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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 ...
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."
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.
- Sam DBX
Hi there pedroms !
Have you tried installing our most recent Beta Build 186.3.6103 ?
Let me know if it works for you.
Sam
I downloaded and installed the beta v186.3.6103, followed by a Mac restart, but unfortunately, my online files are still displaying only generic icons. No solution has been found yet for enterprise accounts. My personal account works just fine. I suspect the issue is with one of the Dropbox extensionshi sam,
thanks for the answer.
I did the beta installation and restarted my mac.
No icon preview on "online-only" images yet.
I got some strange behaviours:
I changed one image to "offline". the preview icon appeared. Then i change it back to online-only and just the little icon in column view appeared. If i change to icon view, there is no preview icon.
I changed a second image to offline and now it doesn't show the icon preview. Just the image on the side and quicklook preview:
but shows the icon on gallery view:
I changed it back to online-only and there's no side preview but has quicklook preview:
And... there is a third image that i downloaded and then changed back to online-only. It now has icon and quicklook previews but not icon preview in column view (image below). It has icon preview on gallery view (left icon on image above).
And there are some images that i didn't changed anything and they has quicklook preview but no icon and side preview:
other images have side and quicklook preview but no icon:
some images in a different folder are this way:
But mostly the files online-only still don't have any kind of preview
the preview settings on the folders are enable:
this is what enable on system settings:
And as you can see, there no more green label and cloud label on the files anymore.
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