Re: I'm trying to gain access to my deceased father's Dropbox account

Hi Jay

Some progress on this, we have managed to access his account via one of his old devices, and as you suggested it was still logged in! There appears to be hundreds of photos there, however most of the images are greyed out and the message states "This file cant be previewed, to view this file open it on your computer". Have you any suggestions/thoughts as to what the problem could be please? As I said, the images are there just not showing (only a handful are). 

Many thanks in advance! 

Sarah

Hey sarah copland​, I'm glad to see that you managed to access the account.

Are you getting this error message when trying to view the files on the Dropbox website?

Do the files that give you this error have their extensions at the end of the name? For example, file name.jpg, file name.png, etc.?

If not, rename them to add the extension and the preview should work.

Let us know if that's not the problem.

Hi Hannah! 

Thanks for coming back to me.

Yes, I am getting the error messages in the Dropbox App (on an I-pad) when trying to view the files. I will try your solution this evening and let you know if it works. 

Thanks again, Sarah

Got it, thanks, Sarah!

If what I mentioned is not the issue in your case, please also send me a screenshot of the error, so that we can investigate further.

Hi Hannah, I attach a couple of screenshots of what I can see. Some files don't appear to have extensions at the end...

Thankyou!

Thanks for the update, Sarah!

Did you try to rename the files to add the extension and see if the preview works after that? You'll basically need to keep the name and just add the ".jpg" or ".png" at the end.

You'll find the exact steps here.

Hi Hannah,

Thanks again for coming back to me!

I cant see where to select all and then change the name, or even where the individual file name is? 

Hi Walter, thanks for your message. Yes we are seeing the same via the home tab and the photos tab, so can only view 8 pictures out of 100's. We are currently using my Dads Ipad to access his dropbox via the app, as it was already logged in. Thanks for your suggestions of  using a web browser which I had considered, however we have the same problem as originally faced with, we dont know his DropBox password. Is there any way round this, due to the fact that currently we are logged into his account on the app? Thank you

Hi sezza28! If you go to the Home tab once again, do you see an option to rename one of the files there perhaps?

Hey sezza28, I wanted to check in with you and see if you were able to access the photos you wanted after all.

Hi Nancy, thanks so much for checking in. No, still havent got any further with the photos unfortunately. As above I dont know if it would work on a browser instead of in the app but as we dont have the p/w there is no way of checking. Thanks 

Hey sarah copland​!

I'm going to suggest something outside of our scope here. However you might be able to further reach out to Apple for additional help.

More specifically, you can try to check for the "Passwords" option on your dad's iPad settings, and check if his Dropbox account's password is accessible and saved there, in order for you to access the account. 

One last thing: when accessing the "Files" tab instead of the "Photos" tab, are you able to see the files' names there? 

Another possibility, though a long shot...

If your father set up the Files app (not the Dropbox app, but Apple's own Files app) to connect to Dropbox, you may be able to access the content from there.

This screenshot is from an iPhone, but it's the same app.

Hi Megan thank you so much for your response. I brought my Dads Ipad into work to get some help here and whilst trying to log into the wifi here it has logged me out of his Dropbox account. So I think we are sadly back to square one. 

Unless I can access his passwords in the settings, how would I do that? Thank you

Hey Sarah!

To access the saved passwords on the iPad, you'll need to open the Passwords app (which would be locked and you'd need to unlock it, I'm afraid) and then check if the Dropbox app is listed there.