Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨💻? Find out how to check here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
Spotlight Search Doesn't Link to Files in Dropbox in macOS 13 Ventura
After upgrading to macOS Ventura, I was prompted to upgrade to "Dropbox for macOS 12". I proceeded with that, it moved my Dropbox folder to ~/Library/CloudStorage and confirmed all was successful. Now when using Spotlight to search (I often type something like 'drawings folder' to open a folder called Drawings) the results in Spotlight show the Dropbox app icon beside the name of the item I want (rather than a Finder icon for folder or file). Hitting Enter or clicking on the result switches to Finder and does nothing, or sometimes will open the Applications folder and show the Dropbox app. It's not linking me to the actual file in ~/Library/CloudStorage.
I have done the following and the problem is not solved:
- Restarted
- Ensured all files are available for offline access
- Rebuilt the spotlight index
- Unlinked Dropbox from this Mac, did a complete clean install of dropbox, performed the upgrade to v159.4.5870 and synced just one folder to begin
Nothing works. Any suggestions??
- That’s the same problem I had. I solved it by doing a complete clean install of dropbox. You may not need to do all of this, but to be safe, in Dropbox settings Selective Sync uncheck all of your folders and wait for them to be removed from your Mac. Once that’s done, unlink your Mac from Dropbox preferences. You should see the Dropbox getting started screen. Quit Dropbox and move the app to the Trash. Remove all dropbox files from ~/Library being careful to look at the path name. Only remove things that are within a Dropbox parent folder. Look in library application support, and library preferences. Empty the Trash. Restart your Mac. Reinstall Dropbox from dropbox.com. Once reinstalled, to make things faster sync only one small folder and wait for the prompt that new Dropbox for macOS 12 is available. You should see the message within a few minutes of reinstalling Dropbox. Allow it to upgrade and migrate your files to the new location. Once that’s done you can then sync all your folders. Let your Mac index itself and the problem should be solved.
398 Replies
Replies have been turned off for this discussion
I've tried every solution 3+ times and nothing works. It's ridiculous that you can't use finder search with Dropbox. I'm going to have to go back to Google Drive. At least search works.
Thank you for the link.
I am baffled by why it says under the row "Searching through Finder won’t find all content in your Dropbox folder [but] Search using Spotlight isn’t affected."
Unless I am misunderstanding, CMD F or Spotlight bring up the same "Search" box whether from Desktop or Finder. And, once I enter a search word, the results are always the same from Dropbox...nothing (when I clearly have many files). To me, that means Spotlight is affected!
Is there any email (or phone number?) to contact someone in IT at Dropbox instead of putting this burden on good samaritans like yourself to help with these questions and where we can offer suggestions for change?
- Nancy
Dropbox Community Moderator
jasonyohon, if you still want to, I can log a ticket for you, so that we can investigate this further.
Also, ThePlanner, if you wish to reach out to our support team directly, you can see all support options for your plan here.
There are 15 pages hier on this thread. And it is still marked as...SOLVED. Quite funny! I downgraded for the 4th time to the old version, as I was not able to use Dropbox as usual, and I am HAPPY Dropbox user...again..I do not thing I am going to participate on this "kind of" beta-experiments of Dropbox team any more..
Thank you for your reply, but please know that the Contact Us just took me back to the Community Forum and Chat Bot (which has zero understanding of my concern). If this Search issue cannot be addressed by a member of the IT at Dropbox or if no Good Samaritan on the Forum has found a workaround, then I will also need to move my friends and family to another service. This is such a shame because Dropbox has been a reliable tool for our friends and family network since Dropbox began!
Thank you for recommending Google Drive. If I am also unable to get the Search to work, I will look into this.
Exactly...Dropbox was so stable and reliable till.....the last update arrived...
Thank you, Mark, if you also connected (redirected) me to this Forum discussion of 15 pages. This is so helpful.
I have successfully updated Dropbox to the new version (v165.4.4300) with Ventura (13.1) on my 2018 MBP. I made all files available offline, and then excluded the CloudStorage folder from Spotlight, and then did NOT reindex the folder (which is the secret). Then Spotlight works as expected and can find Dropbox files, and also open files from within Spotlight. Did this yesterday and it still works.
- Hannah
Hey minpi, we definitely appreciate your feedback here, and rest assured that it's passed along to our team.
Thanks for sharing what worked for you, r2xman, hopefully this will help other users as well.
ThePlanner, have you had a chance to try what worked for r2xman?
