"This file cannot be previewed because you are offline" when accessing shared link.

I experience this MANY times as well and am more familiar and prefer google chrome. This is quite a frustration I have with Dropbox however the company I work for uses dropbox for their file system. I am also a mac user. I use chrome and I Just tried the following a few moments ago to see if this would resolve the issue. On my mac I turned off my wi-fi for about 10 seconds then back on and the page refreshed and when I selected a file it now shows preview. Ridiculous a company like Dropbox can't code this so that it doesn't require these refreshes from the user. I never had these issues with Google drive so it must be something on the developer side. Luckily I'm a power user but I know a lot of people with less technical computer knowledge this should be resolved for the customer experience from Dropbox.

Hope this info helps someone else with this issue in the future.

Hope you don't mind someone else adding their two cents to this problem... it is still here on 01/24/2023... I just got it when I tried to view the photos I had just moved into a dropbox folder.  Rather perplexing since I had just put 20+ photos in!

I read the comments and decided to try something.  Was connected directly to the internet through my home Comcast/Xfinity internet when I got this message.  So... I started up my VPN, connecting to an out of state location (I'm in California).  Presto, chango it all works and I can see the pictures now that dropbox can't see me.  Go Figure!

One of the many reasons I don't use dropbox for anything important!

Hi Editor-br146SIR-Call, if this helped to resolve your issue, then it could indicate that something on your network was preventing the connection to the Dropbox servers.

As you changed your location via VPN, it meant that the files were synced via a different network to Dropbox, so the default network settings are somehow blocking it. Do you have any proxy, firewall, security software, or even ISP/router settings that could be affecting the traffic?

Ive had this issue as well. Try turning your wifi off and on again. This worked for me 

Hello 

I am having this same issue for the past two days and cannot access my files, this is urgent as I have files I normally share with my clients. I've tried the incognito window as per one of your messages and still shows the same way. Can you please help? The chat options is also not working for Dropbox support 

Hi lahaina22, do you have any VPNs on your machine, as in my previous reply?

I am getting this error message when I try to access one of my documents on Dropbox from a link which I had copied into an email. "This file cannot be previewed because you are offline".

It has worked fine for the past few years; just started now.

I logged into my account to access the same file, and I received the same message.

Any ideas anyone? Help!

RESOLVED

I Googled this issue and found that something was blocking cookies, and what worked for me was to clear all cookies by doing a Shutdown and Restart.

After the Restart, it worked fine and I was able to View my documents normally in my browser, which is Microsoft Edge.

Hi da_haigh, I hope you're doing well! 

In regards to the previewing message you receive when you try to preview the link, and the file itself, have you tried accessing your account, and previewing the file through a different browser? 

I'd also suggest an incognito tab on your current browser.

Let me know of the results! 

Hi Megan

I Googled this issue and found that something was blocking cookies, and what worked for me was to clear all cookies by doing a Shutdown and Restart.

After the Restart, it worked fine and I was able to View my documents normally in my browser, which is Microsoft Edge.

It appears there are hundreds of solutions to this problem which others have tried and recommend. It appears very flakey to me if a simple Restart clears the problem!

I also have the same problem. Can you help me