Why can't I open Smart Synced online-only files?

I checked for more Windows 10 updates, none were found. I also checked Microsoft's website to ensure that I have the latest build of the Office 2019 suite. Still no improvement.

The file checking tool only found two inconsequential files. All other paths seem to be legitimate. I can access all my files on other computers just fine. The problem seems to be isolated to this machine only. A potentially useful note, this is the only machine I use that uses Office 2019. I use older versions of Office on all other devices.

Is it okay if we reach out to your email associated with your forum profile in order to investigate this further?

That would be appreciated, yes.

I just had this issue with one user, turns out they had installed the Office apps from the Windows Store rather than their Office 365 software. I removed the apps, installed the desktop software and this fixed it. Thanks for the info.

This hasn't solved the issue for me at all. Office documents are not the only affected documents. I cannot open PDFs or any other file at all without first making it local. I have tried all the other steps in this thread. Any other ideas?

Dropbox Support first, before I found my solution, told me to uninstall Dropbox and then reinstall with a link to the latest version of dropbox. I'd start there if I were you. After that, direct contact with Dropbox Support might give you a better list of troubleshooting steps to follow. There are also other threads similar to this one in the community forums.

Thank you. I have already done this, taking care to ensure it was being installed as an Administrator. No dice.

Hello, I am a new user and all of my employees whom use a 3D rendering program have the same issue as any refrenced file will not be opened by the master file.......  Were you ever able to resolve this??

I have no idea whether it was something I did to fix it, or it just started working, but it works now. Last I can recall, I stopped caring and it began working at some unspecified time after that. Wish I had more for you.

Hi,

I have the same problem, except mine is in a mac. I still have my other mac (the one that I migrate the data from to this new mac). The new mac is the one w the problem, fyi. To be clear, the problem is having to manually select the smart sync option and choose Local in order to open the file. My older mac doesn't have this problem. It'll just take 3 seconds to download the file and it'll open by itself. 

Btw mine happens accross all type of files. Nothing is wrong w my office suite. 

Can you please help?

I've been having the same issue for the past year. Word, Excel, even images won't open until I right click and select local, under smart sync (which is a BIG inconvenience). But for example, pdf's do open fine, even if they are marked "online only".

This is a big issue. Any other suggestions?

I've got the exact same problem with one of my team member. She just purchased a new Mac and online-smart-synced PDF and video files won't open except if she change the smart-sync to local. 

I have the same problem but when I switch to local, I get the sync sign on each file but that its all, so frustrating!

This is super annoying! I've got a new MacBook, everything uptodate, using Dropbox Plus for many years, and now all my 'online only' files don't open (before I manually make them available offline and then reverse this again after having used them - it can't get more cumbersome!).

This seems to be the case for at least all files I'd open with MS Office apps, with Preview (pictures, PDFs, etc), TextEdit... 
Internet connection is fast and stable. 

Dropbox-Team, can you please fix this asap?!?

I have the same issue on my MacBook Pro after updating to Monterey 12.3.1 it worked fine before this update. I used to be able to open online files in Adobe products and it would auto synch them to offline but now it gives me a warning of "files is empty". Not sure if this is a Dropbox, Mac or Adobe issue...

Hey launchscotland, thanks for posting today! 

Do you notice the same behavior when changing the files beforehand to be stored locally? What happens if you do that before trying to open them through Adobe? 

Let me know! 

I'm having this same problem on a macOS Monterey. Tif files that are around 100MB large and have synched ok according to my activity bar, won't open unless I drag them to the desktop and wait about a minute. Trying to open from DB online, I get an error that says the file isn't a TIF file, but it is. Kind of a bummer to have to drag files to the desktop and eat up space to open and work on them.

New PC, installed MSOffice 365, then Dropbox, smart-sync (online-only) some folders, double-click a text file and Windows responds with "Unspecified error".

Tried a PDF: opened a browser and opened the file which had immediately been sync'd (offline).

Tried a PNG: file also opened successfully.

Then I installed notepad++, tried my .txt file, this time it worked by opening in notepad++. It was immediately made available offline.

I think (but am not sure until I can try this on a clean PC again) that Office has installed some hooks that interfere with the Dropbox hooks, for text files and maybe some other office-compatible files. 

Hey JonShad, are you still having issues with this?

If so, could you clarify if the file appears to have synced normally after you get the error or if it's falling altogether?  

Does making the files available offline on your computer work by the way?

Hi - now it seems to be working normally, 100% of the time.

Offline works, and did work.

I haven't knowingly changed anything, so I can suggest what might have happened to make it work.

Thanks for the follow-up.

Glad to hear it's sorted now and thanks for keeping me in the loop too JonShad

See you around the Community and have a lovely week ahead!