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Andrew-RFLB's avatar
Andrew-RFLB
Helpful | Level 5
9 years ago
Solved

Smart Sync and Quick Preview on Mac

Smart Sync causes my quick preview function (spacebar) to not function properly on my Mac. I can't preview thumbnails, or quick preview any videos or photos. Any ideas why this happens?
desktop
Mac
Setting up the apps
  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    9 years ago

    Likely because you're trying to preview a file that doesn't exist on your computer.

     

    When you set a file to Online Only, the only thing that's left of that file on your computer is the necessary information to make it appear in the folder. Since there's no content in the file, your OS (nor any other program) is able to preview it.

     

    Remember, when you set a file to Online Only, the file is removed from the computer leaving behind only a marker file. In order to access that file, whether it be to open and edit it or simply preview it, the file needs to be on the computer (Smart Sync doesn't allow you to open files directly from the Dropbox servers). When you open a file, it's synced back to your local drive and then opened as normal. When you're done with the file, if you want it to be online-only again, you need to mark it as such.

dallassterling's avatar
dallassterling
New member | Level 2
8 years ago

Same here. This is crippling my computer and making it unusable without downloading images to online. It appears to be causing a bug with the Finder in general.

annienar's avatar
annienar
Helpful | Level 6
8 years ago

I'm having the same issue, is there going to be a fix for this? I was excited to try smart sync but I cannot use it like this, one of the most loved features OSX has is the quick preview of files.

  • Minato's avatar
    Minato
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    8 years ago
    Helloes to all here!
     
    As this seems fairly irregular and it requires some investigation, can I ask anyone with this issue to contact any of our Support channels,
    so we can investigate the issue more thoroughly and with all our tools (that aren't available from this platform)?
     
    Thank you in advance!
    • annienar's avatar
      annienar
      Helpful | Level 6
      8 years ago

      I did ask via Twitter about this issue, specifically how to remove the smart sync because it was messing the preview of all my files.

      • Minato's avatar
        Minato
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
        8 years ago

        Hey annienar,

         

        Has your issue been resolved by our colleagues on the twitter-verse?

         

        If you require additional assistance, let me know!

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