Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨💻? Find out how to check here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
Unspecified Error trying to open word, excel or PowerPoint files
Hello,
I have a fairly new laptop that was purchased in March that I use for all my personal and professional work. I started a new gig with a company in June and was given access to their Dropbox...
Hi NGraham1!
I understand you are not able to open certain files via the Dropbox desktop app.
Is there any chance the files are currently Smart Synced to 'online-only'? If so, there will be a gray cloud icon by the files, and you can right-click on them and set their Smart Sync setting to 'Local'.
Alternatively, some applications have limits on the file paths they can access (for example, Excel has a limit of 218 total characters), and so shortening the entire name/path to the file may help.
You can check all of our sync icons and possible syncing issues here, too, for reference.
If the file is local and the file length is not the issue, can you copy the file to outside of the Dropbox folder and see if you can open it then? This will help determine if this is syncing issue or a file-specific one.
Let me know what you find, thanks!
Lusil
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHi aa88,
Welcome to the Dropbox Community!
Initially, please note that Smart Sync is a space-saving feature for your hard drive. So, by setting files to be online-only, only specific information is downloaded to your computer, such as the name, the location, and the date it was updated.
If you want to edit it, you'll have to make it local, so that the relevant information becomes available for you to make changes.
I hope this helps clarify a bit, but let us know if you have any other questions. Thanks!
I am getting the unspecified error. I did the make available offline and I am still unable to open any excel files from my dropbox app
- Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi NicoleDominique28, could you check to see that Excel files are configured to be opened with Excel on your machine, and not another app, in the settings?
Sorry where in the settings would I find this?
- Hannah
Hey NicoleDominique28, I think this should help!
