On Mac, aliases in Dropbox to folders within Dropbox no longer work across devices

[Tyrrell]

I'm having the same problem as what the user Robio describes here:

https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Files-folders/Mac-aliases-within-Dropbox-used-to-work-on-all-shared-...

That discussion went to e-mail before a solution was found. Since I'm having exactly the same issue, I would like to know how Robio's problem was resolved.

My problem is this: Aliases used to work in Dropbox for Mac until recently (maybe a week ago?). Until recently, an alias created on one device behaved as it should on another device. The problem did start around when I updated one device to macOS Catalina, but I'm not sure that it started exactly then.

Here's an example of what I'm experiencing. Suppose that I sync my Dropbox folder between two devices, Device1 and Device2. On Device1, I create two folders in my Dropbox folder:

~/Dropbox/Folder1

~/Dropbox/Folder2

In ~/Dropbox, I create an alias of Folder1 using the Finder menu command File > Make Alias. Then I move the alias of Folder1 into Folder2. So now I have

~/Dropbox/Folder2/Folder1\ alias

On Device1, where I created the alias, everything seems to be in order. Folder2 will appear to contain a folder named "Folder1 alias". As desired, this apparent folder will actually be an alias pointing to ~/Dropbox/Folder1. Doubleclicking "Folder1 alias" inside of Folder2 will open Folder1, as expected.

The problem arises when I move to Device2. There, I again see the two folders 

~/Dropbox/Folder1

~/Dropbox/Folder2

But, inside of Folder2, there is a file named "Folder1 alias". Instead of a folder icon, the file will have the generic "file" icon. This file will not function as an alias. It is inert, as far as I can tell. At any rate, on Device2, I cannot doubleclick "Folder1 alias" to open Folder1, as I could over on Device1. Instead, I get the error message "Item “Folder1 alias” is used by macOS and can’t be opened."

Nonetheless, if I go back to Device1, the alias continues to work. It's only on Device2 that the alias is broken. Or, rather, it doesn't seem to be even recognized as an alias by the OS.

My two devices are a Mac Pro running macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G9016) and a MacBook Pro running macOS Catalina 10.15.1 (19B88 ). My version of Dropbox.app is 84.4.170.

[Tyrrell]

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@Здравко wrote:

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In you particular case (which differ from the initial in this thread) you can create 'alias' Folder2 pointing to Folder1, both sit in ~/Dropbox using:

cd ~/Dropbox
ln -s Folder1 Folder2

Hi, @Здравко. Thank for the reply.

The command

cd ~/Dropbox
ln -s Folder1 Folder2

doesn't work for me.

The good news is that I get something named "Folder1" inside of Folder2. But the bad news is the thing named "Folder1" inside of Folder2 acts like a broken alias. It has the "generic alias" icon. That is, the icon is a generic document icon (not a folder icon) with a little arrow in the lower left corner. Double clicking it produces the error message:

Do you see something different when you do this?

[Здравко]

Ah... Strange... It works for me....

Another option is skipping link name and rename the link after that, if need (link name is optional). But this would work only when the link and the target are NOT in same place (that's one of the reason, linkname argument to be present - for changing name of the link; by default - same as target)!

ADD: Might help if prepend the names with "./"... Try at least.

If nothing helps, on clear terminal type the lines, I suggested above, and post the content (together your command, exactly as you typed and possible results - i.e. erros) in a code block </> or as a screenshot. So would be clear what's going on.

[bobthened]

Why would you change that?!?!! The ability to do this was like 50% of the reasoning behind me choosing Dropbox in the first place!!

How can I auto-sync a folder like 'Documents' now? Is it even possible? do I have to do it manually now?

Maybe I should switch to iCloud.

[Robio · Accepted solution]

I imagine everyone is aware of this, but I still had this thread bookmarked, so I just popped in to say this issue appears to be fixed. I don't recall when it was fixed, but I'm running Dropbox 97.4.467 and aliases are working across devices within shared Dropbox folders.

Now if we can just get them to fix the problem of locked folders/files being not staying locked...