Links won’t open in the Dropbox app

[Kemaneo]

When I receive a Dropbox link through another app, e.g. Messenger, the “Get the App” or “Open in App” button appears, but if I tap it the App Store opens instead. There’s currently no way for me to open the link in the app directly. I tried re-installing but that didn’t help. I’m using an iPhone SE2.

[Hannah]

Hey @Kemaneo, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

I just tried to recreate this on my own device, but tapping on the "open" button, just opened the link as normal.

Which version of the Dropbox app do you have installed?

And which browser are you using to open the link? Do you have a different one you can try?

Let me know how it goes.

[Stookieandlil]

I have exactly the same problem. My mates sends me a Dropbox box link and when I click it , it opens the App Store to download drop box app. I already have the app and I click “open” on App Store and my drop box app opens but it’s forgotten the link and just opens to my default Dropbox page. Hannah Dropbox staff says hers simply opens the link. However she states “with browser are you using to open the app” the links come in a text message, email or messenger app so it’s not in a browser !!!!
Dropbox is always the latest version as my iPhone 11 has auto updates.
Be great if you could upload a screenshot and show what’s happening.
I don’t think @hannah understands the problem.

[Stookieandlil]

@kemaneo if you hold the link in txt or messenger you should get an option to open in safari and go from there.
If you click link briefly it will ask to open App Store.
Not very intuative and I don’t like going anywhere near the web browsers myself but that’s the way it goes.

[Hannah]

Hey @Stookieandlil!

When you simply tap on a link, it should open with your device's default browser and give you two options:

1) To "get the app"

2) "Or continue to website"

Is this not what you see on your end? Can you send me a screenshot of what you see? Just make sure to hide any personal info.

[Stookieandlil]

Thanks for the reply.
If you continue to website the link is lost.
If you open in app it goes to App Store and wants you to “open” from App Store and link is lost.

You have to “copy” link and paste it into a web browser to get access you can’t go directly to the app.
That’s not very intuitive and I don’t like going through poor security web browsers. I also don’t like opening links like this in safari or chrome. They track everything and it’s not secure regardless.
Why doesn’t the link simply open into the app installed on iOS. I think that would be far better and avoid the spying and poor security of a web browser.
For that reason I won’t upgrade dropbox and will now seek out a more secure alternative. Thanks.