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

Hi Dave_Rado,

• Solid Green Circle with White Checkmark:
• This icon means the file or folder is stored locally on your computer and can be accessed even without an internet connection. It's fully synced and up-to-date.
• Green Border Around Circle with Green Checkmark:
• This icon typically appears when an online-only file (one that only exists on Dropbox's servers and not locally) has been accessed, causing it to download to your device and become available offline. It indicates that the file is now available locally but might be automatically returned to online-only status if Dropbox's "Storage Sense" or selective sync settings deem it necessary to save space --- if this is not an issue, you can go to your Desktop App and in Selective Sync Settings , you can choose which folders you’d like to store on your computer’s hard drive from all of the folders you have stored in your Dropbox account. 

• If you check a folder, that folder and the files and folders inside it are saved to your hard drive. 
• If you uncheck a folder, that folder and the files and folders inside it are removed from your hard drive, and are only stored on dropbox.com.

( https://help.dropbox.com/sync/selective-sync-overview ) 

I'm currently experiencing much more serious issues with this latest update, but the answers being given here make no sense/don't apply. I experienced this same confusion as the OP before other issues got worse. Example, I had a folder all of one particular type of file, and I had them all set to be available offline (green circle with check). Every one was sent to Dropbox from a third-party app on mobile, appeared in the cloud on my laptop, and from there I manually set each to be available offline before moving them to a folder which has ALWAYS been set to be available offline. Most of them synced like this during the update, correctly, with the green circle with check. But a few showed up with the white circle/green check.

These are a file type I can't open on my computer, so that's not what happened. EVERY file in that folder was saved to my computer in the same way, to the same settings, yet the new Dropbox update treated them differently for some reason. The explanation being given why doesn't make sense in this context. So I fully get OP's confusion, I feel it too.

The update has almost completely borked up my computer but I'm trying to deal with that via tech support (no solution yet), just pointing out there seem to be serious bugs in this latest Windows update and if I'm understanding correctly, OP is not alone in this.

Hi Roga41​

I've now explained three times that according to those definitions all of my files should have a solid green circle as they were all created on my laptop and then synced to the server, and are all synced and up to date.

So how can I find out why, ever since. I upgraded Dropbox for Windows, most of them have had a green border round a white circle?

Please don't make me repeat myself again.

Many thanks

Dave

Also if I go into Preferences on the Desktop app, and then select Selective Sync Settings, all my folders are checked, So all the files in them should have a solid green circle, and none should have a green border round a white circle.

If I copy a new file to my Dropbox folder, it gets a solid green circle. It's only the majority (but not all) of my old files that have green border round a white circle, which they've had ever since I upgraded the Desktop app.

As Rachel L.​ pointed out, this appears to be due to a bug in the latest version of Dropbox for Windows.  

Dave

Hi Rachel L.​, thanks for messaging the Community.

Did you mark the folder itself as available offline, prior to moving them to the other folder you mentioned, instead of manually marking each file as available offline?

What is the default sync status for new files according to the Dropbox desktop application preferences in the Sync tab?

"Did you mark the folder itself as available offline, prior to moving them to the other folder you mentioned, instead of manually marking each file as available offline?"

Yes. It was all marked to be offline, always. I created the folders (though not the files) on Windows, they've always been offline.

"What is the default sync status for new files according to the Dropbox desktop application preferences in the Sync tab?"

Don't know at the moment. The update has messed up my computer so badly that I can't turn the app back on until this issue is resolved, and without Dropbox, I have no reason to turn on my computer. I have an open help ticket, he advised me to unlink and relink (at that point, I set it to make EVERYTHING online only so I could start over making things offline manually, so that is now what the status SHOULD be), but all that did was create a slew of Selective Sync conflict folders and start the indexing/syncing over again. I have only 15GB left on my hard drive due to this, I can't afford to let it keep going if it's just downloading it all before syncing, like it seems to be doing. And I've received no further update to my ticket since then, I'm hoping because it's the weekend, but I'm losing hope.

Regarding the marked solution...the solution is that this is indeed a bug? 😕

Hey Rachel L.​, I'm sorry to hear about the situation. I was able to find your support ticket and I can see our advanced team is currently handling it. 

Please keep an eye out for their email, and they’ll further assist.