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We want to open shared links directly on the desktop app and not the website.
Hi there. Love Dropbox. I moved our whole team to it from Google Drive much to all of our delight. The one hiccup that keeps coming up (was also an issue with Drive, but would be a game changing new feature from DB) is sharing links. Our team uses the desktop app to work with files directly in finder, but we share links to files and folders on slack and in email, etc...
Right now we click a link, it opens the browser as expected, we find the file path in browser and then follow that path in finder. That seems like an awful lot of work when we have a direct connection between our finder and dropbox in the app. Perhaps the website could provide a link that connects to the desktop app, opening the folder/file in finder or windows explorer. Seems like a reasonable option to me, but what do others think?
9 Replies
- Rich
Super User II
What is the proper setup for making sure that when I click a link it opens automatically the document opens in the desktop version
There is no such setup. A link will always take you to the Dropbox website. From there you have to use the Open in option and select the application to open the file with, if available.
For that to work, you need to have the Dropbox application installed and syncing, and the file needs to exist in your local Dropbox folder.
We have a lot of documents, so I cannot check everyone. But the option is missing on everything I've tried on. It's very inconsistent and I've only experienced once that the option to open in desktop was present.
What is the proper setup for making sure that when I click a link it opens automatically the document opens in the desktop version- Hannah
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey Nimaaaa, thanks for your contribution to the discussion.
Are you missing this option for every file in your account or for specific ones?
Is the desktop app working and syncing on your computer? What do you see when you hover over your Dropbox icon with your mouse?
I am having the same issue.
When we open dropbox links, it's inconsistent if we get the option to open the file in the desktop app. Some of the files we work in are very big, so performance edition directly in the browser is not ideel.
I do not see the Finder option that AnastasiaDBX is referring to.- Nancy
Hey katiesoule! Can you see the “Open in” > “Finder” option now?
If not, and you still want us to look into this, feel free to let me know.
- Hannah
Hey katiesoule, thanks for the nudge here.
Is the Dropbox desktop app installed and syncing as normal on your Mac?
What do you see when you hover over the Dropbox icon in your menu bar?
For some reason I dont have this option, Im on a mac. How do I enable this?
AnastasiaDBXDropbox Product Manager
Hello! Thank you for reaching out. There should be an "Open in" button on web, that allows you to select Finder / File Explorer. See screenshot. Do you see that on your end? Does that help your workflow? Let me know!
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