Unable to "View File" to correct sync problem on Mac

[Darren M.]

A red exclamation mark appears on my Mac (macOS Somona 14.2.1（23C71）) in the Menubar app for Dropbox.

Clicking this opens a window in which there is a warning "Couldn't sync files - To fix this, view sync issue for your files." with two options below this message to either click on "View now" or "Close".

Clicking "View now" opens a separate window of "Sync issues" and lists "Personal - 4 issues" with the following files:

Main.storyboardc

MASShortcut.framework

MMTabBarView.framework

MGSFragaria.framework

Under each of these files is the message "Couldn't download. Remove incompatible characters from the filename, e.g. emojis,/\."<>:|?" and two options under this message to "View file" or "Learn more".

Clicking on the "View file" does nothing, so I cannot view the particular file that is causing the problem.

I don't know which application is causing this issue.

This is happening on iMac. I have Dropbox synced between my iMac (Intel), Macbook Air (Apple Silicon), and iPad.

This issue is only happening on my iMac where I have my complete Dropbox files stored.

This same issue is happening for all my other synced devices.

Any guidance or suggestions for how to solve this issue would be greatly appreciated. 🙂

[Nancy · Accepted solution]

Thanks for posting this here, @Darren M.! Let’s look into it.

You mention that you can’t locate these files by clicking on the “View file” option on the desktop app. 

Are you able to find them if you open your local Dropbox folder, and search for them in your Finder?

If there's a chance that these are hidden files, then you can press Command + Shift + . (the period key) to show them in your Finder.

Finally, you can also use the search bar on www.dropbox.com to see if something shows there.

Let me know if that helps at all, and if you can find them now.

[Darren M.]

Thanks so much for your guidance @Nancy .

I first tried searching my Dropbox directory on my Mac after displaying hidden files. This did not work.

However, when I tried doing the same search in the Dropbox.com web browser, I found the problem files, and deleted them, and the issue now is fixed (fingers crossed). (I had tried the same search in Dropbox.com earlier in the day and found nothing then. This time I was able to find all the files.) 

This issue is very strange as it was files I had in Dropbox for many years. I wonder what triggered this? The files belonged to several different application .dmg files that I kept in Dropbox for future installation. Fortunately, I do not need the particular applications and was able to delete them.

[Nancy]

Glad to hear you were able to find them, and the issue’s resolved! 

Regarding your last question, it’s hard to tell why this happened now to be honest. 

If you face any similar issues again though, please let us know, and we’ll be happy to investigate this further.

[Slan]

I have exactly the same issue as Darren but on MacOS Ventura. I deleted the file (a .txt file cheatsheet with bash commands) and emptied the bin but the red exclamation mark and the message are still displayed.

Is there any way to fix this?

[Walter]

Hi @Slan - sorry to hear about this.

If this persists after rebooting your computer, could you send us a screenshot of the app's exact status and version as shown in your menu bar?