We can't open After Effects files unless we make them available offline on our MacOS device

Hey there yasinturhan-916 - thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Can you please let me know if this only affects your After Effects projects/files and if you're working on an individual account or a team account instead?

Also, how large are the files that are showing this behavior? 

Any additional information or even screenshots are more than welcome! 

We’re experiencing this issue not only with After Effects but with all of our files. It’s not just me — more than 50 of my teammates are facing the same problem. We’re using a team account.

File sizes range from as small as 100 KB to over 10 GB, and we encounter the same issue with all of them.

I’ve attached the error message we receive each time we try to open a file.

Hey yasinturhan-916, let me also jump in here! 

When did you first notice this behavior? 

You also mentioned this happens with other files too. I'm assuming you're also getting an error when double clicking an online-only file, and trying to simply open it? 

One last thing: does the issue persist if you pause syncing or quit the desktop app completely on your computer?

Hello,

We’ve been experiencing this issue for about 2–3 weeks now.

Yes, we get an error when we try to open a file by double-clicking it. However, when we set it to “Make available offline,” it opens. In other words, it asks us to manually sync first.

Despite stopping synchronization, restarting the program, and rebooting the computer, the problem still persists.

We look forward to your support, thank you.

Hey yasinturhan-916! Let me chime in here, too. 

You mentioned in your first post that your Dropbox app was using this app version: 231.4.5770. Since there has been a new one released in the meantime (232.4.5926), can you make sure your desktop app has been properly updated to it?

I also understand that you receive an error after directly double-clicking on a file in the Dropbox folder, instead of right-clicking on it > selecting “Make available offline” first. Correct?

Finally, and please correct me if I’m wrong again, this is happening for all files saved in your local Dropbox folder, and not just your .aep files. Right?

This will help me sum up the issue a little bit and investigate further.

Thanks!