"Can't open file" error for the Microsoft Excel files on my iPad.

Hi Martie, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Just for confirmation, as you mentioned you updated them to the latest version for your device, what version of the Dropbox mobile app and iOS are you running?

Could you try marking the files as available offline to see if this helps when opening the Excel files?

This will help me to assist further!

OK, I marked files as available offline, but again, I can’t open them. It's also an intermittent problem, and I can’t figure out why I can sometimes open them and sometimes not.

iOS version 18.5

Dropbox version 426.6

Thanks for the update here, Martie.

Are you getting the error above when you simply open the files to preview them in the Dropbox app? Or when trying to open them in the Excel app to edit them?

What is the size of the files giving you this error?

Previewing is fine. The problem is opening the files in Excel. My Excel files are small, none of them larger than 300 KB.

I see, thanks for the clarification, Martie.

Have you ever tried to uninstall/reinstall both Dropbox and the Excel app, to see if it helps?

I have now uninstalled and reinstalled the Dropbox app, and my files open perfectly. I just have no idea if the problem will strike again.

One thing that did change, however, is that before I uninstalled/reinstalled the app, while my files were opening, a dialog box would open and close on its own. Not the ‘Allow’ dialog box, but one that asked me to log in. Before I could do so, the box would disappear on its own. Perhaps this was part of the problem? Now, the box doesn’t appear anymore.

That's great to hear, Martie, I'm glad to see it worked!

Hopefully, it will remain this way, but if you come across any issues again, let us know.

Hi Martie​ and welcome to the Dropbox Community! It's great to have you here. Thanks for getting back to us to let us know your issue has been resolved. It's people like you who keep the Community spinning each day 😼.

By the way, I'm Theresa - you will see me here on the Community getting involved in threads and starting conversations 👩‍💻 . I'm curious - what would be your favourite Dropbox feature? 

Looking forward to hearing from you,

T😺( Dropbox Community Manager)

Hi, bad news, I’m afraid. 😔 The intermittent problem hasn’t gone away after all. I’ve marked all Excel files as available off-line, deleted and reinstalled the Dropbox app, deleted and reinstalled Excel, and for a few days the problem seemed solved. Now it’s cropping up again. What else could I try?

Sorry to hear that, Martie.

If you do the uninstall/reinstall process again, does it help?