Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox šØāš»? Find out how to check here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
Spotlight Search Doesn't Link to Files in Dropbox in macOS 13 Ventura
After upgrading to macOS Ventura, I was prompted to upgrade to "Dropbox for macOS 12". I proceeded with that, it moved my Dropbox folder to ~/Library/CloudStorage and confirmed all was successful. No...
- Thatās the same problem I had. I solved it by doing a complete clean install of dropbox. You may not need to do all of this, but to be safe, in Dropbox settings Selective Sync uncheck all of your folders and wait for them to be removed from your Mac. Once thatās done, unlink your Mac from Dropbox preferences. You should see the Dropbox getting started screen. Quit Dropbox and move the app to the Trash. Remove all dropbox files from ~/Library being careful to look at the path name. Only remove things that are within a Dropbox parent folder. Look in library application support, and library preferences. Empty the Trash. Restart your Mac. Reinstall Dropbox from dropbox.com. Once reinstalled, to make things faster sync only one small folder and wait for the prompt that new Dropbox for macOS 12 is available. You should see the message within a few minutes of reinstalling Dropbox. Allow it to upgrade and migrate your files to the new location. Once thatās done you can then sync all your folders. Let your Mac index itself and the problem should be solved.
Thatās the same problem I had. I solved it by doing a complete clean install of dropbox. You may not need to do all of this, but to be safe, in Dropbox settings Selective Sync uncheck all of your folders and wait for them to be removed from your Mac. Once thatās done, unlink your Mac from Dropbox preferences. You should see the Dropbox getting started screen. Quit Dropbox and move the app to the Trash. Remove all dropbox files from ~/Library being careful to look at the path name. Only remove things that are within a Dropbox parent folder. Look in library application support, and library preferences. Empty the Trash. Restart your Mac. Reinstall Dropbox from dropbox.com. Once reinstalled, to make things faster sync only one small folder and wait for the prompt that new Dropbox for macOS 12 is available. You should see the message within a few minutes of reinstalling Dropbox. Allow it to upgrade and migrate your files to the new location. Once thatās done you can then sync all your folders. Let your Mac index itself and the problem should be solved.
Megan
Dropbox Community Moderator
Dropbox Community ModeratorHi everyone! Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
There are a few reasons you might be experiencing issues with searching for files within Dropbox using Spotlight.
Following the update where the Dropbox folder was moved to `~/Library/CloudStorage`, Spotlight sometimes does not re-index the folder until after it is opened for the first time.
Could you try opening the Dropbox folder in Finder (it should be under Locations in the left sidebar), and then allow a little time for indexing to take place before retrying Spotlight search?
Another reason is that the Spotlight index may need to be rebuilt, carry out the steps in this article. Keep in mind that, the article mentions the āDocumentsā folder but you need to use the Dropbox folder instead.
If none of the above steps help, please let me know and we can take another look.
Thank you!
- Yes please!!
Hi Hannah,
I'm also experiencing the same issue. Would appreciate to be included as an interested party in the ticket. Might be worthwhile to know that also OneDrive seems to suffer from the same issue - maybe is having them both installed is the issue in itself.
Yes I did try @Megan's suggestion however that didn't work out. Looks like one needs to click and open each and every folder within the Dropbox folder; not simply Dropbox's folder.
Those folders which haven't been visited using Finder yet are shown by Spotlight as a folder with the dropbox icon and nothing happens when they are clicked.
I'm having the same issue. I use HoudahSpot and other search tools -- but they don't seem to "see" the Dropbox files now that they have been moved after the upgrade. I think that they build on what Spotlight is able to see, and apparently Spotlight can't "see" the files in Dropbox that are saved on my hard drive. I'm a premium user, but I understand that if you have a "business" account, then you can search for words and phrases inside of Dropbox files via the Web (using the Web interface). I don't know if that is true or not, but if so it might be a reason to upgrade to "business." Better yet, Dropbox could make it available to all users.
I have the same problem. I use search tools, like HoudaSpot, but it is based on Spotlight -- which doesn't seem to be able to see Dropbox files now that they have been moved under Ventura. I wouldn't mind searching online, but the online search tool doesn't allow me to search a particular directory. It searches my entire dropbox, which produces results that are unusable since there are so many "hits." Is there some way to do a more focused search via the Dropbox website? If so, I have not been able to find it.
What's the solution here? Still having this issue and the response marked as solution has no-one responding / liking it which makes me believe it may not be working reliably? It's also quite the extensive undertaking , so would like to confirm that this actually resolves the issue before removing everything.
There is no solution at the moment.
Relatedly, I also can't AirDrop files to my Mac anymore. My Downloads folder is inside my Dropbox as I'm using Dropbox Backup, and now AirDropped files no longer show up -.-
...I will open a separate thread about that!- Iām also having this same exact issue where Spotlight results appear with the Dropbox icon and do nothing when selected. This is a showstopper bug. Please add me to the ticket as well.
I'm having the same issue with mac OS Ventura. After changing dropbox directory to cloud storage folder spot light does not open searched files. They are visible in search results with dropbox icon but nothin happens when I try to open them. Any working solution yet?
Nothing which has been suggested to me thus far has worked. I was instructed to wait for Dropbox engineers to look into this and then hopefully they will find a solution.
Ok we'll wait then. Hope it will be solved soon as lack of this function is really annoying and making dropbox "unhandy"
OneDrive also seems to be afflicted by this. So it might not be a Dropbox issue per se but rather a Ventura issue. In that case either Dropbox/OneDrive find a workaround or else I'm afraid Apple won't get to this very fast.
- No, these suggestions did not resolve the issue. Using Ventura on M2 Air.
Megan, thanks for skirting the real problem. Don't you think 4 weeks is enough to reindex a folder? You totally ruined Dropobx and trampled with my trust. What was it mandatory and irreversible, to start with. I would not even like an answer. I am searching for a better application.
What I do not really understand - there is no clear statement from Dropbox Team side - something like - please do not update, there is a buggy update, it will brake your system, we work on that hardly, we will inform you asap. Instead of that each new person coming to this forum with the same issue will be asked to experiment, reindex etc..I did it 4 times, and?
Dear Dropbox team, what do you expect? Do you really believe if it doesn't work on 20 machines, will it work on 21th? Please deactivate this update notification to avoid a further frustration of your customers. And once really solved, please notify your users again.
Hey Megan, ive tried the solutions you suggest (as well the soultions of the users above), no help at all. I do rely heavily on Dropbox and Searchlight itegrations
