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Wrong file version opens
I have an Excel file in my dropbox folder that I reference on a daily basis from my work Windows desktop, my home Mac desktop, and my iPhone.
I have been updating this file daily for the last few ...
I just started having (Feb 20, 2020) what sounds like the same problem. An Excel file I edit daily works correctly on my Windows desktop computer(s), but when I preview the file on my Pixel, I see a 3-day stale version. Yet if I launch Excel (on the Pixel) to actually edit the file, I see the correct, current version! It's as if Excel can see the synced version, but the Files preview browser cannot! I've uninstalled and reinstalled the app - no difference! I've copied the file to a new folder, and the copy retains the same odd behavior. It is very puzzling. This just started 3 days ago.
Three years later and I'm having pretty much the same behaviour. Right now I'm on a computer with no dropbox app installed. I'm accessing my files through the web. Opening the very same file in preview/read only shows an old version, but opening it in excel for the web shows the up to date version. This is quite confusing.
Have you found a solution/cause in the meantime?
UPDATE: This same behaviour happens when using the other computer, where the dropbox desktop app is installed. When using the web app I get the same behaviour: Old version in preview/read-only and up-to-date version in Excel for the web.
I've tried it on firefox and Chrome. Same result.
By the way, I'm on W10 Pro 22H2- Nancy
Dropbox Community Moderator
Thanks for reporting this, GasparM.
Out of curiosity, is everything working OK when accessing the Excel file via the Dropbox app on your second computer?
Also, if you haven’t tried this already, I’d like you to test this via an incognito window as well on your web browser, and let me know what happens.
Hi Nancy,
thank you for coming back to me. I'm not sure what you mean by accessing the file via the installed dropbox app. Maybe there is "another" app I'm not aware of, but the one I'm using "only" synchronises my local folders with the cloud. When I want to open a file this same app either opens the regular windows explorer: This works as supposed. The local file opens and it is the up to date version.
Or I can open dropbox.com from inside the app and the known issue happens as described.
I've tried an incognito window and same problem persists. I expeceted it since I already tested a different browser with the same result.
Now I'm done with these files and I probably won't need them anymore. Maybe I could somehow delete the old versions, or just move the up to date file out of dropbox, and then back in again. I'll wait a couple of days in case you want me to do more testing.
Cheers- Nancy
Thanks for the updates, GasparM! I was referring to the Dropbox desktop app indeed; apologies if I didn’t make it clear.
What you suggest towards the end may be a good thing to try; what you can do is open the local Dropbox folder on your computer, move these files to another location on your device (which will also remove them from your web account), and then re-add them to your desktop app and let them sync to www.dropbox.com.
Does that make any difference at all?
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