Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨💻? Find out how to check here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
I worked on and synced a file and it synced as 0 bytes
I was working on a R script. The moment I saved the file and quit RStudio, the script file which is synced in a dropbox folder is turned to a 0 byte file. When I tried to open the file from dropbox web, it showed me "Error (415)". When I tried to recover it from the "version history" option, I found that strangely there are no previously saved versions though I saved it many times during my code writing and trail running. I also searched in my computer's recycle bin and dropbox's deleted file section. There is nothing. How can I recover it? It is an important file.
Are you on a Mac by any chance?
Mac's create 0 byte files which are then populated with data as they are 'saved'. It sounds like Dropbox has saved the 0byte file that was created at the start of the save but then its not sync'd correctly due to the error given - which my guess is because Dropbox then locked that file while it sync'd. Thats almost certainly why its not saved updates as well during day unless you are over quota and so syncing isnt working.
Unfortunately if its not saved locally (to the folder) or available as a recovered file when you open the software its not saved and so not recoverable. It wont be in recycle bin etc. unless you actually moved it there.
www.dropbox.com/events will show you what has sync'd to the system.
17 Replies
Hi Walter,
I'll try to explain:
- If a Word doc is on my Desktop Word app, it's fine - I can save it and it gets backed up to Dropbox automatically. I can access it and edit it in Dropbox or on my desktop app.
- The trick is 99% of my files are currently only in Dropbox, since I had a hard drive meltdown and had to completely wipe my computer and reboot with macOS Monterey. Fortunately I had saved pretty much everything in Dropbox, but now Word docs in Dropbox no longer connect with Word desktop app. The are Dropbox-online only.
- I think, after much experimentation, what I have to do is open all the Dropbox-only files in Word on Desktop, then edit them and hit save. That seems to work (as opposed to using "Save As" to replace the doc on Dropbox). Then it becomes a real file again, with a listed file size.
So, I think I've fixed it? It may have to do with Dropbox not working well with OS Monterey.
Thanks,
Jana
- Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi scarlettalex, if you're on a paid plan, then you can make your files available offline by right clicking the folders for the files to download to your machine.
JanaV, I'm glad to hear you were able to fix the file sizes, in general if a file is offline on the machine, it wouldn't be zero bytes.
Thank you that def worked!
I have the same issue- has this been solved? I can open and view the files, but when I attempt to send them as an attachment they all say "0 bytes" and the file is essentially empty.
I've found if I open it on my Desktop it magically appears even in Dropbox as the original size. Which is a pain if you have tons of docs, but I'm not doing them all at once - just as needed.
Hi,
I have the same issue with Rstudio files. If I leava Rstudio opened, I can sse the script. However, if I close it, and try to open it in another PC with my dropbox, the file opens as empty...and it says 0kb.
I don't see a solution on the thread, although its marked as solved? what should we do?
thanks,
- Megan
Hi gafap, thanks for posting here today!
Have you checked some of the troubleshooting steps that we offered throughout this thread?
Could you please clarify how you save the file in Dropbox when you are finished editing, and the version of the app that you're using?
Keep me posted!
