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OzManDad's avatar
OzManDad
New member | Level 1
2 years ago
Solved

MS Word no long "likes" documents stored on external Dropbox locations (Mac OS 10.15 Sequoia)

So I recently updated from 10.14 to 10.15, and everything looks good except for MS Word. I keep my Dropbox file on an external drive (formatted as Mac OS Extended Journaled), and whenever I try to edit and save a Word document to the Dropbox location, I get a dialog box with "Check to make sure the removable drive containing this file is still available." It then renames the file to a temporary file name (e.g. .~WRD1234) and then brings up the File Save As dialog box.

The whole thing repeats if I try to give it a new name.

I've reindexed my Dropbox folder, removed the MS word cache, etc. etc. I'm on client build v212.4.5767.

I did not see this behaviour with previous versions of Mac OS, so I'm assuming something broke with the update.

Anyone with any ideas?

  • SOLVED: This is NOT a Dropbox issue, it's a Microsoft issue.

    Go to Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Full Disk Access and grant access to MS Word. 

    This has fixed my problem. If it hasn't for you, please add your comments here.

9 Replies

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  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    2 years ago

    Hey OzManDad - thanks for bringing this to our attention.

    Could you please send us a screenshot of the exact error you're getting so that we can have a visual too? 

    Also, does this happen with online-only files or files that are available offline on your computer? 

    Let us know more and we'll take it from there. 

  • mr happy's avatar
    mr happy
    New member | Level 2
    2 years ago

    I am having the exact same problem. Done everything as OzManDad and it is still happening

  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    2 years ago

    Sorry to hear that mr happy 

    Could you maybe attach a screenshot of the error?

  • OzManDad's avatar
    OzManDad
    New member | Level 1
    2 years ago

    Here you go. These files are offline i.e. they are accessible on my local drive, not internet connection required. I've just hit CMD-S to save and got the dialog you see above, then it brings up the Save As dialog, and changes the file name to temporary Word file. 

    When I type in a new name, it saves the file, but the whole process repeats - the same warning dialog, then it brings up the Save As dialog etc. etc.

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    2 years ago

    Hi OzManDad, thanks for the info, in order to look into this matter in more detail, I'd recommend contacting the support team directly for them to investigate further.

  • OzManDad's avatar
    OzManDad
    New member | Level 1
    2 years ago

    Umm, don't I need a premium subscription to contact Support directly? This seems to be a pretty core piece of functionality that is broken, irrespective of my plan.

     

  • OzManDad's avatar
    OzManDad
    New member | Level 1
    2 years ago

    And you've now got this reported by more than one user.

  • ext237's avatar
    ext237
    New member | Level 1
    2 years ago

    Exact same issue.  Have to save it to my desktop and then drag it where it needs to be.  Interested in anyone that finds a solution.  My dropbox folder is on a USB RAID drive (Thunderbolt/iMac/Sequoia)

  • OzManDad's avatar
    OzManDad
    New member | Level 1
    2 years ago

    SOLVED: This is NOT a Dropbox issue, it's a Microsoft issue.

    Go to Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Full Disk Access and grant access to MS Word. 

    This has fixed my problem. If it hasn't for you, please add your comments here.

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