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Forum Discussion
Dropbox no longer overwriting files
A few days ago, Dropbox stopped overwriting files when I edit and re-save them. Now, every time I edit one of my files on iPad and save to Dropbox, it creates a new file ending in (1). It used to sim...
Hannah
Dropbox Community Moderator
Dropbox Community ModeratorHey Blackie1, did you get a chance to look for the ticket number Megan asked for?
As for you, MoeandRob, I moved your post to this relevant thread.
Can you let me know a bit more about your situation?
Are you on the most recent version of iPad OS and Dropbox?
Any additional info you can give me, would be really helpful.
Thanks!
Hi Hannah,
Using iOS 15.5. Itās on an iPad eighth generation. It also does the same thing on my phone which is an iPhone Max 10.
I tried on installing dropbox and reinstalling. This happened once in the past I think maybe a little over a year ago after an update. When the next update came around it worked properly again. It will upload the file but keeps the old file so I have to delete the old file to make sure I am updated. It wonāt prompt me with (file already exists do you want to overwrite?)
I have spent the last month in the most infuriating dialogue with Dropbox staff regarding this issue. The first person told me about 4 or 5 times I need to open Illustrator files from the Dropbox app itself on iPad, even though this cannot be done. The second person said "everything points to this being a problem with Illustrator" even though I had said over and over that this is happening on multiple apps. Then they told me several times that I need to update my iPad, even though I had already said my iPad is up to date. Each email takes several days for them to respond, and each response ignores something I've already said, ignores something I've asked, provides illogical advice, or tells me to do something that Dropbox can't do.
I was told there was no reason why this should be happening, according to one Dropbox engineer.
Last word of advice was to contact each external app and tell them to fix it.
I don't think Dropbox staff understand how their own app works, and honestly I think the right advice is to switch to another service. I've never been so frustrated with a support team in my life.- Walter
Hi all, sorry to hear you're having issues with this.
For anyone affected, would it be OK if we reach out via email to investigate a bit further?
- I would be happy for another person to contact me, but I am now four weeks into an email conversation where two different people have been giving me incorrect information and ignoring important information from me, so I'm just going over the same nonsense over and over.
The latest is me telling them three times that I've already updated my iPad to 15.5 (came out weeks ago) but the issue is still happening, and the person tells me over and over that I'm on 15.4. It's not true. When I sent a screenshot showing I'm already on 15.5, they basically said "I can see you've now run the update, so the issue should be gone". It was already updated! I have to wait days for each of these irritating responses. I'm honestly about to explode.
Please send someone who has more intel than "update the iPad" or "contact the other apps". Has the Dropbox staff done some due diligence to investigate and try to reproduce the problem? Several have provided repro steps- has anyone from Dropbox tried to follow them and see the problem for themselves? If not, what is the point of contacting people by email for more info? I was a software engineer for almost 20 years. We didn't badger people to try this, try that, try this other thing; we took the necessary information, and then investigated on our own. The fact that this issue existed before, was resolved, and then reappeared after a Dropbox app update is more than weighty evidence that problem is in the app.
- Hannah
Hi aisb, thanks very much for your comments, rest assured that they will be passed along to our team.
Would you mind sending over the ticket numbers from the communications you've been having with our support team?
As for you clira, I completely understand where you're coming from, but know that we're definitely looking at this on our end as well.
Would you like us to contact you via email?
This is the same bug I've noticed about a year ago. It's intermittent: it comes, you suffer it for about 2-3 months, and then goes with the nth Dropbox update. The sad part is the support staff is absolutely of no help (or worse) and they like to send instructions like: "please, turn off your TV set, wait for 5 minutes, then turn on again and everything should work again...", no matter you're not asking for help about any TV set at all...
The most recent ticket number Iāve been using is #17021399. The one before was #16958130.
They keep giving me busy work. Now Iām being asked to provide evidence of the same issue happening on other apps (if they had asked me for this upfront Iād be less annoyed, but this is after weeks of this person simply ignoring this element of the problem and telling me to update my already updated iPad or contact Illustrator).
Then, they said I needed to respond to this request within āa few daysā or theyād close the ticket. The next day, before Iāve had time to attend to it, of course they closed it. Iām so beyond mad. Iāve wasted so much time on this issue.
I agree with the person who said there should be some onus on the support team to replicate the problem, but they ignored me when I asked if theyāve tried to do the same thing on their end with an iPad.
Iām so tired of this dialogue, but Iām also feeling pretty furious at the communication Iāve been trudging through. If they donāt know whatās wrong and it therefore canāt be fixed, thatās fine, just tell me that so I can switch services. Being sent in circles is the worst.- This person is not a specialist in any sense of the word. They're ignoring most of what I tell them, and their only solutions have been to update my iPad after I've told them it's up to date, or ask all the other apps to fix the problem for them. Isn't there someone else I can talk to who will treat me with at least enough courtesy to listen to me when I say my iPad is already up to date?
- I just got told AGAIN by this specialist to open and edit Illustrator files via the Dropbox app to resolve the problem. This cannot be done! A month later, and Iām back at the beginning of this insane loop. What on earth is going on with the support team??
āspecialistā
For the life of me, I canāt understand why they canāt just investigate, reproduce, and fix this on their own. We have all provided adequate repro steps. Iām a freeloading no-pay user so I have stepped back but this affects their paid users as well.
This seems to be a common thing, unfortunately. Amazon always takes the āwear them down and hope they go awayā approach.
- Honestly, the degree of time wasting reads like contempt for their users. I am a paid member. I want the last month refunded, but Iām not sure how to go about it. Who is responsible for consumer rights in situations like this?
When I asked them to reproduce the issue themselves, this is what they said:
āI have tried editing files from an iPad and confirm the files synced like normal. No duplicate.
I think the issue here, is you are editing the files in illustrator, and trying to export to Dropbox.ā
ā¦as if this isnāt the issue I was raising in the first place, over a month ago, and the very thing Iāve been discussing through 30-odd emails with this same person. Isn't editing files in Illustrator, or a spreadsheet in Numbers(in my case) and then exporting the updated file to Dropbox a normal and anticipated use case for Dropbox? The thing is- it used to work. They broke it in an update, just like they have before.
- Exactly!! I cannot get a single person to acknowledge either point in an email. They keep saying the other apps need to improve their Dropbox integration, so I have to ask them to fix it. But it used to work!
So, is it a bug that they intend to fix, or is it going to be like this forever? No one can answer the question! - It all comes down to āit used to workā, no issue, no nothing with ALL the apps. Now, itās all down to Dropbox itself. THEY changed it so that we canāt overwrite our own files (which is a normal function for any file management system). It doesnāt matter where you do it. End result is you have to delete the original file from Dropbox before re-saving there otherwise it gets an (x) added to it. Itās more work for the end user. Iām living with it but hope this ānew normalā is reversed to how it used to be.
I used to be able to see around a dozen recent folders, now it only shows five because thereās the unnecessary āpreviewā pane that takes up half the screen. These improvements were not asked for. Itās the fix whatās not broken mentality occurring.
