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Forum Discussion
Solved
"This file has been moved" error when trying to open Excel files in the Dropbox folder
Integration Affected
Microsoft 365 (specifically Excel)
Operating System/Browser (if using the web)
Windows 11
Question or Issue
One of our users started getting errors yesterday when trying to open Excel documents that are stored within the Dropbox folder. The file opens, but brings up the following error:
The file has not been moved, nobody else has this problem currently. It only happens when the file is within the dropbox folder on her computer. If we copy the file to a location outside of dropbox, it's fine.
Searching the internet, it seems people who use Box (which I'm assuming is similar to Dropbox), are starting to have the same problem. It was reported in their community beginning on Nov 25, 2025 and more and more people are replying to it complaining of the same issue. A few different "fixes" were suggested by their IT which did not fix the problem and yesterday they say they have determined that it's a bug related to the latest Seamless Login release from Microsoft. Just throwing this out there in case it helps the issue to be resolved with Dropbox quicker.
So far, only one of our team members is having this issue. Please help.
I contacted Dropbox support and got this as a response.
Tommy, Dec 14, 2025, 11:35 PM PST:
Hi there,
Thanks for contacting Dropbox Support! My name is Tommy, and I'll be happy to assist you with your request.
From what I understand, you'd like to inquire in regards to an issue with opening Microsoft Excel files.
I’m happy to share that the Excel issue you reported has now been resolved by Microsoft and should be working properly.
If you continue to experience any problems, please ensure that your Microsoft Office 365/Excel application is fully up to date.
Thank you again for bringing this to our attention, and we apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Please let us know if you encounter any further issues, or if you have any other Dropbox questions.
Regards,
Tommy | Dropbox SupportI personally haven't been experiencing this issue any longer, so hopefully this means everything is working now!
17 Replies
Replies have been turned off for this discussion
- Hannah
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey L_Carper, thanks for reaching out to the Dropbox Community and for letting us know about this.
Let's see what we can find!
When this error comes up, is the file set to "online-only" or "available offline?
Could anybody else be working on the same file at the same time as this user?
Also, since this is happening with other apps apart from Dropbox, have you reached out to Microsoft to let them know as well?
Keep me posted!
It happens regardless if the file is available online only or offline. We have confirmed that nobody else is accessing the file.
I have posted in the Microsoft community as well.
We have determined that when we click Save, it does actually save the file but pops the error up again. If we choose Later, it puts the error at the top of the screen and then when you close you are prompted to save.
I have been experiencing this same issue. I started by killing Dropbox in Task Manager and reopening it. This fixed the issue temporarily, but I experienced it again today. This time I opened Control Panel and ran an online repair on Microsoft 365; this also seemed to fix the issue, but I'm not sure if it will be permanent. I also noticed I had an outdated version of Dropbox, so I uninstalled and reinstalled Dropbox. I hope this helps!
- Hannah
Thanks for the update L_Carper and RB_Construction.
I really appreciate you posting what fixed this for you, RB_Construction, and hopefully that will be it, but let us know if the issue comes back.
As for you, L_Carper, can you also try what RB_Construction tried, to see if that fixes things for your user?
If not, can they quit the Dropbox app and check if the issue persists with the app closed?
Thank you both.
Yesterday, I tried a quick repair of Microsoft 365 but per your suggestion, I did the online repair today and it still did not help.
However, if I turn off the Dropbox app, everything opens just fine with no errors even if the file is within the Dropbox folder. Once I turn the app back on, the errors return.
Unfortunately, after everything resynced in my Dropbox, the error returned.
Quitting the Dropbox app also did not help.
The only solution I have is to end all instances of Dropbox through the Task Manager. 🤷
- Jay
Hi RB_Construction, L_Carper, at this point it might be better for the support team to look into this in more detail.
You can contact them directly via this link, and they'll be able to investigate further.
I have been encountering this issue for weeks.
Here same issue, I read suggestions that the path would be to long for Excel???
Should we change to Onedrive from Microsoft?
Yesterday, i have the same issue, we try the same things:
- Update Microsoft office to the latest version 365
- Update dropbox to the last version after uninstall it from the dropbox.com site
- We verify the hard drive has enough space for synchronize the files.
- Delete the data on the recycle bin
- Restart the computer after ever installation
Results:
After update the office - same problem continue for the files in all dropbox of excel the user make and show the links to update some data are no good.
After update the dropbox- start working good and we can open the files with out the label this file have been moved, saved it now for we can finish the move
After look the harddrive we look only 33 gb available and we clean the data as most posible
and delete the trash bin, we clean more that 700gb . same issue continue
So we are still having the same issue
We will try now to change the folder of Dropbox to avoid indexing wrong , lets se if it works.
Making just the change of folder, fail, because the same folders move to the same place and the problem remains.
Now i will try to make a new installation and put a new folder not the same .
Nop same error arrived again
