Couln't download. Remove incompatible characters from the filename

[Dimples]

Recently all of my computer with Dropbox have started showing a sync error "Couln't download. Remove incompatible characters from the filename. e.g. emojis, /\"<>:|?*"

The problem filename isn't shown, the "Go to File" link just takes me to the root directory of my drive, and I obviously can't search for those bad characters.  How do I find this file to solve the sync issue?

[Simone Attivissimo]

Well said!

I'm having the same problem, with 4 .rtfd files. I've got about 100 other .rtfd files on Dropbox that are not causing the same problem.

[dsspiegel]

@Megan The claim that this is not a new issue is surprising to me.

I can see these files sync'd on dropbox from years ago.  Did File Provider only recently start ignoring files ending in the ~ character?  Because I have a file from a year ago that ends in ~ and is in Dropbox in the cloud, but I'm suddenly getting an error about it.

Also, what is the problem with the file .problem.c.swp?  The error message suggests that the period character is an "incompatible character", but ... that can't be the case, as many many files have a period in the name.  In that case as well, the files are on Dropbox from years ago (2013!) but I suddenly started getting an error message about them last week.

[Walter]

Hi there @Fox2, @Galfodo & @Simone Attivissimo - thanks for letting us know about this.

Could you please clarify the location of your Dropbox folder as shown in the app's preferences under the Sync tab?

Any additional information or screenshots are more than welcome! 

[Simone Attivissimo]

Thx for your reply!

I'm using a MacBook Pro.

Mine is under HD -> Users -> namesurname folder

[Gordo1]

Hi Walter,

I did follow the directions to fix hardlinks and permissions. Still no success in getting the sync issue notification or locating either the file or the folder.

Thanks,

Gordon

[EatCroc3]

I have a similar problem -- in my case, on Windows 10. A folder that was shared with me long ago contains a few files with ">" characters in their names, which Windows doesn't allow. Those files have never been downloaded to my PC. As a result of the recent Dropbox UI change, I am now receiving alerts, whereas formerly the downloads failed silently. This explanation makes sense to me.

Since the folder was shared with me by someone else, with view-only access, I do not have the option to rename the files.

No problem, I thought. I'll just make that folder online-only, so that it doesn't need to be downloaded to my PC unless I try to access files in that folder from my PC.

This doesn't seem to have had any effect. I am still getting periodically notified that the files can't be downloaded. How can I stop these failing download attempts, other than by unsharing the folder and losing access to it entirely?

[NanoExplorer]

The comment that 'this is not a new issue' is missing a bit of context. A few months ago, Dropbox switched from using its own file handling routine to using the MacOS built-in API for cloud storage. Before this point, Dropbox could sync files ending with tilde on Mac. When the switch happened, any files with tildes seem to have been copied to the new folder, but due to the limitations of the MacOS cloud storage API, they cannot be modified by Dropbox anymore. (And new ones cannot be downloaded or uploaded)

So this is not a new issue in that it's older than two weeks when @hzee asked the question, but it is a new issue as of a couple months ago when Dropbox switched APIs on Mac. This explains why some people like @dsspiegel successfully created tilde files a year ago, because at that time Dropbox was not using File Provider yet.

The change that appeared two weeks ago seems to have been an updated notification system that detects and correctly notifies us of this issue (perhaps along with some others like the ones @EatCroc3 mentions). In my case though, after ignoring the issues from the desktop app they haven't bothered me since.

And regarding the .something.swp files, I am guessing that File Provider specifically disallows files that follow the form .*.swp because I was able to successfully create files that started with a . or ended with .swp but not both. It also seems that tildes are allowed in file names unless they are at the end of the filename for some reason.

I think we need to take these complaints to Apple because they are almost certainly pressuring services like Dropbox to use File Provider and also the ones imposing these weird restrictions 🙂

[dsspiegel]

@NanoExplorer thanks so much for the helpful response. This makes perfect sense.

The one part I'd quibble with is the idea that we should complain to Apple.  I mean, I'm not necessarily opposed to doing so.  But I'm paying money to Dropbox.  It's not my concern which API's Dropbox uses behind the scenes does in order to sync my files; I'm concerned with the outcome.  From my perspective, it seems that Dropbox is using an inferior technology; I'm curious what motivated the transition from their own file syncing system to Apple's File Provider.  (This whole thing is surprising ... rsync has existed for decades and can sync any files, but I digress.)

At any rate, it seems that Dropbox is the entity that really ought to complain to Apple.

[bestlem]

 have this issue too.

macOS 13.6.3

I have deleted all those backup (ending in ~) files but they still show in the errors.

How do I get rid of them?

I have uninstalled rebooted.

NB your web site here on Safari has to be made full screen for loading photos to the message otherwise the done button does not work as it overlaps the other buttons.

[cjahfhwu]

I'm having this issue, too. Similarly to what other users have reported, the files are about ten years old and I have a huge number of them. As someone pointed out, the ~ is very common in file names on Linux systems. Renaming them is not an acceptable solution for a number of reasons. This is a bug that affects many paying users and it should be fixed!

I'm experiencing the issue on an Intel Mac with MacOS 13.5.2 and Dropbox version v189.4.8395