Spotlight Search Doesn't Link to Files in Dropbox in macOS 13 Ventura

Totally agree. I corresponded with a dedicated dropbox specialist on this issue and for the last 13 days silence. Nobody else contacts me. I uninstalled dropbox, installed it again but without this "updated". Using it as before. Also considering changing to a different platform. Any ideas which one operates the same manner as dropbox? I want to have cloud storage used as a local drive with some files available offline and some online. Both have to be visible and quickly accessible as it works with dropbox. Any help would be appreciated.   

I also switched to Maestral which seems to work fine.

I do not know what happened to Dropbox, that once was a gold standard. Dropbox accompanied me for almost 15 years. Over time, it degenerated more and more. Web UI has become a catastrophe, the system integration in macOS is ridiculously intrusive (why does it have to add SEVEN options to the context menu in Finder?!) and it tries to promote its paid plans at every occasion. This thing here is just the tip of the iceberg, the final straw. Obviously one of the recent versions of the Dropbox client for macOS has been _seriously_ broken. A responsible decision would have been to stop promoting this version to the users instead of pushing them into this broken version. I waited several months before upgrading to Ventura (just to make sure that the most sever bugs will have been ruled out by then). As a former software developer myself, I have to confess, this is the long finger in the face of those who use Dropbox. Enough for me, good bye, Dropbox.

I contacted Dropbox Team per Facebook today and they answered very quickly. They are going to open a ticket for me to take a look into this issue. I will keep posting:) 

Hi All--Sad to report that I woke up today and am back to square one. After my initial problem, the uninstall-->reinstall, a couple weeks of Dropbox and Mac OS Ventura playing nicely, Spotlight once again is unable to open files and folders when I double click the search result. I have a paid account, so I'll reach out to Dropbox Support directly to open a ticket. I'll report back.

The Maestral client fixes the search issue on macOS Ventura 13. It seems like a lightweight client, time will tell.

I got a ticket, and Dropbox team asked me to follow their instructions. I installed update for the 3rd (!) time and my system was broken for the 3rd time again. Re-index, reboot etc - nothing helps - Spotlight doesn't work on Ventura 13.1 properly. They said - if issue persist, they will instruct me about some further steps. Anyway there is a silence already for a week. I guess they are not able to find out what the problem is. I wonder why they moved data to Library. Macs usually do not search in this Folder at all. This last update is a pure disaster. If there is no solution till end of this week, I will move to the old version installing it for the 4th time. 

I confirm. They did the same thing with me. Instructed to uninstall, reindex, nothing helped and silence for the last 3 weeks. I wrote several mails about the reason of their lack of response and... silence. I uninstalled new version and switched back to the old one. Everything works ok now. I'm not planning on "updating" to the new version until there is an official confirmation that everything works ok. If nothing changed till the end of my premium period then I'll look for a different platform. 

I have carried out the steps in this article but still it didn't work. However, when I put the Dropbox folder into Spotlight's prevention list, I was able to access the files and folders in Dropbox folder using Spotlight as I expected.

 I don't know why it works but somehow it does work. Hope it helps : - )

I got further instructions from Dropbox team and have send them logs. They will take a look. In my case it didn't work - dragging to Spotlight window Dropbox folder or the whole Macintosh HD did just nothing. But interessting - as my mac started to index, all files where available for a short period of time,  but after few minutes where gone, it got worse and after it was finished - there was the same situation as before. Lets see😊 

I can confirm that, as said by yifc , completely removing the Dropbox folder from Spotlight's indexing (please note: NOT re-indexing it) solves the problem for me for good. It does not make sense, but it works: Spotlight can find files and folders in the Dropbox folder (I know, it does not make sense because that folder is excluded), and I can open files from the Spotlight results.

Can you locate files on place (in Finder) as well using Cmd + Click? And is there some indication to check if one or other file is synced or not? 

yess 🙂

excluding the dropbox folder (library\cloudstorage) in the macos system settings ('dropping' the folder into siri & spotlight / spotlight privacy) does the (weird) trick.

in the spotlight search results the document icons look normal again (not as 'compressed' as previously) and the files will open on enter or double-click as they formerly did (that has stopped out of nowhere the day before yesterday).

thx @lorebett

yes ... strange enough, but it really does.

Would be so great, of somebody could answer my questions. Everybody is so happy, Dropbox opens files as expected when Dropbox will be excluded by Spotlight (sounds absurd but it works😊 But what about opening in place (in Finder) with Cmd +Click ? I was using this function daily. What about a status - if you drag some file to Dropbox - is it already synced or not? Does these green/blue icons disappeared for ever?

It works after 5 Minutes here (MBP M1 Max - 13.1)