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Forum Discussion
Uploading folders with subfolders, no option to see WHAT files "could not upload"
I'm getting extremely frustrated with Dropbox!! I'm using new Macbook Pro (but also have access to Windows 11 machine... same bad results). I've tried both the Dropbox app (putting folder in it, to upload), and I've also tried doing this via www.dropbox.com "upload." Neither solution works. Here's the issue.
1) Upload a folder that contains many files, and many subfolders with files within, no file bigger than Dropbox's per-file limit
2) After giving it time to "complete" the upload, there are a couple dozen files or folders that Dropbox says "cannot be uploaded to dropbox" - I'm sure this is due to *SOME* file name issue, but Dropbox does not tell you WHAT FILES where unable to upload! So I have 588 files/folders on dropbox.com, and 635 files/folders are on the hard drive that were supposed to upload. Happy to change the filenames of the culprit files or folders, but have no idea what files were unsuccessful uploading!!
3) If I do it via the dropbox app on computer (instead of via www.dropbox.com and chosing upload...), there's not even a MESSAGE that tells me some were unable to upload! But I can see on dropbox (via "calculate size" of main folder) that yup... only 588 are on dropbox.com, and 635 on my hard drive.
Please advise!! It's bad enough that Dropbox doesn't retain original creation/modified dates of the files (every file ends up looking like it was literally freshly created that minute, once on Dropbox.com)... but to think you've "backed up" all of your hard drive files and ZERO indication of how successful it was (besides manually checking, which I'm sure most people don't bother to do if they knew how).
******HOW CAN I SEE WHAT FILES AND/FOLDERS WERE "NOT ABLE TO BE UPLOADED? So I can address those culprits, rename them, delete them, etc. etc.? Please do not send me some help file on "reasons why some files/folders can't be uploaded" because there are SEVERAL reasons, and that is NOT a solution for someone to manually figure out with thousands of files!
8 Replies
- Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi tntgalx10 , thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Have you checked the sync issues option in the Dropbox desktop application?
Do any of the files have invalid characters in the file or folder name?
In the Dropbox folder, do the files have green icons, or any other icons?
This will help me to assist further!
I'm having the same issue and under a deadline . . . never had this issue before and it's very frustrating!
- Jay
Hi NBotanicGarden, are you uploading files via the Dropbox site directly, or by moving them into the Dropbox folder on your machine?
1) No green icons, the files are set for "online only" (I copied, not cut, the folder and pasted it into Dropbox). So all of the files/folder that WERE uploaded successfully, they have the "online only" icon (grey outline cloud with arrow inside of it), but that is useless info as it does not speak to any of the files that were NOT successful uploading.
2) There are no "sync issues" in Dropbox app besides the mystery files Dropbox says "can't upload" (again - doesn't tell me WHAT files or folders!!)
2) I used dropbox app, as well as attempted to upload via website (please see my original question above, all details there)
3) When you say "do any of my files/folders have invalid characters." This is unacceptable solution?! I would have to do perform 1 search at a time (one search each, for each and every "invalid character" deemed invalid by Dropbox, and SEVERAL times at that because of Dropbox's limitation of how many files/folders can be uploaded at once!
Both. Either method? Results the same. Dropbox does NOT tell you WHAT FILES could not be uploaded.
And again ... as in my original post... the app method is just a JOKE as it gives you no message! The only reason I know it failed in the same way is because I "calculated file size" on dropbox.com. So the average person would never do that, and would never know that __ number of their files are actually NOT on dropbox!
- Hannah
Hey tntgalx10, we appreciate your feedback here and rest assured that your comments have been passed along to our team about this.
However, do you see any difference if you upload the files in smaller batches?
Or if you try from a different web browser/private browsing window?
- I have literally decades worth of file/folder structure that I really don't want to start moving around and messing with, just because Dropbox has major flaws. Neither Windows nor Mac operating systems has or has ever had any issue with any of my file/folder naming structure, why should Dropbox? Why should I tolderate this? I've already spent hours troubleshooting this (I'm very computer literate, heaven help those who are jot when using Dropbox!!)
- Hannah
I understand where you're coming from, tntgalx10, so we'll definitely try to figure this out.
Just wanted to clarify, though, that when uploading, there's no issues with file names.
Incompatible characters should only be an issue when files are getting synced down to a computer, after being uploaded from another one.
This would mean that if you're using the desktop app to upload the files, the upload should work, without skipping any files.
If you're seeing a "could not upload" error, would you mind sending us a screenshot of that?
Also, what is the sync status of the desktop app? You can hover over your Dropbox icon for this info.
