Syncing icons on the files in the Dropbox folder have changed

There's a longer thread about this issue over here, if anyone is interested to comment there:

https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Create-upload-and-share/Syncing-icons-on-the-files-in-the-Dropbox-folder-have-changed/td-p/610037/

Just for clarity for anyone skimming through... when I reached out to Dropbox support about the icon issue, this was the explanation they gave:

---------------------------------

Dropbox Support Response

---------------------------------

We’ve recently updated our sync icons to give you a more accurate idea of what sync state your files and folders are in.

For example:

• A file with the available offline icon  

   

  green background with a white tick) means that the file is downloaded to your PC/Mac. Files in this state have been made available offline by right clicking the file and selecting Make available offline.
• A file with the available icon (  

   

  white background with a green tick), means that the file is downloaded to your PC/Mac. Files in this state have been made available by opening the file with a double click or using a 3rd party app.
• A file with the online-only icon (  

   

  grey background with a white cloud), means that the file is online-only and is merely a placeholder file which takes up close to zero bytes on your PC/Mac

 
A folder’s sync icon will depend on what files are contained within that folder.

For example:

• If a folder contains at least 1 online-only file then the folder’s sync icon will be online-only 

   

• If a folder contains zero online-only files and at least 1 available file then its sync icon will be the available icon 

   

• If a folder contains only available offline files then its sync icon will be available offline 

   

 ---------------------------------

Agreed. If they don't revert back to the previous icon system I might have to find another service for my company to use. 

Yeah, hopefully Dropbox monitors this and takes note. When I contacted Dropbox help, it was them who pointed me to this forum, saying it was monitored by Dropbox and the best way to communicate issues/feature requests. 

You are right.
I dont know if this site is User only... But I hope that someone in dropbox can Read this and Understand that the did a very bad Update this time... and it could be the reason to change service... at least for me, I'm wasting my time looking for Local files and Oflline them. 

I totally agree with you, the new icon system is bad and causing me a ton of previously unnecessary frustration. It's so hard now to free up space. The new updated icon categorization makes it impossible to know what folders have offlined files buried within them. I generally love Dropbox—and literally it was the old icon system that made smart-sync so incredible/streamlined/useful and had me signing Dropbox's praises to anyone that would listen. But, this new update is just so bad... it seems to have solved a problem that didn't exist, while creating a much worse problem that makes working with Dropbox so incredibly painful now. As we speak I need to clear up disk space, yet I'm faced with hundreds of folders that all now show the cloud icon (despite some of them having offlined files buried within)... so now to find where offlined files might be, I have to search through thousands of subfolders and dig through every last level to get to every individual file. Before, that whole process happened in a split second, simply by looking at the root folder's icon.

Dropbox, thank you for making a great product that really does make the work I do possible, but please revert back to the previous/better icon categorizing system. Please. 

Hello,

I find the new Icon Setup useless. 
I suggest to bring it back as it was before the Update.

I think the most important thing is to be able to know if there's a SYNCHED LOCAL File in a Folder, that is eaten your Local HD Space.
So the Grey Icon was super useful before the Icons Update. It showed that there were no SYNCHED file in the Folder. 
Now the Grey Icon shows me if there ìs at least one Online-only file in the folder, but olso if there anything else (Synched full green, or Half green file in the folder). It's Basically useless... because the important thing is to know if there's some file left that weight on Local HD. 

The best solution was that GREY Icon tells me that there is NO LOCAL SYNCHED file in the folder, so I know that the files inside that folder is Only on CLOUD, since the most important thind is managind and knowing witha a glance if there's some Local file in a folder.

Now I dont know at first glance if I have some local file in every folders... i have to open all the folders and look inside. Thant's vary bad Update.

Is there any chance to make it back as it was the Synch system?

Thank you

100% agree. Dropbox, please go back to the old system with the icons. The new way of categorizing the icons is useless and actually makes things so much worse.

I'm working with so many files, and such large file sizes, and daily I need to switch around what files are local vs online only. So I need to quickly see at a glance what folders contain any localized/offline files. The old system worked beautifully, and made finding localized/offline files so simple. The new system makes it so much worse. Instead of seeing at a glance whether a root folder has any offline files in it or not, I now have to search through every single subfolder. This new system takes what was a really efficient and awesome feature, and turns it into a huge headache.

It baffles me to think that the Dropbox developers would see this as a positive change. And the reasoning behind the change—to be able to distinguish what files are offline because they were opened vs which files are offline because the "offline" option was chosen—I just don't understand how that distinction is useful at all. This new system with the icons solves a problem that didn't exist, and creates a new much worse problem.

I don't want to come across as mean or snarky with any of this. I appreciate the Dropbox developers and I use (and appreciate) their product every single day. It's just that this change came out of nowhere, seemingly fixing a non-existent problem, removes crucial functionality, and literally makes my job a lot harder now. I just have to hope that Dropbox will revert back to the previous and far superior icon categorizing system.

@Hannah
Replying to your message:

Hey @johnrinek, thanks for taking the time to post here!

Are you seeing the green check mark in the white circle on files as well, instead of just folders?

Would you mind sending over some screenshots, explaining what you see, so we can have a visual as well?

Also, is syncing up to date on your Dropbox app? You can hover over the Dropbox icon in your menu bar, to check.

Thanks in advance.

Please see screenshot attached (folder names have been blacked out for security). You will see that the root folder that is selected has a cloud icon, indicating that all the files in the folder are online only. The second folder in the path also has a cloud icon, indicating that all the files in the folder are online only. The third folder in the path has mixed statuses (available offline, online only, and both). What's more, in the third folder that has the mixed statuses, the icons are also not all correct. Essentially, I have no idea what the actual status is of any of the folders or files. Some icons are correct, some aren't. It is very important for me to know which files are local on my machine and which files are online only. 

Please let me know how to reset the icons to be correct without changing the actual smart sync status of my folders and files.

Thank you

John

Dropbox: Go back to the icons working like they did before!!!!

I REALLY need to be able to quickly seen when some files in a folder are synced and some are not. I do NOT need to know whether I opened them last with an app or on my computer. I pay for Dropbox to make my life easier, not for more complexity. 

Thanks, right clicking folders and selecting make available offline worked great!