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Forum Discussion
Unable to open "Online Only" files without setting them to "Local" first
A user at a company I provide IT support for just upgraded to Windows 10 Enterprise from Windows 10 Home. Upon creation of the new profile and setting up dropbox, it was noticed that the user is unable to open any files without setting the individual file to "local" prior to attempting to open. I searched through community posts and could find no solutions, just several generic answers and then "let's move this to emails" with no follow-up.
Already tried: uninstalling and reinstalling both apps, deleting all files and resyncing to "online only", using "selective sync" to unselect folders and readd them to the sync list. I'm sure there's other things that were tried but it's been quite a long day trying to simply access files without having to manually change the backup mode for each one.
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- Nancy
Dropbox Community Moderator
Thanks for giving that a go! In this case, this sounds like expected behavior.
When a file is online-only on the Dropbox app, what youâre seeing is basically a placeholder of the original file on your device. So, youâll need to select the option to make it available offline first, before being able to open it.
Unless youâre having space issues on the device, in which case I understand the need for online-only files, you can perhaps right click on your local Dropbox folder directly, and select everything to be available offline instead. This way, you should be able to open all of your files anytime.
Could you please explain why I see my offline files/folders differently on 2 different PCs? Both PCs are Windows 10-64bit version 22H2. Thanks
PC1
PC2
- Nancy
Are you referring to the lack of syncing icons when it comes to your second computer/PC2 perhaps?
If yes, can you please check that device and let me know the syncing status and app version of Dropbox there?
Also, if you try to open one of these files, do they open normally? Have you tried restarting your computer, and no syncing icons appear still?
Yes, PC2 doesn't have any syncing icon and PC1 has a syncing icon on all files and folders. Yes, on both PCs files open normally. I restarted the PC2 multiple times but still no icons. Both PCs have Dropbox version 196.4.6900 and the syncing status "Your files are up to date"
- Nancy
Thanks for giving that a go. Did you recently have any OS upgrades on your PC2?
If not, feel free to try out these steps to make sure there arenât other apps on your device that use the remaining overlay icons of your Windows computer (Windows has in general a limit of 15, and 4 of them are used by default by your OS). If there are more than 15, then the Dropbox icons or context menus may not show.
