Can't Drag Files to Dropbox Folder in Catalina

Hello Daphne at Dropbox, et al.,

I'm not confident messing around with the terminal fix recommendations on this thread (thanks to those of you who created them!), which means that I will look forward to the official workaround.

Please let it be soon.

Stay safe out there,

So - I actually CAN drag all sorts files to Dropbox, but what I can't do is drag WORD files to Dropbox. Interestingly, I can save files from within Word to Dropbox, and I can drag Word files FROM Dropbox to my Mac. So this is a strange, one-way, one-software problem. Any further insights?

That is a little strange indeed chrisreedfilm. :thinking:

Do you get any errors at all when trying to move Word files into Dropbox? If so, please send along a screenshot of that, excluding any personal info.

Also, can you let me know which version of the desktop app you have installed?

Keep me posted!

Hi, Daphne.

No - I get no errors. Just as others have describe, the file merely bounces back to its source location, without copying or dragging. I am running Dropbox verion 94.4.384, in Catalina. This only happens with Word, and only one way, TO Dropbox, and not FROM Dropbox.

Thanks for the additional info chrisreedfilm!

Just in case you missed my previous post, I'd like to let you know that our team is indeed aware and working on this at the moment.

In the meantime, there are a few suggestions that others have mentioned here that you can try as a work around. A potential workaround would be by entering the below command in Terminal:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine "<folderpath>"

Replacing "<folderpath>" with the full path to the affected folder.

Let me know if this helps!

I am not going to place a terminal command, when I have no idea what this is going to do.  

I have found an alernate soultion by using 2 additional apps. One is DropZone and the other is Yoinx.  

So, I have actually discovered something by way of experimenting, which may help explain Daphne's (and other Dropbox reps') confusion – at least as to MY problem with Word dragging one way but not the other. Prior to Catalina, I just easily dragged to and from the Dropbox folder on my laptop. I never used the Dropbox desktop app. In fact, I'm not sure I realized there was an app beyond the appearance of a Dropbox folder, which I had used for years. Since my installation of Catalina, however, I have noticed the actual Dropbox desktop app – beyond the desktop folder – and a lightbulb went off the other day that this is what you and the other Dropbox reps have been referring to in the thread. So I tried dragging Word files into the app, and they transfer seamlessly. That gets rid of my issue. It still doesn't explain why I can no longer just drag the files directly into the folder, but at least I have another way.

this is what dropbox replied to me for this issue. really???

Having had a further look into what you are describing, it would appear that the problem you’re experiencing is caused by your OS, not by Dropbox. We’re unable to provide support for third-party apps or services. 

The best way for you to get assistance with the problem is to reach out to the company that makes the OS for support.

Should you need anything else, please don't hesitate to reach out. I'm here to assist.

IFS=$'\n'; for path in `python -c $'import os\nimport json\nfor key, value in json.loads(open(os.path.expanduser("~/.dropbox/info.json")).read()).items():\n print value["path"].encode("utf-8")'`; do echo "$path"; xattr -d com.apple.quarantine "$path"; done

That code worked for me in Terminal.

Yeah, apparently it's a bug with Catalina, not a Dropbox issue. There's a huge bucket list of issues with Catalina, no audio volume keyboard control through certain external monitors, no option for CUDA Nvidia drivers, no option for OpenGL/OpenCL, no option for 32bit app support among the peskiest for many creatives. Those issues have no hope, at least this is something that can be fixed with a simple Terminal command.