Sync has stopped working

Thanks for your prompt reply, Jay. 

I only have one account.  If I open a file on my phone, it appears as a 'recent activity' on the PC, so there is a connection between the two.

I have just copied to Dropbox a photo as a JPG File and a document as Rich Text Format on the PC, and they haven't appeared on the phone.

I have updated an existing RTF file on the PC, but the phone is still showing the old version of the document.

Jeff

Hi Jeff047, can you send us some screenshots of what you mentioned, in order for us to have a visual of this?

Dear Megan,

Thanks for your reply, and your continued help.

I have no idea how to take screenshots; I have never done that before.  Could you please give me precise instructions, and how do I then send them?

What do you want screenshots of, exactly?

Jeff

Hi Jeff047! 

For your PC, you can press Ctrl + PrtScn keys. The entire screen changes to gray including the open menu. Select Mode, or in earlier versions of Windows, select the arrow next to the New button. Select the kind of snip you want, and then select the area of the screen capture that you want to capture.

The screenshot will be copied to your clipboard. You can then paste it directly here, on our Community, when you try to reply back to me. 

A few screenshots of the situation you described above, such as what you see on your phone, versus on your device, would be helpful. 

Megan,

I'm a bit confused (not difficult!).  The difference between my PC and my phone is that the PC has up-to-date versions of my files, and the phone has an older version.  I don't see how screenshots wil help.  Can you be more specific, please.  Thanks.

Jeff

The reason we require screenshots is to see exactly how a file appears on your desktop and mobile app. Are the modification dates the same in both areas, indicating a change was made?

Is it definitely open in the Dropbox mobile app showing the old version of the file? 

Once we have the screenshots, while hiding any personal info, we can look into this in more detail.

Jay,

Thanks for your reply.  Ctrl/PrtSc doesn't seem to do anything on my PC,   I have taken some photos of PC screens with my phone camera, but I can't attach them to this, as they are too big!  I don't know how to reduce the size.  Also, how can I take screenshots on my phone?  Sorry, I am not very computer-literate!

Regards, Jeff 

You can take screenshots using these steps for Windows 

Depending on your phone, there are two ways to take a screenshot. For iOS there is https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT200289, and for Android it's https://support.google.com/android/answer/9075928.

Jay,

Thanks for staying with me! 

Are these any good (from my PC).  If so, I will try the phone procedure.  This is all new to me!  Jeff

Thanks for the PDF image, please attach how it looks on the phone and from within the Dropbox mobile file list.

Jay,

I followed the instructions on my Android phone, but none of the ways seemed to work.  I will visit the Vodafone shop tomorrow to see if they can show me what to do.

Jeff

Jay,

Success!  Here are four images from my phone, in the order I get them when looking at a file.  Before I changed my phone, the app  went straight to the third screen.  Note that no files have been updated on the phone for a month - they all have the same date.

Jeff

Hey Jeff, I hope you don’t mind me jumping in here, too.

It looks like your desktop app is syncing properly, from what I can see from your screenshot, so I’d like us to check another thing together.

Can you please follow these steps on your desktop app and your mobile app and let me know if you see the exact same email address on both? Please don’t post your email address here; just confirm if it’s the same one that you see.

Thanks!

Nancy,

Thanks for helping.  Yes, the email address on my phone Dropbox app and my PC are the same. Please note, though, that I normally access Dropbox on my PC through File Explorer (see earlier attached screenshots).  I could only find out the PC email address by going into Dropbox.com and clicking on my initials in the black circle, but I wouldn't normally access my files in this way.

Jeff

An additional bit of information - if I access my files on the PC through Dropbox.com rather than File Explorer, it shows the same (old) versions that appear on my phone.

Jeff

I'd like to be certain that your desktop app is definitely connected to Dropbox. 

Do you see any desktop devices on your account here? How about mobile devices? A screenshot of that page would be helpful.

Jay,

Screenshot as requested...

Jeff

Are there any other devices connected further down the screen, such as a computer name? 

Jay,

Here is the bottom of the screen.

Jeff

Thanks, it seems you only have two mobile devices connected to your Dropbox account, meaning your computer and the desktop app is not connected to Dropbox, hence why it isn't syncing.

Could you try opening the Dropbox desktop application and see if there is any email listed there in the preferences, or if there is an error of some sort?

Jay,

I only have one phone, so I don't know why two are connected.  Could one be my previous phone?

I don't have Dropbox on my taskbar - I access it using File Explorer, along with my Documents and Pictures.  It is not among 'hidden icons', either.

Jeff

Most likely then it could be an older phone, since it hasn't been connected for 2 weeks. 

Regarding Explorer, even though there is a Dropbox folder there, it doesn't mean that it is syncing to any account, it could just be a folder that isn't 'live'.

If you haven't run the Dropbox desktop application recently, then this is why your files aren't syncing, since according to the site, there is no computer device linked to this account. 

Have you tried running the app and signing into your account, or reinstalling it for the Dropbox folder to start syncing again? If it does show as syncing in the system tray near the clock, let me know.

Jay,

I followed your link, and I now have the Dropbox icon on my taskbar for the first time.  When installing it, it said that I already have an account and stated my previous email address, which I changed earlier this year.  However, when I go into the app, it has my current email address registered.

No change to the files on the phone yet.  What else do I need to do?

Jeff

P.S. Syncing was working on my previous phone after I changed my email address.

Could you check to ensure that the email on the Dropbox account was changed, by attempting to login to the old email on the Dropbox site?

You can test this by using an incognito/private browsing window to login to the site:

• Chrome: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95464
• Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/private-browsing-browse-web-without-saving-info
• Safari: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH19216

Jay,

I followed the instructions in the link, went into Dropbox.com and tried to log in with the old email address, but I couldn't remember the old password, so I requested a new password link (see screenshot below), an email arrived at the old address, I changed the password and logged in.  The files shown were the same versions that I would see using File Explorer.

Jeff