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Forum Discussion
Editing Excel live from Android tablet
I use excel live edit from a computer and laptop and it works great. I can edit on one computer and it updates immediately on the laptop.
However, I have purchased an Android tablet and I cannot get it to work with live edits.
What I have tried:
- I have tried editing via the Dropbox app but that opens it in regular excel and requires Save and that causes file conflicts.
- I have tried opening on Dropbox.com website and opening the excel file as the web version (which is what I do on the desktop and laptop). That opens a hard-to-read version of Excel but it's read only. If I want to actually edit anything it prompts me to open on excel which then goes back to being a downloaded copy that isn't a live edit.
What am I missing? Thanks in advance for help!
5 Replies
- Nancy
Dropbox Community Moderator
Thanks for posting on our forum, tmpdan, and welcome aboard!
Just to clarify what you mentioned in the beginning; are you live editing your files via the desktop app that’s installed on both your computer and laptop? You didn’t do this previously via your web account at all, correct?
If you don’t mind, feel free to send over a screenshot of what you see when trying to do the same via the mobile app, and I’ll be glad to have a look.
Keep me posted.
Thanks for responding.
For the live editing on the computer/laptop, I do it via the dropbox website (if I do it via the app, I have to save and sync for every change and that risks conflict file copies).
So I have a URL saved that I always just click to open the excel file and it has cloud_editor=excel in the URL, example
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/.../filename.xlsx?cloud_editor=excel
This allows editing from various computers without ever having to hit save and all copies are immediately updated.
But when I open that file link or file from dropbox.com it is read-only. It has to open on the app to edit and that's not live.
I can get screenshots - which part specifically do you need?- Nancy
Thanks for sending over more details, tmpdan!
One more thing that I’d like you to clarify is this; when trying to access these files via the website on your mobile device, are you hitting on the “Open with” button to edit them, or are you just previewing them online? The latter would only give you a read-only version of the file, indeed.
If possible, please send me a screenshot of the options you see when accessing your files via your mobile device.
Thanks for responding, Nancy.
When I click Open With it automatically opens with an editable version (thank you for that) but it's not "live" - that is, changes must be still be saved on the tablet in order to see them on other devices, whereas on the laptop they are live and don't need to be saved.
Edit: When I click Open With... it doesn't give me options. It just opens the spreadsheet automatically.
