"Online Only" files now show file sizes of "zero KB" ???

Hello, 

I am still having the same issue. Is there any working solution for this? All my "online Only" files show a file size of 0 kb and there is now thumbnail of the image or video available anymore. They used to show the actual size and thumbnails, although they did take up just tiny space on the local hard disk. It is really a pain. It works with all other cloud storages (oneDrive, Google Drive), only dropbox seems to have problems with showing the actual file size on "online Only"-files and the thumbnails. 

This is a real pain, as it is impossible to see for example the size of a folder before downloading it, but even more the missing thumbnails.  

I need a working fix for this and can not wait for this to resolve by itself.

@DropBox: Please check this issue and provide a working solution. We have about 200.000 files saved online only, we can not download each of them to see a thumbnail and the file size. 

Hi!

I feel your pain. 

As I mentioned in my post above yours, I was able to get help from Dropbox Advanced Team but it was a real disaster before it was resolved. Most of the so-called "advanced" agents knew a lot less than I did about the expected behaviour of files set to "online only". It was very frustrating to have to inform them each and every time about their own software. 

I assume you have reached out to them?  

Hello, 

thanks for your reply. Yes, I was in a call with an agent. But as you described, they don't know their software. She stated: It is expected behaviour to show 0 bytes and no thumbnail for "online only" files. Strangely: It works perfectly on Microsoft  "OneDrive". OneDrive shows Thumbnails and filesize for "Online Only" Files. 

Hi!

You need to be persistent to the point of hostile 🙂 Call and call again and again... It's very frustrating to have to jump through these hoops before even getting to the actual problem at hand! I could e-mail you the e-mail that I believe is the one with a resolution. I a not sure if you can DM me here, though?

That would be a great help. Could you send it to:

[personal information removed per the Community's Guidelines]

(I will fish it out of my spam folder then 🙂 

Thanks

Hi....

No way of DM:ing here 😞

Anyway, here's the reply that finally got me back on track (unfortunately I have no way of identifying this agent apart from his name, John)

The engineering team identified an issue and have made some changes on the backend, which should resolve the problem you were experiencing.

So I don't have the magical solution as it was something they did "on the backend". But please refer to my case when talking to them again. Ticket number: 16055042

Great, the ticket number will hopefully help. Thanks for your support. 
PS: Ever though about working for the DropBox support team 😉  

Haha, yes but only to fire some of them 🙂

I'll join you for that 🙂

Hey paulhoepner, and battiman!

Paul, have you tried contacting our Support team about this? If so, feel free to send me your ticket number, so I can locate it on our system.

Thanks a bunch!

Hi paulhoepner, awesome, thanks for that! 

Don't worry, I have passed my comments to your ticket number, for the agent to see. If you have any additional info, comments or questions, feel free to respond back to the ticket.

Thank you!

paulhoepner How did it go for you? Was it resolved?

I just helped a colleague out and updated her OS to Ventura. After the update, I noticed all the online only files in Dropbox were showing a file size of 0 bytes. I got in touch with support and the nightmare started all over again with a "support agent" claiming this was "expected behaviour" yada yada. I will give them a call tomorrow but I am not looking forward to it.

So can you tell me if you also are on Ventura? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. I am still happy on my machine running Monterey!

Hi battiman, if a file is online-only, it means it doesn't take up any physical space on your machine, so it's normal behavior for the file to be zero bytes?

In order to understand what you're expecting, please let me know what you wish to see for files not physically taking up storage on your computer?

Jay 

I am not sure if you're trolling me here 🙂 I assume you have read the thread? It makes me crazy when you have to explain that this is NOT expected behavior to one of Dropbox's own employees! But you are in luck, I will explain it to you so you can be of better assistance if and when someone else ends up with you as their support guy.

Here's a screenshot of a folder on a machine running Monterey:

[Removed as per Community Guidelines]

As you can see, only one file is set to offline (the top one) and the rest is online only. All of them however display the logical file size, as is expected behavior. This is the way it has worked since Dropbox implemented this feature. All is okay here. Do you understand? The files with the little cloud icon are not actually on my hard drive, these are just placeholders which takes up next to no space. The placeholder's file size is of no interest to me.

Now here's a screenshot of a folder on a machine running Ventura:

[Removed as per Community Guidelines]

See the difference? All the files set to online only show the placeholders physicial file size (i.e. 0 bytes) and not the files actual/logial size. This is the bug. This is NOT expected behavior. 

Now, unless you have a way of solving this for me, I would greatly appreciate if you just push this forward to someone else who actually understands the basic functions of the software you are supporting.  

Online-only files should always show the physical file size of zero bytes in Finder and Explorer. If they showed the logical size, then this would be considered not normal behavior. Only files available offline would show the size of the file on the disk.

EDIT: I just now noticed that the screenshots were removed for some reason. You just have to take my word for it.

So you are basically telling me that of the two screenshots I posted, the one from the machine running Monterey is displaying some kind of bug/unexpected behavior when the files display the logical file size and not the physical size?

Also, the support agents on "the advanced team" (or whatever you call it) were all simply confused when they wrote back to me in March 2022:

Thanks for getting back to me with this screenshot.
No I can confirm that this definitely shouldn't happen.

And the other guys who helped me solve this after a long period of troubleshooting this - as you call it - "expected behavior" must have been extremely confused when they finally admitted it was a bug on your end:

The engineering team identified an issue and have made some changes on the backend, which should resolve the problem you were experiencing. 

I suggest you read this article also:

https://help.dropbox.com/sync/make-files-online-only

Pay special attention to the section: "Why do online-only files still appear to take up space?”

You are simply wrong. That is ok. But I want you to admit it before we go on.

So an update to whoever finds this thread...

The issue, that was considered and handled as a bug last year, is now considered as a drawback of Ventura. The developers at Dropbox does not intend to try and solve it and you get no help from the support team. I understand that Dropbox is in the hands of Apple and if there is nothing to be done , I guess that's it. I can only prey the issue has been resolved once I will be forced to upgrade from my current version (Monterey).