Online-Only icon in folder with local files inside.

[manelbarros]

Today (2023-Jun-16) my dropbox still gives me these icons and it's impossible to know where the "Offline files" are. I remember, last year, that this was not a problem and when a folder had Online and Offline files, it would show a green tick with white background.

In the image below, you can see what I'm talking about. The "offline folder" is offline and still the main folder says it's ALL "online-only".

Dropbox please, once and for all, fix this!

There are a lot of users reporting this problem since last year, and your team still hasn't done a single thing to fix it.
It's confusing and it doesn't make any sense!

ALSO

When Dropbox made this change, it also made a change in shown file sizes. When a file was Offline, it would show (and still does) it's size. Nothing new here.
But when a file was "Online-only" it would still show it's original size! And in today's date, that is not the case. It shows "zero bytes", impossible to see the file size until we make it "Offline".

There... 2 errors that if you fix them, you will get much happier Dropbox users.

Sometimes you have to take a step back to take two steps forward.

[Megan]

Hi @manelbarros, welcome to our Community! 

I'm going to start from the second thing you mentioned about the zero bytes. When a file is available online-only, it should show as zero bytes, since it's not taking up space in the hard drive. 

The only thing that exists there is the file's placeholders.

Now onto the first issue you mentioned: how long has it been like that for you? 

Can you also locate your Dropbox icon, next to your WiFi, hover your mouse there, and clarify the version of the Dropbox app that you're running on your end? 

Let me know more!

[manelbarros]

Hi Megan,

Yes you could say that if it shows as zero bytes it's "because it's not taking up space in the hard drive", but how do you explain that for so many users it was not the case at least last year?

Because, previously, I remember having files "not taking up space in the hard drive" and still showed their original sizes...

Onto the first issue, please stop asking for Dropbox versions (also in other discussions) when clearly that is not the problem and has nothing to do with it.

The problem is with Dropbox itself and with it's updates, changing the icons that don't make sense for any user (image below):

I don't remember the specific time that the Dropbox team made these changes, I just know that Dropbox was better before. And it's not just me that recognises this, since a lot of users are complaining the same issues for months since last year...

[Jay]

Hi @manelbarros, these changes to the Mac OS version of the Dropbox desktop application were implemented last year. 

Previously, online-only files would only take zero bytes on the machine if the 'Online-only files on Mac' was enabled on this page. If it was not enabled, then it would show their original size.

[manelbarros]

Hello Jay,

Ok so that "issue" with the new icons, is there any possibility that Dropbox revert the decision back to the previous icons?

Regarding the zero-bytes, why does that solution stopped working? Because either if i turned it ON or OFF it continues to show "zero bytes".

And yes, I restarted the Dropbox desktop app, I restarted my computer and my Dropbox is up to date...

[Jay]

The icons are part of the newer version of the Dropbox desktop application as required by the Mac OS itself, so they cannot be reverted. 

Likewise with the zero bytes, this would then be changed with the newer version of the app.

[manelbarros]

So, there's no solution to either one of the two questions..?!

[Jay]

If you're on the newer version of the Dropbox desktop application for Mac OS, which will be the default for all Mac users running 12.5 or later when the rollout is completed, then there isn't a workaround for the changes to the app. 

[manelbarros]

that's so bad from Dropbox... taking away features that were available before and now they're not

[Jay]

Thank you for your feedback relating to the sync icons on Dropbox for macOS on File Provider. 

As with any operating system, macOS is updated regularly and with that, we must keep the Dropbox desktop app aligned with any requirements set out by an OS. Keeping aligned to those requirements ensures that the Dropbox desktop app will provide the best possible experience for all our customers in to the future.