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Dave_Rado's avatar
Dave_Rado
Collaborator | Level 10
6 months ago

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

My installation of Dropbox for Windows has just updated and I now see a sync status icon I've never seen before against most of my files, which looks like this.

The sync icon I've always seen before looks like this.

Some of my files have one of the above icons against them and some have the other, and I don't understand the difference.

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.

Any ideas?

Dave

17 Replies

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  • Dave_Rado's avatar
    Dave_Rado
    Collaborator | Level 10
    6 months ago

    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?

  • Dave_Rado's avatar
    Dave_Rado
    Collaborator | Level 10
    6 months ago

    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?

  • Dave_Rado's avatar
    Dave_Rado
    Collaborator | Level 10
    6 months ago

    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.  

  • Dave_Rado's avatar
    Dave_Rado
    Collaborator | Level 10
    6 months ago

    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 

  • Dave_Rado's avatar
    Dave_Rado
    Collaborator | Level 10
    6 months ago

    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?

  • Roga41's avatar
    Roga41
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    6 months ago

    Hi Dave, 

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

    Hope this helps

  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    6 months ago

    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!

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