.
Sam
Sam, this is working, I've got all my previews/thumbnails back. Many thanks!
It's working now...
I force closed my Finder and I restarted my Dropbox, and the thumbnails of offline files are finally showing again.
Thanks.
Best,Unfortunately this still isn't working for me on my Teams account. See attached. I have tried Force Quit of both Finder and the Dropbox app, and have also restarted my computer.
As you can see, I'm on the latest version of the beta.
Sam DBX I have also updated to the latest beta version on my MacBook Pro and still not getting thumbnails for for offline files.
However I did notice something weird - in my teams account, I have 3 folders available. One is my personal folder which is called my name, which I think is a feature of Teams?
Then two actual Teams folders. They have different icons.
For the personal folder, the offline thumbnails ARE loading. But for the two Teams folders, the offline thumbnails still are not loading.
I have the latest Beta release and have relaunched finder, restarted etc etc.
- Sam DBX
Hi again CharlotteR,
Got your feedback (and HappyTales )regarding our Team's folders previews, thank you.
I'll pass it on to the team and keep you updated here as soon as I have news.
I confirm I also got my thumbnails back. I'm so glad this now works, it's work-life changing.
m1 max macbook pro 16, macos ventura 13.5.2 (22G91), dropbox beta 185.3.6023.
Thanks to those who finally acknowledged the issue and developed a fix. Please don't ever let this get broken again, I have a great all around experience with Dropbox!Hi Sam DBX, I have the same issue with Team's folder, no preview! I think it's a Team's plan issue
hi, sam
my thumbnails still not showing.
dropbox is up to date.
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