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David T.36's avatar
David T.36
Collaborator | Level 8
7 years ago
Solved

Every time I open a Powerpoint file I get an error message from DB for no reason

I have powerpoints in unshared, regular folders that are synced to Dropbox as I've always done before. But now when I open the files (without moving them at all), I get a message If you move this file to (the folder it currently resides in with everything else), it won't be available in Dropbox or on any devices." This is maddening. The Don't Ask Me Again checkbox doesn't work if I hit Cancel and if I hit Move Out of Dropbox, then it isn't synced with Dropbox, which is not what I want. Why am I suddenly getting these messages on files that are definitely in my Dropbox and indeed accessible on my iOS devices and the Web, and are not being removed, just opened? It sounds like Dropbox thinks I'm removing each file by opening them, but I'm not. I'm running v56.3.90. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

 

 

13 Replies

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    • anonymous's avatar
      anonymous

      I am getting this too under similar circumstances. I have a script that overwrites an existing text file, and when it does, a little window pops up saying "If you move this file to (the folder it currently resides in), it won't be available in Dropbox or on any devices."

      I am on 55.4.171. It started I believe within the past week.

  • kikoulou's avatar
    kikoulou
    New member | Level 2

    I've got the exact same and maddening problem, starting just this morning. I'm running v56.4.94 ... 

    • anonymous's avatar
      anonymous

      Hi everyone,

      Thanks for the advice! 

      I removed the symbolic link, let Dropbox resync, then re-added the link. The error still, however, pops up when the shell script runs.

      Is there a way for me to revert to an older version of the Dropbox desktop software while the Dropbox team fixes this?

      Thanks,
      Michael 

      • David T.36's avatar
        David T.36
        Collaborator | Level 8

        It has nothing to do with symbolic links. Try this: create a blank test text folder. Move it into any folder that is in Dropbox itself (not a symbolic link). Now move it out of Dropbox to a local folder that is not in Dropbox: I get the error every time.
        I get it-it's a way for Dropbox to tell us that we are moving something out of a Dropbox folder (whether within Dropbox or a symbolic link; it doesn't matter). But every time I even edit some powerpoint files I get that error, when I'm not actually moving something outside of Dropbox at all. This is really annoying. Please stop it. And I'm running v. 56.4.94 not a beta now. The behavior had stopped but now that I transferred everything to a new computer, it's back.
        Even worse-unless I click the blue button to take powerpoint files out of dropbox just by moving them one level up (and still within dropbox), it won't let me move them. Hitting Cancel reverses my move.

        So I would hope that this issue is addressed. Not sure what it is about powerpoint files (and only ones I had in two folders created in the past week) that would constantly trigger these warnings when I'm not moving the files out of dropbox. I should be able to open those powerpoint files without getting that warning. I should be able to move them to another folder still within dropbox and not trigger that warning. I get that Dropbox doesn't want to officially encourage symbolic links, but they work, have worked for years, and were the reason I chose Dropbox over other competing, and less expensive, options. I have many shared folders that are in a larger symbolically-linked folder. Moving all that over to Dropbox directly rather than through symbolic links likely will break all those shares. 

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