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Forum Discussion
Dropbox Syncing Issue Where Updated Files Aren't Really Updated
Hi Everyone
Has anyone experienced an issue where they edit a document. Save it. Dropbox shows it was synced and updated successfully. Then went to PC 2 to open the same document after waiting ...
Hi Hannah ,
Thank you very much. Sorry, let me explain more in detail below and let me know if you have any questions:
1. My Macbook and Mac Pro are both using the same Dropbox email account.
Not sure if this will cause an issue or not, as I have seen some comments on using Dropbox with 2 different email accounts; however, my Mac environment is using the same Dropbox email account to sign into both Mac's. The Mac environment is using the free account from Dropbox.
2. Our customer's Windows 10 environment is using 2 different email accounts. We have the main admin email and then users emails. This Windows 10 environment is using the Business account from Dropbox and has about 10 computers all signed into the user email account and the admin account is signed into 1 separate computer, the CEO.
3. For both Mac and Windows 10 environments, all documents are stored on the Dropbox folder using the Dropbox Desktop app. Users will edit by accessing their Dropbox folder and then opening the Word, Excel, or PDF files that they wish to edit.
Files are usually saved and users know to wait to see that Dropbox has said that files have been successfully updated.
This is the preferred route, as Dropbox keeps the version histories.
4. This option is not preferred, as confusion will arise when users have to download a document and save it locally, say the desktop, edit it and the upload it to Dropbox.
This way does guarantee that the latest version is on Dropbox; however, Dropbox doesn't have the version history on this document. Word does show the local version history though.
Any help is very much appreciated. At first, I thought maybe the issue is because of using the same Dropbox account for all computers, as is the case for the Mac environment; however, when I looked into our customer's environment and found that they actually have about 4 different Dropbox business accounts, that ruled out that theory.
Thank you very much,
Sonny
Hannah
Dropbox Community Moderator
Dropbox Community ModeratorThanks for the additional info, Sonny.
I'll still need some clarifications, though.
Are these Word files shared between you and your customer? Meaning, are they in a folder that both your accounts share?
And also, after editing the files and saving them locally (which appear to have synced), if you then open them from dropbox.com, do you see the updated versions there, or the old ones?
Hi Hannah,
Thank you very much.
To confirm, the Word, Excel, and PDF files are living in a Dropbox folder that is shared within our customer's company. So they have 12 computers with Dropbox installed on each computer running Windows 10 Home edition.
Each computer varies on the Dropbox email address they are using to login to access the shared documents; however, the folders and documents are shared amongst each Dropbox account to be able to edit or delete files.
Within their organization, they are experiencing syncing issues where say, Document A.doc was edited to start with 2 pages and end with 10 pages. Then another user on another computer opens Document A.doc inside their Dropbox folder to see only 2 pages.
All 12 computers stay on 24/7, so it wouldn't be a case where an author edited a file and shut down the computer before it could update its data on Dropbox.
Hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any questions and your assistance is greatly appreciated.
Thank you very much,
Sonny
- Walter
Hey SonnyP, sorry to jump in here, but I wanted to mention that it sounds like your customer's company might be having a syncing issue.
Do they make sure that the Dropbox desktop app is 'up to date' and not still syncing (in their system tray/menu bar) their edits when they try to update the shared files in question?
Do they all see the same set of files when they try to access those files through a web browser?
Hi Walter ,
Thank you very much. No worries. Any assistance is greatly appreciated. In answering your questions:
Hey @SonnyP, sorry to jump in here, but I wanted to mention that it sounds like your customer's company might be having a syncing issue.
- I think so too, as with our customer's Windows 10 Home environment, most documents
do not have this issue and maybe in the past 6 months, 2-3 documents had syncing
issues.
- In our Mac environment, I had experienced this and could easily recreate it too. In our
Mac environment, our test file was "TestFile.doc" We added data to total 2 pages using a
MacBook Pro.
Then using a Mac Pro with both having the Dropbox Desktop app installed and using the
same Dropbox email account, the Mac Pro could open the "TestFile.doc" and see all 2
pages.
Then, a few times later of editing the same file on the Macbook Pro and Mac Pro
separately, meaning that the file was edited on the MacBook Pro on a Tuesday. It was
synced with a green check arrow. Then on a Thursday, the Mac Pro opened the same file
after the Dropbox app showed that it had synced successfully to show an older version of
the same document.
Do they make sure that the Dropbox desktop app is 'up to date' and not still syncing (in their system tray/menu bar) their edits when they try to update the shared files in question?
- Yes. For our customer's environment, all 12 PC's are left on 24/7 and when the Dropbox
app pops up that there's an update, we update it. All users are trained to wait for the
Dropbox app on each PC they use to have it display that it has successfully synced and
that all files are up to date.
- In our own Macbook Pro and Mac Pro environment, the syncing issue could easily be
replicated as follows:
1. MacBook Pro creates a "TestFile.doc" that has 2 pages. File is saved and Dropbox
shows a green checkmark on it. Dropbox app in the title bar shows that it had
successfully synced.
2. MacPro opens this same "TestFile.doc" after the Dropbox box app shows that files
were successfully synced and a green arrow showing on the file's thumbnail.
3. MacBook Pro and MacPro can edit this file at separate times and not opening them
at the same time with no issues.
4. Eventually, MacBook Pro or MacPro will open the same file and see a previous version.
This occurs after waiting to see the green checkmark on the file's thumbnail and the
Dropbox app showing that files were synced. I can even see for example, that it was
synced successfully 1 minute ago, yet, seeing an older file.
Thank you very much for your assistance on this. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Sonny
Do they all see the same set of files when they try to access those files through a web browser?
Hi Hannah,
Thank you very much. In answering your questions:
Are these Word files shared between you and your customer? Meaning, are they in a folder that both your accounts share?
- Sorry. No. In our customer's environment, Word, Excel, and PDF files are being shared
amongst employees in a Windows 10 Home environment.
And also, after editing the files and saving them locally (which appear to have synced), if you then open them from dropbox.com, do you see the updated versions there, or the old ones?
- All shared files are living in a Dropbox Folder that was created by installing the Dropbox
desktop app. Most files sync fine. Some random files had the syncing issue where on
PC-1, the user edited say, a PDF with 2 pages and edited to where it had 10 pages.
Dropbox showed that the file had updated successfully on PC-1.
PC-2, a different user opened the same PDF file and saw 2 pages and not 10 pages.
PC-2's Dropbox showed that syncing has finished successfully too before the 2nd user
opened the same PDF file.
All computers have the latest version of Dropbox desktop installed.
Sorry, no one opens the documents using a web browser, as they prefer the convenience
of editing and viewing files locally.
Thank you very much for your assistance on this. Please let me know if you have any more questions.
Sonny
