Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨‍💻? Find out how to check here.

Forum Discussion

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.

147 Replies

Replies have been turned off for this discussion
Show More
  • Norah's avatar
    Norah
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    8 years ago
     
    Hi Laurits, welcome to Dropbox Community!
     
    I followed up via email for you and we can continue troubleshooting there with all our tools available. 
     
    Thanks in advance for your reply!
  • ewest's avatar
    ewest
    Explorer | Level 4
    8 years ago

    Just wondering if there's any update or fix to this problem? - I'm having the same issues as the OP.  I would rather not have to delete and re-install the app, as I have many 100's of MB of data that I would then, presumably, need to re-sync?

  • Sanchez's avatar
    Sanchez
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    8 years ago
    Hey ewest, welcome to our community! 

    I don’t have any update for you, unfortunately. We haven’t heard back from the original poster, so I have no idea how that worked out. 

    I suggest that you get in touch with our support team about this. I can have an agent reach out to you at the email address associated with your forum profile, or you can submit a request here. 

    If you want to give the reinstall a try, know that you won’t need to re-sync all your data. When you uninstall or delete our app, your local Dropbox folder is left in tact. When you install again, our app will recognize that folder, and only re-index your files! If you have moved your local Dropbox folder to a non-default location, then you can tell our app where that location is, by choosing the Advanced Options during the installation process. Again, it will just need to re-index. 

    Here’s the reinstall info for MacOS: 

    Make sure you save and quit ALL programs that access files in your Dropbox folder. Then: 
     
    1. Download the latest offline installer of our app, 49.4.68. The offline version is the complete installation package. 

    2. Stop Dropbox (If needed):
    • Click the Dropbox icon in the menu bar at the top of your screen
    • Click on the gear icon in the Notifications panel and select 'Quit Dropbox'
     
    1. Delete the Dropbox application from the Applications folder. You may need to provide your computer password in order to perform this action.

    2. Reinstall the Dropbox desktop application
    • Open the Dropbox .dmg file and double click the Dropbox icon.

    Let me know how this goes. 
    Cheers! 
  • Lauri I.'s avatar
    Lauri I.
    Helpful | Level 6
    8 years ago
    Hey,

    From the emaiI support I only got instructions how to take screenshots on mac and asked to describe the problem, which I have already done here.

    Ewest: Re-installing of the dropbox client does not help so I personally do not recommend wasting time on that.
  • Sanchez's avatar
    Sanchez
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    8 years ago
    Hey again, Lauri I., 

    I’ve asked our agent to reach back out to you about this. They’ll be in touch as soon as possible. 

    Thanks! 
  • Norah's avatar
    Norah
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    8 years ago
     
    Hey Lauri I., I have reached out to you once more! :upside_down:
     
    I understand the procedure can be frustrating,however, in order to have a better understanding on why you are experiencing this issue I will need you to provide me with all the details requested.
     
    Thank you for your time and cooperation!
  • ewest's avatar
    ewest
    Explorer | Level 4
    8 years ago

    Hi Sanchez.

    I did as you prescribed.  However, I did not get any advanced options during install - but my non-default folder location remained intact, somehow.

     

    That said, I still have the same problem with the finder image previews not working after a while.  

     

    Just to re-iterate, by deleting ~library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist the preview will work for a short while.  After navigating through several files over the course of a few minutes, the preview becomes broken again.

     

     

  • Norah's avatar
    Norah
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    8 years ago
     
    Hey ewest, thanks for taking the time to write back in!
     
    As you mention trying all the steps provided by Sanchez, I followed up via email in order to continue troubleshooting with all our tools available.
     
    Looking forward to hear from you!
  • CNowell's avatar
    CNowell
    Helpful | Level 6
    8 years ago

    Has this issue actually been fixed or are Dropbox Support emailing individuals to troubleshoot?

     

    It's a little misleading to consider this problem "solved" when the solve was support saying they'd go the email route, and not follow up with any information about what the fix was.

     

    This is a big problem for myself and many of the art directors at the business I work at. I'm currently runnig OSX 10.13.4, and I hardly consider force quitting Finder to be a solve. Anyone know what the conflict seems to be?

  • Norah's avatar
    Norah
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    8 years ago
     
    Hi CNowell, welcome to Dropbox Community!
     
    As each case is unique, some more information and a screenshot of the discrepancy (omitting any personal information) would be very helpful in order to have a better image of what is going on.  
     
    Looking forward to your reply!

About Apps and Installations

Have a question about a Dropbox app or installation? Reach out to the Dropbox Community and get solutions, help, and advice from members.

The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X, Facebook or Instagram.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!