When opened document, the message "[Document Name] is not available" appears.

[Ridwan Musa]

Hello,

I was unable to open a document in Dropbox's file explorer. Microsoft Office displays the error message "[Document Name] is not available." I attempted to update Dropbox and double-checked the settings. I discovered that when the documents are set to be available only online, they cannot be accessed. When I set it to available offline, Dropbox downloads the document and allows me to open it. Do I have to set the document as online only and available offline every time I need to open it? For your information, I made the document available online only to save space on my computer. I'm hoping you can assist me in resolving this issue. Thank you.

[Hannah]

Hey @Ridwan Musa, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Are you seeing this behavior only with Microsoft files or also other files that are set to online-only?

And is this a large file in size? Do you see the same if you double-click on really small files?

Keep me posted.

[Ridwan Musa]

I've only tried to open Microsoft files like Word and Excel so far because they're the only ones in my Dropbox explorer. The same issue occurred with the small file size.

[Hannah]

Thanks for the update, Ridwan!

Can you add a different file type, like an image or a video file, as a test, to see what happens with those?

[Ridwan Musa]

Other file formats (photo, video, text, and pdf) can be opened. Only Microsoft Office files are inaccessible. In addition, my Dropbox version is v156.4.4908, and my Microsoft Office version is Microsoft Office 2010 (14.0.7116.5000 (32 bits)).

[Walter]

Hey @Ridwan Musa, sorry to jump in here, but could you provide some additional information?

1) are you opening the file through the Microsoft app or double clicking the file from the file explorer? 
2) have you checked the bandwidth settings in the desktop app to see if syncing happens to be kind of slow?
3) after trying to open the file and getting the error, can you check the file in the file explorer and let us know if it still appears online or if it's indeed triggered to sync locally?
4)  a screenshot of the exact error you're getting so that we can have a visual too.

Thanks!

[Ridwan Musa]

1) I just double-click click file on file explorer.

2) Bandwidth is okay. The documents are up-to-date synced.

3) It still appears online.

4) Here, I attach pictures of the error message, the online icon after clicking and the documents are up to date.

Additional information, when I click the file in the Dropbox activity list, it will download the file.
Error MessageShow online after clickedDocuments is up to date

[Walter]

In that case, could you check if you get any different results when you open the files through the Microsoft app @Ridwan Musa? 

It seems like there's an issue with the file not being recalled in time for the Microsoft app to preview it correctly. 

[Ridwan Musa]

It can be opened using that way. The document will be downloaded to be local.

[Walter · Accepted solution]

I see - thanks for that piece of information @Ridwan Musa

In this case, I'd suggest using this method to open your Microsoft files moving forward to avoid getting the errors you first mentioned. 

I know it's not much, but I hope this helps to some extent.