Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨💻? Find out how to check here.
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.
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
Dropbox Community Moderator
Dropbox Community ModeratorHey 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?
- Megan
Hi SonnyP, I appreciate your details!
I checked the entire thread, but I couldn't find anywhere mentioned, the Dropbox version that each device uses. Can you clarify, and let me know?
You can do this by locating your Dropbox icon, next to your WiFi and then hovering your mouse there.
In any case, it might be helpful that (you or your client, depending on who's facing the issue at the moment) to reach out to our Support, in order for them to be able to have a more account-specific look into this, and suggest next steps.
Hi Megan ,
Thank you very much. I did report this to support and my ticket was closed on the assumption that the files were not following the naming guidelines from Dropbox, which they were.The Windows 10 computers are on version v165.4.4286.
For our Mac environment, they are on verions v164.4.7914.
Just to clarify, our mac environment is used for testing. The Windows 10 environment is what's been in production for several years, so the 2 environments are separate and do not share the same files.
Thank you very much.
Sonny
