Windows explorer not responding when opening dropbox files with preview pane turned on

[ralwin]

I am using the latest versions of Windows 10, Dropbox for desktop and Office 365. 

When preview pane is turned on and I am trying to open word and excel files the file explorer stops responding and I have to kill the process in task manager.

This only happens when the preview pane is on and with office documents (word, excel).

Other types of documents (pdf, txt files) seem to open OK.

Any reason for this or is there a solution other than turning preview pane off? 

[Jay]

Hi @ralwin, thanks for posting today!

Does this only occur on files located in the Dropbox folder?

What happens if the Dropbox desktop application is closed completely, does the preview pane work normally?

This will help me assist further!

[ralwin]

It only occurs in the Dropbox folders.
Other non-dropbox folders operate normally when opening files.
Also, opening the Dropbox files from within the application (word, excel) is normal.
It seems to be an issue with the combination of Dropbox+Preview pane together.

[Walter]

Hi there @ralwin; I'm sorry to jump in here, but have you tried re-installing both our desktop application and your MS Office ones to see if that improves matters at all?

[ralwin]

Thanks for your reply.
Yes I did reinstall dropbox and office. Have also upgraded Windows latest version.
The issue did resolve itself for a short time but then the problem reoccurred.
There was an another post with the same issue (search “preview pane”) but no answer.
My only workaround is to turn off the preview pane.