We Want to Hear From You! What Do You Want to See on the Community? Tell us here!
Forum Discussion
Dieselista
22 days agoExplorer | Level 3
New Dropbox files sync as online-only on Windows, even though I want them to be available offline.
I am a long-time user of DropBox, having been a very early adopter. I have used the program successfully across several computers, phones and tablets, pretty much without issues. However, I recently moved to a new laptop, Lenovo ThinkPad, and now something is different. Files added to DropBox on another computer, don't synch to the new laptop until I open them on the new laptop. Any thoughts on why this may be happening would be very much appreciated.
Hi Dieselista, just for clarification, did you also right click the Dropbox folder itself and mark it as available offline, in order for all files to get the green check marks?
18 Replies
- Dieselista9 days agoExplorer | Level 3
No! That is the first time anyone has mentioned that option. I just checked, after right clicking on a folder that option is buried under 'show more options'. I clicked it and that has resolved the issue, the other folders with non-check marked photos are now downloading. Thank you.
- Jay9 days ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi Dieselista, just for clarification, did you also right click the Dropbox folder itself and mark it as available offline, in order for all files to get the green check marks?
- Dieselista9 days agoExplorer | Level 3
I haven't tried reloading DB yet, however, I did notice that in some cases photos in a folder won't get the green check even after I open the folder. The DB icon on the lower right says synch us up to date, which is clearly not correct. However, I have noticed from the start of this that each one I open individually does get the check, so I tried selecting all 700 photos in one folder, then hit rotate right, and all updated, I then hit rotate left. So, doing this forces them to download to this computer. A work around for now.
- Nancy18 days ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Not an issue at all! You can test this whenever you can, and get back to us then.
- Dieselista18 days agoExplorer | Level 3
"However, if you’ve selected new files to be available offline in your desktop app settings, then it's true that their default status shouldn’t be online-only on your desktop app. "
Exactly my issue!
I'll try reinstalling the app, however, I won't do that until I'm back at my office, I can't take a chance that I won't have access to any of these folders while traveling.
- Nancy18 days ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Thanks for that! The cloud syncing icons you see next to your files (in your screenshot) mean that they're online-only indeed, like Mark and Hannah suggested above.
To make these available offline, you need to open them indeed, so that the app can start syncing/downloading them locally to your device.
However, if you’ve selected new files to be available offline in your desktop app settings, then it's true that their default status shouldn’t be online-only on your desktop app.
Can you reinstall the Dropbox app in the meantime and select new files to be available offline once more? I’d like to see if this will fix the issue.
- Dieselista18 days agoExplorer | Level 3
Yes, the "available off line" circle is highlighted, unlike in your example.
- Dieselista18 days agoExplorer | Level 3
Right before they all populate? They are thumbnails with clouds. See attached. Right now, I just opened this folder, it's one I haven't opened on this computer until now, and the files in it are all showing clouds, as you can see. In order to get these to go to check marks I need to actually open each one. So in this case, opening the folder wasn't enough to get them to download to this computer. This isn't new, this has also happened before.
Synching status, right at this moment it is synching because I created a folder on this laptop in flight and it is now uploading those, however, as I was writing this it switched to up to date, even though there are folders with cloud icon files.
App version is 227.4.4774
- Rich19 days ago
Super User II
Dieselista wrote:
I am not using the on line only option, and eventually the clouds do change to green check marks, but only after opening the folder.
And you're certain that the Default sync state for new files is set to Available offline on the Sync tab in Preferences?
- Nancy19 days ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey Dieselista, thanks for the explanation and the screenshot!
Can you send me one more visual of what you see when opening your local Dropbox folder and navigating to those files, right before they all populate?
Other than that, I’d like to know the syncing status and app version of your desktop app.
About Create, upload, and share
Find help to solve issues with creating, uploading, and sharing files and folders in Dropbox. Get support and advice from the Dropbox Community.
Need More Support
The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.
If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.
For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.
If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!