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Forum Discussion
I can't open/edit/upload files inside my desktop app
hey there,
I've been having a lot of sync issues with the desktop app lately. I have had to restart the computer to the point of having to reinstall the app to get a good sync process on my compute...
Rich
Super User II
Super User IIOnce 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.
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.
- Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
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.
- Jay
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.
