InDesign Files Being Saved / Sync'd / Swapped With Files In Other Consistently-Named Directory

[danielpipitone]

Our team is experiencing an issue related to saved versions of our most current InDesign (.indd) files.

We are finding files in multiple directories that are not the most current versions, but are also not even the same content. Dropbox Activity logs state that they have all been "Deleted" then "Added" about 3 hours later, but they are not the correct files. We are discovering a few factors that seem to be consistent with each instance of the issue we've found, but we are unsure how to correct it.

• All files are .indd files (PDFs, PSD, etc. seem to be immune to the issue so far)
• All files are within directories named "Marketing Collateral" (the enclosing directories are all different, but the "Marketing Collateral" directory names are consistent across the file structure)
• Affected files are all timestamped with the same date (Nov 26, 2022)
• All Affected files are time / date stamped with the same team member's account, on that same date (Nov 26, 2022)
• Some files are incorrect versions (swapped with other files from other "Marketing Collateral" directories)
• Some files cannot even be opened and result in "file type" / "file busy" error dialog boxes
• The only way we've found to correct the issue is to revert each instance to the state prior to this Nov 26, 2022 activity state

Thanks in advance for any advice / help / assistance,

Daniel

[Nancy]

Thanks for posting this here, @danielpipitone.

Just to be on the same page, can you please clarify when did you notice this issue for the first time? Were you able to see the correct versions of these files previously?

Did other team members try to edit these files from their Dropbox app perhaps and the changes never synced to your web account? Were any of the files moved to another location (which would explain the deletion-addition event that you mention)? 

Let me know, and we’ll check this further.

[danielpipitone]

Thanks for your reply, @Nancy –

Our team started noticing it shortly after Nov 26, here and there. It seems to only be an issue for files in our various "Marketing Collateral" directories, which is why we only started noticing a pattern of trouble after we put our heads together collectively when we realized several of us were having the issues with the things in common I outlined...

We've asked other team members, and no one had any reason to do any bulk file deletion or moving...so nothing there that we can pin-point.

It doesn't really seem like a "sync" issue - since we aren't just seeing change control issues (slightly older versions of files). We're seeing completely wrong file content (like files that aren't even slightly related).

Are there perhaps logs on the Dropbox side that could shed some light on what might have happened on or around Nov 26? Can this be escalated or turned into a support ticket?

Thanks again for the reply.

Daniel

[Hannah]

Hey @danielpipitone, sorry to jump in here.

Do you see anything related to these files/folders in your events page here?

And do all members see different contents on their computers, or does everyone see the same thing?

Since you're on a Business team, if you'd like to look into this with our support team, you can definitely reach out to them through this page.

If you decide to do so, please let us know the ticket number for your communication, so we can look it up as well.

[danielpipitone]

@Hannah Thank you for your reply.

Yes, we see a large number of "events" in that log on 11.26 related to the team member who's account seems to be related to the issues we're having. But we still can't understand why the files that were seemingly added back were not the files they were supposed to be.

We will certainly want to escalate this to have the support team investigate. Is that something you can assist with or do I need to do that?

Thanks again,

Daniel

[Walter]

Hey @danielpipitone, sorry to jump in here, but I just wanted to mention that we can open a ticket for you from our end, if you're having issues with reaching out to our support team from your end that is.

If you did contact the team though, please let us know your ticket ID so that we can look it up in our system. 

[danielpipitone]

A support ticket has been opened:
Ticket #20394558

[Megan]

Hi @danielpipitone, happy Monday! 

I was able to locate your ticket, and it seems to be marked as "solved" by the system, because it's been a couple of days without a response. 

Have you tried to reply back, from the email address the agent asked you to?

Let me know!

[danielpipitone]

@Megan I just did, yes. The agent asked to speak to another member of my team directly to ask some questions (since her account was the one showing connection to the files in question), but I have not heard back one way or the other. I don't think we can consider this issue solved quite yet.

Thanks for following up,

Daniel

[Hannah]

Thanks for the additional info, @danielpipitone.

I can see that you're in contact with our support team about this and you have an update on your ticket, so make sure to check that out.

If you need anything else, let us know.