Unicode Encoding Conflict

[shinkairi]

Now, before you link me to the dropbox article on that, I have read already read it, but what I wanna know is, where it says :

What do I do now?

If one of your files is appended with the words (Unicode Encoding Conflict), you can resolve it with either of the following options: 

• Simply leave both files or folders alone, and let one continue to have the name appended with (Unicode Encoding Conflict)
• Rename one of the files or folders

I don't understand the difference between the two options. Is one better than the other? In my particular case, should I leave all 3 files alone or should I rename two of them? Only the middle one works for now as it is the only one that has a size bigger than 0. 

[Walter]

Hey @shinkairi, thanks for posting on our Community and happy 2023!

As you probably know, a Unicode encoding conflict happens when two files or two folders with the same name are saved in the same location on your Dropbox account. To resolve this, Dropbox will append one with the words (Unicode Encoding Conflict). 

You can resolve it by either of the ways you described, while it's recommended to avoid creating a file or folder with the same name as a file or folder in the same location to prevent this from happening again. 

In your case, you could also try moving the files from the folders that aren't working into your working one and then rename the remaining folder according to your needs. 

I hope this helps!

[shinkairi]

Hi,

Thanks, my problem is with 3 files not with folders. 

One file is working, the other two are not. I just want to know if that's normal and if I need to do something about it?

I also want to know if all the 3 files are the same file or if they were different? I uploaded them to dropbox a long time ago so I don't remember. One has the name unicode encoding conflict and another has the name unicode encoding conflict (1). And one has a normal name.

Basically my question is can I do something so that I can reveal what's inside the files that are not working?

[Здравко]

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@shinkairi wrote:

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Thanks, my problem is with 3 files not with folders. 

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Hi @shinkairi,

Your problem isn't related neither to any particular file nor folder; it's related to names either of file of folder (doesn't matter one or other or both) - just names.

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@shinkairi wrote:

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One file is working, the other two are not. ...

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Actually all files are working! Tow of them are just renamed improperly and can't be handled. If you set to them proper names, will see how they get back to work, like a miracle. 🙂

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@shinkairi wrote:

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I also want to know if all the 3 files are the same file or if they were different? I uploaded them to dropbox a long time ago so I don't remember. ...

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If you don't remember, just name them properly and open them to see.

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@shinkairi wrote:

... One has the name unicode encoding conflict and another has the name unicode encoding conflict (1). And one has a normal name.

...

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This is a deep topic related to how file/folder names (and not only) are represented. In short, every symbol you can see is represented by a corresponding code. A sequence of codes is represented to sequence of corresponding glyphs on a display. The key moment is that some letters can be represented as one or more glyphs - i.e. the same looking text can be represented with different code sequence. For most present day systems it's not a issue: they just handle different representation as different names (even when they look in exactly same way). Some old systems (such that can't use Unicode or with partial support) can have troubles. Honestly I haven't seen such for very looong time. Dropbox keeps support for actually non existing systems (even when some lack of support for new systems can be noted) and make some normalization of names. In such a way files that can coexist on your local file system, cannot coexist in Dropbox namespace. When Dropbox meets such names it does rename some of them - only one remains unchanged (the issue you are observing). There is no guarantee which one remains unchanged. Such move doesn't affect files validity in any way. In some systems can be expected inability to distinguish file type correctly since improper naming - extension change. You can fix this by hand 😉 rename once again to correct the extension. Take in mind that Dropbox doesn't fully support Unicode - some symbols can be correct on your local filesystem, but incorrect for Dropbox (it just doesn't able to understand them - asaid of normalization issues)!

Hope this clarifies matter.

[shinkairi]

Thank you for a great answer.

By "just name them properly", do you mean I can name them anything, or I have to name them what they used to be named?

[Здравко]

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@Здравко wrote:

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If you don't remember, just name them properly and open them to see.

... When Dropbox meets such names it does rename some of them - only one remains unchanged (the issue you are observing). There is no guarantee which one remains unchanged. Such move doesn't affect files validity in any way. In some systems can be expected inability to distinguish file type correctly since improper naming - extension change. You can fix this by hand 😉 rename once again to correct the extension. ...

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@shinkairi, probably you haven't read all yet. 🙂 I underlined some key points.

Again, some systems and other software can distinguish file type and handle file properly without need particular file extension to be set. Unfortunately there are cases that exact files extension is a must (Dropbox web interface is one such example)! Automatic file renaming usually leads to inconsistent file name (more precisely - its extension). That's what needs to be the target of your files name repairing. I hope you know what's file name extension.

Good luck.

[shinkairi]

Thanks for the info. Last question, promise.

Maybe I'm too stupid, but isn't file name extension the .pdf? All 3 are .pdf, so why would I change that? And to what?

So, what you're basically saying, is that I need to figure out what the original (correct) file extension of that particular file was. So maybe it was a .docx or something, and I need to figure that out. Is that it? Thanks.

[Здравко · Accepted solution]

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@shinkairi wrote:

... isn't file name extension the .pdf? ...

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Hi @shinkairi,

Yes, file name extension is the part of the name after the last dot in that name (if any - may be missing). It's usually few letters (typically 3 or 4, but can be any number on most present day systems). In particular for Portable Document Format file type it's "pdf" or ".pdf" (dot is included for more expressive representation, 🤫 but formerly isn't integral part of the name extension itself; actually the last dot is just a separator between a basic name's part and the name extension).

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@shinkairi wrote:

... All 3 are .pdf, so why would I change that? ...

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If correct type of the documents match to the extensions, then you don't need to change anything.

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@shinkairi wrote:

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So, what you're basically saying, is that I need to figure out what the original (correct) file extension of that particular file was. ...

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For sure the extension have to match to original file type, as I said above. Since you know already the files type (i.e. pdf), there is nothing needed to figure out.

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@shinkairi wrote:

... So maybe it was a .docx or something, and I need to figure that out. ...

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No, definitely not! If the extension was different, as a part of file name, then the file name would be different too. In this context, the conflict would be impossible. Since you have conflict (whatever type), that means there is a name match (from Dropbox point of view, at least).

Are you sure the extensions are matching still. 🤔 Maybe the unchanged name's extension is something like ".pdf", but changed name's extension looks like ".pdf (Unicode Encoding Conflict)" or something similar. 🙂 Isn't it? Again name's extension is everything after the last point!!! You can try move ".pdf" at the names end  wherever it's not. 😉 That's it.

Historically left habits (like conclusion about file type based on name extension) is tedious things very often 🤷, but such things are changing in the "laziest" manner (i.e. most slowly).

Hope this helps.

[shinkairi]

Thank you very much.