cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Announcements
Want to know what we learned at IBC? Check out our learnings on media, remote working and more right here.

Create, upload, and share

Find help to solve issues with creating, uploading, and sharing files and folders in Dropbox. Get support and advice from the Dropbox Community.

cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Dropbox link keeps changing

Dropbox link keeps changing

ajw1414
Helpful | Level 6
Go to solution

Morning,

I have a excel file on dropbox where I setup a macro to have a powerquery run overnight to pull data from our databases and then save.  What we call our master data excel file.

Afterwards we have individual excel files linked to this master excel file to update account information.  Some 250 individual files.

This approach was working file for our team over the past year, but just yesterday we noticed that the dropbox link on the master file has changed.  Causing all 250 files needing to be relink.

I noticed this morning that the link has changed again.

There has been no changes to the file other than the data uploads over night.

Can anyone advise what the issue is?  Thank you

1 Accepted Solution

Accepted Solutions

ajw1414
Helpful | Level 6
Go to solution

Thank you all for the response.  

I ended up submitting a ticket in through Dropbox.  This appears to be related to a update they performed.  They rolled back for my individual file and the link appears to be staying the same now. 

We ended up moving our master data file to a local drive.  This does mean we have to relink 250 files, but at least we have control of such issues in the future, but I wanted to post here in case others have the same issue going forward.  Good luck.

 

I just received an update from our engineering team with news on a temporary fix. 

It looks like we were able to isolate this issue to a recent update of ours. While we're working to get this fixed, we've rolled back the update for your account and I've verified that the machine you contacted us about initially, "CHS4156695", has reverted that update. 

My team will continue to work on getting this fixed - but we didn't want that to be at the cost of your productivity. 

I'm going to leave this ticket on-hold for the time being as I monitor for updates, but you should be good to go. 

View solution in original post

23 Replies 23

Walter
Dropbox Staff
Go to solution

Hello @ajw1414 - welcome to the Dropbox Community!

Your inquiry echoes a discussion I had with some other users almost a year ago. Could you take a look there and let me know if it helps at all?

Thanks!

 


Walter
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


Heart Did this post help you? If so, give it a Like below to let us know.
:arrows_counterclockwise: Need help with something else? Ask me a question!
:pushpin: Find Tips & Tricks Discover more ways to use Dropbox here!
:arrows_counterclockwise: Interested in Community Groups? Click here to join

ajw1414
Helpful | Level 6
Go to solution

Hi Walter, thanks for the update, but not quite the same issue.  It appears that after a file is saved that the dropbox link now changes.  I'm unsure why. 

 

Old Link

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6pcuy45qfpgal5d/FILE Name

 

After updating/performing a data pull, then saving the file.  We now have new links which detroys out power query links between the excel files.  The link change has never occured before.  Not sure why it's an issue now.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ljdikwwbqcqgoy8/File Name

https://www.dropbox.com/s/frxvvct2nblz3o7/File Name

Walter
Dropbox Staff
Go to solution

Thanks for following up and providing the extra details here @ajw1414.

I'm still not sure how shared links to files of yours can be altered after running a macro in Excel; I'd love to look into it though.

Therefore, would it be OK if I reached out via the email address that's connected to your Community's profile to dig a tad deeper into this matter? 


Walter
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


Heart Did this post help you? If so, give it a Like below to let us know.
:arrows_counterclockwise: Need help with something else? Ask me a question!
:pushpin: Find Tips & Tricks Discover more ways to use Dropbox here!
:arrows_counterclockwise: Interested in Community Groups? Click here to join

markbroemer
Helpful | Level 5
Go to solution

Hello - this has been happening to me as well for the last week or ten days - over the years I have provided clients a link with a PDF file that is updated daily on our end, and this link has remained active for years.  Recently everytime I have saved over the old PDF with the current version, the old link has become inactive and I have to generate and send a new link to my clients and collegues.  This has been very frustrating as the clients think it is something we have done on our end.

Walter
Dropbox Staff
Go to solution

Hi @markbroemer - welcome to our Community!

This definitely sounds strange; would you like me to reach out via your Dropbox associated email address so I can look into this with all of our tools at my disposal? 

In the meantime, could you forward me a screenshot of the error you get when you access the mentioned -now inactive- shared link? 

Thanks!


Walter
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


Heart Did this post help you? If so, give it a Like below to let us know.
:arrows_counterclockwise: Need help with something else? Ask me a question!
:pushpin: Find Tips & Tricks Discover more ways to use Dropbox here!
:arrows_counterclockwise: Interested in Community Groups? Click here to join

markbroemer
Helpful | Level 5
Go to solution

It's a 404 error - here is the now inactive link created earlier today that got broken after saving a new file over the original file:  

https://www.dropbox.com/s/l3iqv2wlr457mhf/INVENTORY_DOCUMENT_-_FOR_INTERNAL_USE.pdf?dl=0

Looking at the version history of this file - prior to November 15, any files copied over the original were processed in Dropbox as an edit of the original document.  Starting November 15, the same action is causing the file in Dropbox first to be deleted and then the new version is created as a new file with a subsequent new public link.

dropbox error.jpg

 

Walter
Dropbox Staff
Go to solution

I see. Thanks for the additional details Mart. 

Could you see if this is also happening on another browser or an incognito window with no extensions or plugins running?

If you're editing (overwriting) your file within your computer's Dropbox folder directly when you notice this happening, I'd really like to investigate further so please let me know if I could use the email address that's connected to your Community's profile to create a support ticket for you. 

Thanks once again Mart!


Walter
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


Heart Did this post help you? If so, give it a Like below to let us know.
:arrows_counterclockwise: Need help with something else? Ask me a question!
:pushpin: Find Tips & Tricks Discover more ways to use Dropbox here!
:arrows_counterclockwise: Interested in Community Groups? Click here to join

markbroemer
Helpful | Level 5
Go to solution

I have a ticket in with the Dropbox support team - I'll update here if I get any resolution to this problem.

 

ajw1414
Helpful | Level 6
Go to solution

Morning, that would be great.  I played around with the files and folder on dropbox.  Anytime I save any file within any folder, the links are changing. 

Previously the links had not been changing.  November 15th is the date we started to experience this issue as well so Mark has nailed describing the issue.  Please keep us updated.  Over 250 files linked to the old dropbox link.

Need more support?
Who's talking

Top contributors to this post

  • User avatar
    gkewing49 New member | Level 2
  • User avatar
    markbroemer Helpful | Level 5
  • User avatar
    Jonathan H.1 Collaborator | Level 9
What do Dropbox user levels mean?