How do I fix a 'Word cannot open the document: user does not have access privileges' error?

[Dolphin_R]

 I have been using dropbox to store and access microsoft documents on my mac for months but out of nowhere this morning when I clicked to open a document I was told 'Word cannot open the document: user does not have access privileges'. I created the document so I don't see why there would be an issue. Does anyone have advice on how to fix this? Thank you

[Lusil]

Hi @Jeff D.22 and @Anson010, thanks for reaching out to us about this!

As a first step, could you please clarify the following for us:

• Does this occur to all Word documents in your Dropbox folder? 
• Is the desktop app up to date or is it still trying to sync content? You can see that by hovering over your Dropbox icon on your system tray or menu bar. 

Any additional info and screenshots (without personal details) would be very helpful.

Keep us posted!

[palmerpark]

That link describes part of my problem; I have well over 300,000 files. That does not seem to be a problem on my main PC, but it simply won't sync onto a new MacBook Pro. I left the laptop to sync (as the only running program) for 4 days on a 300 megabit wifi connection and after 4 days of running dropbox at nearly full CPU load, it hadn't synced any files at all and won't let me open any of the files that were locally saved into the Dropbox folder. I've tried reinstalling Dropbox and selectively syncing a subset of the files that I need and still get the same outcome. If there is an upper limit to the maximum number of files that I can store in Dropbox (other than the vague "around 300,000" mentioned in that link) I'd like to know that. 

[Lusil]

Thanks for getting back to us, @palmerpark!

The number given of 300,000 files is a soft limit which heavily depends on the specifications of each computer. This could explain why you're having a different experience from one device to another. 

From there, since you've already selectively synced content to improve the syncing process of the desktop app, I'd recommend giving it some more time to complete. 

In any case, keep us posted on the progress and don't hesitate to nudge us again if you have any other questions. Cheers!

[kjjones]

I am having the same issue and I agree that this is a Dropbox issue. I am able to create Microsoft files and save them on my computer. I am able to open them from elsewhere on my computer. It is only the documents in Dropbox that cannot be opened. When this began, I was also no longer able to play media from inside Dropbox. Instead it would open the file in a media player app. These issues make it more difficult for me to do my work.

[Walter]

Hi @kjjones; sorry for the late reply.

If you're still having issues with this, could you post a screenshot of any error(s) you might be getting so we can have a visual too?

Thanks!