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Dropbox not syncing files with emojis in the filename

Dropbox not syncing files with emojis in the filename

Christian W.10
Helpful | Level 5
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Hello,

 

I am trying to use dropbox to sync an application that has a bunch of image files in a subfolder. The image files are of emojis, and each filename IS the emoji that it represents. For example, "😀.png" contains a custom image of the 😀 emoji that the program uses.

 

The issue is that Dropbox won't sync any of the files that have emojis in the filenames. They all get the red X when I try to upload through the filesystem, and I get an error when I try to upload through the web.

I could put everything in a zip file, but I need to be able to run the application out of the dropbox folder on my other computer without extracting. 

 

Any ideas on how to get these files to sync?

 

Thanks!

28 Replies 28

Marjonneke
New member | Level 2
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I've done some testing and these are the emojis I've found to sync successfully.

:white_heavy_check_mark:♥️   :down_arrow:  :umbrella: :black_large_square:️ :stop_button: :sun: :shamrock: :airplane: :scissors:

KimJ
Helpful | Level 5
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I've found that Dropbox will sync some filenames containing emojis but not all. On macos, I am able to sync :star:️ but not :books:. 

shout_skout
Helpful | Level 5
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For what it's worth, I found a pattern in which unicode characters are supported.  Apparently, Dropbox only support unicode characters that don't have f0 in its UTF-8 hexidecimal encoding.  Below are some examples.

:white_heavy_check_mark: : Supported, hexidecimal code is "e2 9c 85"

:star: : Supported, hexidecimal code is "e2 ad 90"

:books:: Not Supported, hexidecimal code is "f0 9f 93 9a"

:open_book:: Not Supported, hexidecimal code is "f0 9f 93 96"

You can look up the hexidecimal for all unicode characters using https://unicode-search.net.  Hopefully that helps the Dropbox community to avoid unsupported characters, and for Dropbox to fix the bug.  

orad
New member | Level 2
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I can confirm the files with emojis in their filenames do not sync to Dropbox. It's funny that the accepted answer to this post is to switch to Google Drive!

 

aronskaya
New member | Level 2
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Same here, I cannot sync files with emojis in names. It is really frustrating. If the operating systems support these names, Dropbox has to support them, too.

 

I use Dropbox to sync my notes, and emojis in note's names are really helpful. Please consider to fix this.Screenshot 2020-05-12 11.48.20.png

Jay
Dropbox Staff
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Hi @aronskaya, thanks for messaging the Community!

 

Some emojis are supported, however, the issue is related to UTF encoding.


The emojis that aren't working (along with many other, newer emoji) use 4 bytes, which our filesystem doesn't support. The emoji that do work on Dropbox.com are those that use less than 4 bytes.

 

Dropbox supports using emoji that fall in the Basic Multilingual Plance in file and folder names on the website (although there are some OSes that might not sync the files to your desktop computer due to not playing nice with local filesystems).

 

Emoji that fall into the Supplementary Multilingual Plane won't work with the Dropbox underlying filesystem, newer emoji fall into this category and are not expected to sync with Dropbox.

 

Hope this helps to clarify matters!


Jay
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


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Earl M.
Helpful | Level 6
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It's one thing to have a hole in your pants and an entirely different thing to patch said hole.

 

It's been about two years and really nothing has been done to fix the incompatibility with Dropbox and emoji in filenames.

I'm fairly certain it doesn't even raise an error when syncing.

 

This is certainly a bug. Windows and OS X aren't going to remove emoji filename support anytime soon.

shout_skout
Helpful | Level 5
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I'm not here to defend Dropbox, but I think the characterization that Dropbox does not support emoji is not correct.  They DO support emoji's, but only a subset of emoji's that are have more universal support accross systems.  That subset is described in previous posts within this thread.

 

This limition does mean that we have to be careful which emoji we can use, and it is it has been a bit annoying on my part because I constantly have to check for unsupported unicode characters (emoji are unicode) and delete them from filenames in order to sync.

 

My feedback to Dropbox:

 

1.  If you can easily extend support to the wider set of unicode characters, please do so.

2. If not, at least please give us an easy way to systemically check for files that fail to sync due to unsupported names.  As of right now, it fails silently, and I have to manually check for which files have the "red" mark next to it with a visual scan, which is not a good use of my time.  

Earl M.
Helpful | Level 6
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The problem is that the average end user isn't going to care that only a subset of emoji isn't supported nor will they care about the explaination. They'll just say that files failing to sync because of characters in the filename is broken... and they are entirely correct.

 

I think this would have been fixed faster if files with accents or file using non-latin alphabets didn't sync. Then it would have been taken seriously. 

KimJ
Helpful | Level 5
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The problem is failing silently. I've lost files and clobbered updates because I wasn't aware that some files and folders were not being synced. If I can't rely on it then I can't and won't use it.

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