I don't understand the new Dropbox for Windows sync icons

Hey Dave_Rado​, thanks for posting to our Community.

I'll be happy to clarify the new sync icons on your Windows computer.

Regarding the solid green circle with a white checkmark, it means that your files is fully synced and available offline, just like before.

Regarding the white circle with a green border and a green checkmark, it means that the file was in in an online-only state and by opening it (either directly or through a 3rd party app), it changed states and now it's available.

If you want all of them to be available offline, like they were before, just select all your files, right-click and choose "make available offline"; that should give them all the solid green circle icon and download them to your hard drive.

Let me know if you have more questions or if that's not the behavior you're seeing on your end.

Thanks!

Hi Dave, 

You can check this link for your reference : https://help.dropbox.com/sync/sync-icons

Hope this helps

Hi Hannah​ 

No, as I thought I'd made clear in my original post, none of my Dropbox files have ever been in an online-only state. 

Here's a screencapture to prove it:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1di5byV0oXJvOcbm3Yerkoi13KWsALXiy/view?usp=drive_link

So why do most of them have a white circle with a green border and a green checkmark?

Dave

PS - I had to paste the above link as plain text because if I made it a real link, it gave me the following error message:
"Content Not Published
Your post contains invalid HTML. Remove the following invalid tags before publishing: a, a (class), li-user"

Is this a bug in the forum posting software? Or why did it give me that error message?

Hi Roga41

I linked to that page in my original post and wrote:

The Dropbox help page doesn't explain it in terms I can understand. For the former icon it says it means "that a file was opened (directly or with a third-party application) and synced", whereas for the lattter it says it "means your file is synced and available offline". 

But all my Dropbox files have been opened at some stage and all of them have been synced, so I don't understand why some of my files have one of the above icons against them while others have the other, or what the difference between them is.

I thought I'd also made it clear in my original post that none of my files have ever been online-only.

Dave 

Also, I didn't get an email notification about either of your replies. is there any way that I can get notified when someone replies in this thread?

Dave

PS - I've just received an email notification about Hannah​'s post which she posted 6 hours ago! And I haven't yet received an email notification about Roga41​'s post, which he posted 3 hours ago. So it seems email notifications are turned on but are not working in a timely manner.  

Hi Hannah​ 

I posted a reply to your post about an hour ago, but my reply has disappeared, so I'm posting it again and I hope it stays on here this time.

I thought I'd made it clear in my original post that none of my Dropbox files have ever been online only.

Here's a screen capture to prove it: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1di5byV0oXJvOcbm3Yerkoi13KWsALXiy/view?usp=drive_link

Dave

PS - I had to paste the above link as plain text because if I made it into a proper link, I got the following error message:

Content Not Published
Your post contains invalid HTML. Remove the following invalid tags before publishing: a, a (class), li-user

Any idea why I got that message and why it won't let me publish the link as a link?

Hi ​ Hannah​ 

I posted a reply to your post about an hour ago, but my reply has disappeared, so I'm posting it again and I hope it stays on here this time.

I thought I'd made it clear in my original post that none of my Dropbox files have ever been online only.

Here's a screen capture to prove it.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/n7p33hpmqbtq31p6n0f7t/temp.png?rlkey=9t7efnm4fc0wvxew6klv59ytl&st=h5wp01st&dl=0

Dave

PS - I had to post the above url as plain text because if I posted it as a link, it refused to publish it, saying my post contained invalid html - any idea why?

Duplicate post

Hi Dave, 

Based on the screen capture you sent, it shows that your files are from a third party application , where you opened it from, and then got synced and was made available for offline use. That is why when you right-click the file, you only see the option to " Make-online only " because those files are made available for offline use as well ( taking space from your local storage).  

On the other hand, if you see this icon : 

This means that the files are from your Dropbox online account and synced to be made available for offline use.  

Hope this helps 

:) 

Hi Roga41​

I'm afraid it doesn't help.

All the files, regardless of which icon is showing, were created on my laptop and saved in or copied to the Dropbox folder using the Dropbox for Windows desktop app.

All the files were created in that way and synced to the server before I upgraded Dropbox for Windows and none have been opened since I upgraded.

Also I've no idea what you mean by "from a third party application". If you mean they were created in programs like Microsoft Word or Excel or Photoshop before I copied them to or saved them in my Dropbox folders, that is true of all my files, regardless of which icon is showing.

Dave