Re: Syncing icons on the files in the Dropbox folder have changed

I totally agree with you, the new icon system is bad and causing me a ton of previously unnecessary frustration. It's so hard now to free up space. The new updated icon categorization makes it impossible to know what folders have offlined files buried within them. I generally love Dropbox—and literally it was the old icon system that made smart-sync so incredible/streamlined/useful and had me signing Dropbox's praises to anyone that would listen. But, this new update is just so bad... it seems to have solved a problem that didn't exist, while creating a much worse problem that makes working with Dropbox so incredibly painful now. As we speak I need to clear up disk space, yet I'm faced with hundreds of folders that all now show the cloud icon (despite some of them having offlined files buried within)... so now to find where offlined files might be, I have to search through thousands of subfolders and dig through every last level to get to every individual file. Before, that whole process happened in a split second, simply by looking at the root folder's icon.

Dropbox, thank you for making a great product that really does make the work I do possible, but please revert back to the previous/better icon categorizing system. Please. 

You are right.
I dont know if this site is User only... But I hope that someone in dropbox can Read this and Understand that the did a very bad Update this time... and it could be the reason to change service... at least for me, I'm wasting my time looking for Local files and Oflline them. 

Agreed. If they don't revert back to the previous icon system I might have to find another service for my company to use. 

Yeah, hopefully Dropbox monitors this and takes note. When I contacted Dropbox help, it was them who pointed me to this forum, saying it was monitored by Dropbox and the best way to communicate issues/feature requests. 

There's a longer thread about this issue over here, if anyone is interested to comment there:

https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Create-upload-and-share/Syncing-icons-on-the-files-in-the-Dropbox-folder-have-changed/td-p/610037/

Dropbox recently changed (aka ruined) the usability of its formerly-useful Smart Sync finder icons.

This shouldn't even be an issue -- it NEVER SHOULD HAVE CHANGED.

Marking a folder online only when just one file is online only makes Dropbox too cumbersome to be very useful anymore. I don't have time to go scrolling around to see what I have available on my computer and what isn't.

I've already started looking for a replacement in case this isn't fixed by the time my subscription renews. 

Hello,

What surprises me the most is that someone at Dropbox proposed this 'good' idea and the rest of the staff or the people who decide go ahead with it. Nobody inside questioned why, nor the advantage for its users?

Let's make this update because it will improve the user experience and help them do something (which no one can explain)... instead, let's deliver a  'concept version' of what Smart Sync would be.

Totally agree this change pretty much stops dropbox being an effective cloud based file system. I can no longer easily manage my folders and see what is online/offline. Baffling why this would be changed. Please revert to the old icon system. Likely to leave Dropbox for another service as its ability to work smoothly between offline/online was its main selling point for me.

Also this page wont let me upvote this idea..? But I can up vote others

Nancy Thanks tried Chrome and worked fine!

Upvote in, would vote twice if I could, this change sucks and for the life of me can't figure out what it would actually be useful for! Please change the icons back!

Yes, please bring the old system back.  I cannot work with this new system.  I am very close to cancelling my account over it.

Agreed. The new system is unbelievably useless and will force my company to move to another cloud client if dropbox can’t put it back how it was. 

Who at Dropbox came up with this?

For synced files, we need to see

—Folders fully online only 

—Folders mixed online/local

—Folders fully local

That’s how it was and it was very effective. the new system is just nuts and I cannot understand why they did this. Planning to move company elsewhere 

yep, truly mind-blowing how DropBox can make such a great system, and then without warning or explanation, completely ruin it. it’s almost like someone is trying to sabotage it.

IT MAKES NO SENSE. Why would they remove the distinction between a “mixed” folder and a completely “online-only” folder ??? As others have said, trying to find which folders are hogging HD space is now impossible without manually inspection their entire contents, and their subfolders’ contents. WTF???

and i can’t for the life of me think about why it matters if a local file was made local by “opening it in an app” or “bringing it offline by right-clicking”

Speaking of, i hate the “online-only / available offline” names, i always have to pause to think about what it means. If a file is “offline”, my instinct is that file *isn’t* available locally. how about just LOCAL and CLOUD? or just 🟢 or ⚪️ ?  clear and fast.

So disappointing.

I have already commented here but I hope everyone who lands on this discussion upvotes it. Those of us who have brought our companies into the Dropbox ecosystem, and liked it, hope that they will wake up and fix this before they lose our business (and we lose a bunch of time moving to another service).

Agree ! I also sent a message in the community asking if it was me having issues. The new app looks like the old one but malfunctioning! 

It’s very frustrating that this topic is not getting upgraded, there are actually a bunch of different complaint threads about it spread out across the community, but because the topic’s commenters aren’t consolidated, Dropbox is not seeing or responding to them. 

The stupidity of this icon change makes me so annoyed every day while I (try to) work. They really messed up a great product and the time is ticking before my company moves to another cloud service.

Totally agree arigoldfilms.

I also don't know how long they will take to get the previous back. Hopefully soon! 

Has anyone heard any new responses from Dropbox lately?

This change has been so debilitating. It's been weeks of lost productivity now...I'm not sure how much longer I can hold out. 

I tweeted to Dropbox and someone replied, said they would look into it but it feels like this is falling on deaf ears. Feel free to do the same, folks.

I am also thinking of moving my company elsewhere although I prefer not to because of the hassle, but the icon system as it is now just doesn’t work. Like you, losing lots of productivity time with my partners who can no longer figure out what is on or off-line.

Boggles the mind that they did this. 

Still waiting...

Does anyone know if GoogleDrive or Onebox (or one of the upstart companies) has an icon system like what Dropbox used to have?

I'm going to suggest to my boss that we move to another cloud service. The remote interns are wasting too much time with the now-meaningless "cloud" icon which now can secretly hide massive downloaded files. 

Even if Googledrive or onedrive or the others don't have as good of an icon system as Dropbox USED to have, their customer service can't be any worse!

Just got a great (insert eyeroll) from support: If it is of any help at all, even for the time being, if you know that a folder contains both online-only and local files, you could rename the folder to something like: [Actual name of the folder] (mixed).

Apparently nobody in support actually uses Dropbox in the real world.

Indeed cindy t.3 that temporary "solution" from the support doesn't deserve any comment/consideration.

Kafka-level “solution”