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Re: Smart Sync and Quick Preview on Mac

Smart Sync and Quick Preview on Mac

Andrew-RFLB
Helpful | Level 5
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Smart Sync causes my quick preview function (spacebar) to not function properly on my Mac. I can't preview thumbnails, or quick preview any videos or photos. Any ideas why this happens?

147 Replies 147

Leahlc
Helpful | Level 6
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Has anyone here considered switching to Box.com, or already using Box and not having any of these issues? I use to be on Box through my previous job and never had issues like this. Im nearing desperate to move on from this issue as I have to look through tons of photos a day and this is really hindering my productivity.

CNowell
Helpful | Level 6
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@Lauri I. God, that sucks. Sorry for all of the frustration you've probably encountered, but thank you for passing the info along.

@LeahlcMy employer is actually in process of testing out Box— apparently it doesn't suffer from the same syncing issues, but only time will tell. Fingers crossed! 

In the meantime, I'm cancelling my (personal) subscription later today. It's just not worth the headache anymore, especially with customer service putting the blame on the user and/or claiming that it's "The OS's fault" (guys, guess what, you're supposed to update your software as the OS gets updated) — Imagine the lovely responses we're going to get when our information is compromised or when data is lost (which will inevitably will happen at some point).

At this point, Dropbox isn't exactly the type of company I'm cool with safekeeping all of my work docs— especially if they can't be bothered to fix a problem as fundamental to most of our workflows as this.

Good luck out there everyone.

User4759
Helpful | Level 6
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@CNowell, I'd love to hear how Box works out for you. I've found the only thing that works is syncing everything locally, which defeats the purpose of SmartSync for me (smaller hard drive, more files stored in cloud). So I'm currently archiving things to Dropbox but not using SmartSync the way I like, which means I can drop my plan down a notch and save a bunch of money. But if Box can actually do it right, their $15 plan looks terrific to me - and less than I'm paying for DropBox.

DanKorkelia
Helpful | Level 5
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So has the issue been resolved at all? I had issue on High Sierra and now also on Mojave. 

horat10
Helpful | Level 5
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It's NOT Solved! I cannot use Preview anymore at all (imac sierra). Neither local nor cloudbased. Affects Even all other folders outside dropbbox. Do something!

jefflandon
Helpful | Level 5
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This has been an ongoing issue for quite some time. Dropbox has no interest in fixing this...

DanKorkelia
Helpful | Level 5
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As a paying Dropbox Business customer (2 business accounts) this doesn't sounds like good business.  This is a major usability issue. 😞

bkirschenmann
Helpful | Level 5
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Yeah our team pays $1800 a year for busienss dropbox. we always worked locally on external hardrives as we have 800Gb of data and we all work on laptop with less space. we just used selective sync and everything was local and it was great. Someone had the idea of doing smart sync and only having what you are workign on local and everyting else online only so we could ditch th eexternals. Sounded great but as a designer I hit spacebar to activate previews quicklook feature a gazillion times a day. the moment we swapped to smart sync two things broke:

1: you coudl no longer unmount or eject the external hardrive. it would freeze finder into a catastofic failer EVERYTIME you tired. thats a huge probloem of course. I know dropbox doesnt want you working on externals but its the only option. without smart sync. 

2: the mement we turned on smart sync. Like veryone else in this thread. the quick look function of prievew stopped working when viewing files within your dropbox folder. it worked anywhwere else on the hardrive, but if you would be in th edropbox folder then it would glitch out and stop showing the icon thumbnail, and the larger preview. This happens whether the file is online only or Local... it doesnt matter. symart sync and preview DONT get along at all. the horrible thing is... after it glithces the problem persists. it basicly stalls out the cache for priview or something. you cna close dropbox and then right on yoru desctip all filetypes loose there thumnail in the file icon itself as well as the ability to preview the content. The only fixes are restarting preview in a way that replaces the cache directory. Either computer restart, force quiting finder itself, or as mentioned previously manually deleting the cache databasee. then everyting goes back to normal as long as you are on yoru computer ANYWHERE other then the dropbox folder. as soon as you go in you have moments of brilliance fallowed by thumbnail loss entirely once again. the time it takes to crash varies from a few second to a few miutes. but it ALWAYS happens.

This has to be fixed... my biggest gripe is that it isnt of course.. when you are dealing with 100ks of thousands of files you have to be able to preview what they content is of course. what is this 1990? Fix yoru [profanity removed by moderation] and quit blaming apple OS. you made smart sync. fix it. DONT TELL ME "you can't preview the online only files, becuase they are just a shadow placeholder, with folder structure and file name, nothing more." this ISNT TRUE, as after you restart finder and get preview working again for a moment... online only files can be previewed. they get a file thumbmnail icon and you can see it larger and quicklook the file. So dont feed us a line of tech [profanity removed by moderation]  that there isnt an embedded thumbnail in the shadow file. if ther wasnt you woudl never get a preview. but we do... Smart sync is GARBAGE in the modern era if you cant view the files it is managing without fully opening them or going online to dropbox.com... NOBODY goes to yoru web interface when you can work locally in your computers OS. nobody.

Alvpeerz
New member | Level 2
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I have the same issue. High Sierra. My coworker has the same computer but in Mojave and has the exact same problem. Relaunching the Finder works, for a little while, then back to not being able to preview neither what I have in my computer or what's online.

I know nobody cares but hey maybe if enough of us comment somebody will.

sewashen
New member | Level 2
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Hello Andrew, did you find a solution to your problem? I am still having the same problem as you.

Need more support?