Dropbox Smart Sync doesn't work for image sequences in After Effects

[lennartl]

Hi,

whenever I open an After Effects project from coworkers which uses linked image sequences that I haven't yet synchronized locally, the Dropbox smart sync feature fails to sync the whole image sequence automatically. It detects the first image in the sequence but doesn't download the rest, resulting in an After Effects error "Can't import as sequence. Found no matches for the selected file name. (39::44)".

For projects with multiple sequences, this is a very annoying bug. Especially because relinking the files isn't easy since you first have to find the file locations and sync the files manually. We have been using OneDrive before and there it wasn't an issue.

Any plans to fix this issue?

Best,

Lennart

[Walter]

Hey @NullLayer , could you clarify if you've tried any of the troubleshooting steps mentioned earlier in this discussion? 

[Fabiobox]

Hello

i just quote the thread

I remember that a few years ago the smart sync with after effects worked very well. For a couple of years, however, every time I open an old project it takes me hours to resync all the files. Any update on this topic?

[Jay]

Hi @Fabiobox, the old implementation of Smart Sync has changed since the thread was created. 

Just to clarify, what OS are you running on your device, and what version of the Dropbox desktop application is running when you hover over the icon in the system tray/menu bar?

[Fabiobox]

ok

dropbox version: 175.4.5569

os: Ventura 13.2.1

[Fabiobox]

and just to clarify, when i said i need hours to resync everything, i mean that i have to do it manually.

thanks

[Jay]

Is your Dropbox folder located in the Home folder, or the new CloudStorage location?

[Fabiobox]

home folder. what is the new CloudStorage location?

[Jay]

This would be referring to the newer version of the Dropbox desktop application for Mac OS.

Are you able to mark entire folders as available offline when you right click the folder?

[dmu]

I'm having a ton of trouble with this as well. I cannot even open my AE file as it crashes immediately. Seems like dropbox does not have a solution since it doesn't seem they know how After Effects works and how it works with teams. We can't just make the files local to each of our computers when we're all pulling from the same elements. If there's a change it's a nightmare if everyone has local files. We need a solution to this. Dropbox, highly suggest you figure out how Adobe After Effects works since a lot of studios are using you for remote work.