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Make file prefixing an option - file requests

Make file prefixing an option - file requests

jules s.2
New member | Level 2

When someone requests a file using your request a file tool, the person who uploads the file's name gets added to the file name eg janedoe_filea.pdf . This is really frustrating and I end up having to rename my files. I did a search to solve the problem and I see there are other people that are quite frustrated by the problem but apparently there is no fix for this?  Please let me know if there is a solution for this. thanks

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Walter
Dropbox Staff
This idea has been closed as it has reached the end of the Share an Idea process.
 
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Status changed to: Closed
49 Comments
sumonmg1
New member | Level 2

What you said doesn't make sense. I have just tried file request feature on both Business and personal account and file name was appended with submitted user name, no change there. However I noticed they changed the look and feel of the file upload interface. 

Mubasshir Tahmid
New member | Level 2

This has been a problem for me. This 'auto rename' thing is crazy and should be changed.

WhatHeSaidVO
New member | Level 2

PLEASE provide an option to disable this.  It is absolutely infuriating.  I'm a casting director and routinely use Dropbox File Requests to source hundreds of actors' auditions for my casting clients, and it's absolutely awful (and makes me look bad) that no matter what naming convention they'd like auditions to be submitted under, the files automatically get renamed!  Why did anyone think auto-renaming would be helpful??  

It's so bad I'm contemplating ending my subscription and moving to another service.  Please change this. 

arvidurs
New member | Level 2

This is totally unacceptable. Naming conventions are super import! Especially working with client abroad, everything needs to be named properly. 

WHO in the name at Dropbox thought it's a great idea to add the uploaders name to the files??? Sorry but this is just simple minded. Use meta data or what ever, but don't hardcode the name to the file.

This needs to be addressed ASAP!

victress
Explorer | Level 3

I hope Dropbox will fix this and give the clients the option to get it or not. This is somewhat frustrating.

croissant
New member | Level 2

I desperately need this option asap. I am not a school teacher; almost all requested files come from my only coworker. Over 100 files are needlessly and forcefully renamed with the person's name attached at the begining of every file.

 

It makes browsing extreamly inefficient since the key part of file names get pushed back and omitted by Dropbox. Imagine scrolling through a large number of files with a long and redundant suffix.

 

It's painfully counter-productive because I have to rename all of them later offline since Dropbox hasn't have any bulk renaming capability yet. Is it responsible to mess up the file names with no remedy to undo? We've never asked for such a disaster. And it's even more catastrophic for those who don't know how to bulk rename files offline unlike I do.

 

No, the coworker cannot host all those files by sharing them because the total data size of the files exceeds her free-account limit. That's exactly why we are using the file request function in the first place.

lmedrano
Explorer | Level 3

PLEASE FIX THIS :grimacing:

I don't mind having the uploader name appended to the file name, but WHY AS A PREFIX? Can't it be a SUFFIX? I'm sure people at dropbox understand the importance of naming conventions.

 

At uni, I give my students clear file naming instructions for homework submissions, so they would ideally be properly sorted in my folder. The automated uploader name prefix ruins this.

At work, I ask freelancers to submit files with strategic file naming instructions to avoid production hiccups, which again this feature ruins.

Please either make this optional or at least append the uploader's name as at the end of the file name.

Staab
Helpful | Level 6

Why is this still a thing?

I just started using file requests and after receiving my first batch of files, this "feature" makes me want to run away from Dropbox as fast as I can.

 

I receive files that link to specific other files within my editing program. The file names MUST stay the same so they will re-link. They should NOT be renamed. EVER. I just want the original file. How is this "helpful"?

 

Please give us an option to enable or disable this renaming BS on a per request basis. I'm sure if I were soliciting a file from 100 different people, this could maybe be useful. But my file request goes to one person for hundreds of files. I don't have time to sit there and rename EVERYTHING.

 

This is perhaps the WORST problem I've ever had with Dropbox. And I've been using it (and paying for it) for many many years.

 

PLEASE FIX THIS ASAP!!!!!!!!!

arvidurs
New member | Level 2

@Staab 
I had exactly the same issue. The workaround I found was to ask who ever is uploading the files for the request, to make sure to ZIP them before. that way when you unpack, you have the OG names

Staab
Helpful | Level 6

@arvidurs

Thanks. Yeah, I guess that's the workaround I'll have to do.

 

It just seems ridiculous to me that in the four years people have been complaining about this problem, Dropbox hasn't fixed it. All it needs is an option per file request to turn renaming on or off...

 

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