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I can preview offline files on my Android device, but I can't open them with Microsoft.
Hello,
I was on holiday and wanted to open a file I had successfully synced to be offline. However, when I tried to open the off-line file I received a message:
"you can view this file offline,...
Hey Pdecort! Apologies for any delays.
I double checked this with our team in the meantime and they’ve also confirmed that this is expected. Offlining mostly allows files to be previewed on the Dropbox mobile app, but to edit a file by using the Microsoft app in this case, you’d need to be connected to the internet. This is to prevent the creation of conflicts and duplicates on Dropbox, as the app won’t be able to detect your updates.
I’ve passed your feedback to our team though, so that they can also check your comments, in case this is something they’d consider changing in the future.
Hello Walter - yes I have used those steps (Android) and - as I mentioned - I have the green tick indicating that it has successfully downloaded the file for offline use.
I only have DBox synced with one mobile device.
I tried some other files - a PDF and picture - and they do open offline. The Excel and Word documents do not. Also, the word document is 'password' protected and opens in Word on my phone in order to type in the password and open it... even if I'm not intending to edit it.
Walter
Dropbox Community Moderator
Dropbox Community ModeratorAnd is this affecting some specific Word and Excel files or all Pdecort?
Have you tried reinstalling the app or clearing the app's cache since you first noticed this?
Hello, I cleared the 'Data' and 'cache' which removed the offline files.
I added some back in - using the toggle method as described above. They all seem to be working as I'd expect 'offline' now - except the 'password protected' word document...
It seems to have trouble with the 'preview' of the password protected file - and gives the message
"Network Error - couldn't connect to Dropbox. Please check your internet connection and try again.
Open With..." button below.If I hit the 'Open With' button and choose Word - I get the message I initially reported ("You can view it offline but you'll need an internet connection to edit it. OK"
From your comment earlier - I can 'Save to Device' (which is odd - as it's already saved to the device as it's downloaded offline) which saves it in the 'downloads' folder. I can then use a file-explorer type program (I prefer CX File Explorer on Android) to browse the file - which does open in Word.
It seems to be a problem passing the password-protected file from Dropbox cache to Word. Hope that helps.
I can't upload a photo with my post which is a shame.
- Hannah
Hello Hannah,
As I've been explaining to Walter - I know they can not be previewed.
But it should be able to pass the file to the application which can open it - i.e. Word. Both DropBox and Word are installed on the phone so there is no need for an internet connection - just pass the file from the DB cache to Word to open.
It works with an internet connection - so that's the issue - why doesn't it work without an internet connection? Thanks.
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