I can't open/edit/upload files inside my desktop app

Hi mcastellanos-smedleys, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

What OS and Dropbox desktop application version are you running on your machine?

Any other info or screenshots or the issue would be helpful!

Hi Jay,

Thank you for your response.

Below, I’ve included some details that I hope will help clarify my current environment and the issues I’m experiencing:

• OS: Windows 11 Business
• Version: 23H2
• OS Build: 22631.4460
• System type: x64
• Dropbox Version: v212.4.5767

Dropbox Version: v212.4.5767

Every day, when I turn on the computer, I wait for the Dropbox sync process to complete before trying to access any files stored in Dropbox.

When i finally got this message:

Once I see the previous message indicating that all files are synced on my computer, I proceed to open a file. However, these files do not open when I try to access them through the desktop app. Here’s an example:

I initially thought the issue might be related to an update of my Office 365 apps, as I am able to open files using the Dropbox website. I updated my entire Office 365 environment and ran multiple tests, creating and opening files located outside the Dropbox app, and everything worked fine. But when I try to open a file within the Dropbox desktop app, it still doesn’t work.

Sometimes, I need to restart the computer more than five times or even reinstall the app to successfully open these files.

I also suspected that my computer might be blocking or interrupting the service that connects to Dropbox servers. To test this, I deactivated my firewall, restarted the computer, and tried again, but unfortunately, the result was the same.

I'll appreciate any advice and solution for this issue.

Thanks

Thanks for the info. If you quit the Dropbox desktop application entirely and then open the file from within the Dropbox folder, do you get the same behavior?

mcastellanos-smedleys wrote:

Once I see the previous message indicating that all files are synced on my computer

Just to be clear, that doesn't mean all files are synced on your computer. It simply means that all syncing is complete and your files are up to date. If you have any files set to Online-only, they're not on your computer even though you'll see them in the Dropbox folder.

But when I try to open a file within the Dropbox desktop app, it still doesn’t work.

Are the files marked as available offline so they're stored locally? Right-click one of the files you're having a problem with and see if there's an option that says Make available offline. If it's there, click it and wait a moment for the file to sync, then try opening it.

The behavior is the same only with files that have the Online-Only option activated. This option is meant to save space on my computer and download the files when needed. However, when the app is running, I can't open, edit, download, or upload any files.

Hi Rich

Yes, that's correct.

I work with a large amount of information daily, and at the end of each day, I activate the Online-Only option for these files to save space on my computer.

However, when I try to open those files again, the same issue occurs. Initially, the local app displays a "Syncing..." message. Sometimes, the file opens successfully, but in other instances, I have to restart the computer more than five times or even reinstall the app to regain full functionality, such as uploading, downloading, editing, deleting, or renaming files.

Another issue I noticed recently is that the app doesn’t retain my sync folder preferences. I tried forcing the sync process by making certain folders in my Dropbox available locally. However, the app never starts syncing these preferences and the same behavior I described persists—ultimately requiring me to restart the computer multiple times or reinstall the app just to activate the folder preferences.

How large are the files you're trying to preview or edit on your machine?

Each file is around 10MB. I use Dropbox as my main file repository to store a wide variety of files related to projects, which are organized and classified into folders.

Thanks for the details, in order to look into this matter in more detail, I'd recommend contacting the support team directly for them to investigate further.