cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Announcements
Want to learn some quick and useful tips to make your day easier? Check out how Calvin uses Replay to get feedback from other teams at Dropbox here.

View, download, and export

Need support with viewing, downloading, and exporting files and folders from your Dropbox account? Find help from the Dropbox Community.

cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Re: Trouble with internal symlinks

Trouble with internal symlinks

Claudio N.1
Helpful | Level 5
Go to solution

Hello,

I am struggling with symlinks. I can't get them to work.
I have a folder structure like this:
Fotos/jpeg/ [files]
Fotos/colecciones( [links to some files]

The links are defined like "../jpeg/[file]", so those links are pointing to files that are in Dropbox - I tried before linking to the full path, with the same results I describe below.


What is happening:
- In the web browser, I cannot preview the files
- In an Iphone and an Android, same thing, can't preview the files
- In a raspberry pi where I download the files with rclone, they appear empty to, even with the follow symlinks option.
- In a Mac where I have my dropbox account linked, I can see the files no problem
- In my wife's Mac (the folders are shared), I can also see the files.

 

According to the documentation, what I am doing should be working as the symlinks are symlinks to files in Dropbox. https://help.dropbox.com/es-es/installs-integrations/sync-uploads/symlinks

How can I get those symlinks to work?

1 Accepted Solution

Accepted Solutions

Здравко
Legendary | Level 20
Go to solution

Hi @Claudio N.1 ,

Actually, you can't. Dropbox disabled symlink follow up for a long time already. When you use shared link to access some symbolic link you are accessing the symbolic link itself, not the pointed content! In case everything is in sync, as on your Mac, the symbolic link works as usual (there are both - link and pointed file, in sync).

Hope this clarifies matter.

View solution in original post

6 Replies 6

Здравко
Legendary | Level 20
Go to solution

Hi @Claudio N.1 ,

Actually, you can't. Dropbox disabled symlink follow up for a long time already. When you use shared link to access some symbolic link you are accessing the symbolic link itself, not the pointed content! In case everything is in sync, as on your Mac, the symbolic link works as usual (there are both - link and pointed file, in sync).

Hope this clarifies matter.

Claudio N.1
Helpful | Level 5
Go to solution

bummer 😞

Здравко
Legendary | Level 20
Go to solution

Hi again @Claudio N.1,

There might be a workaround (not very convenient, but something). You can create shared links for all files you pointed to with symbolic links now. The existing symbolic links can be replaced with web links (the created before shared links), one by one. When you get in your link folder, there is "Create" dropdown menu:

Screenshot_20210512_155317.png

There select "More" and after that "Shortcut". Follows dialog view:

Screenshot_20210512_155815.png

..., where you can refer to whatever you want on the web (including shared link). Name it the same as the pointed file (or the same way you name symbolic link). 😉 That's it.

Now you can share a link to web link(s) created before or to the containing folder. In all cases, when opened in a supported browser, it will point out correctly.

Hope this helps.

Claudio N.1
Helpful | Level 5
Go to solution

This looks interesting. Can I do it programatically using an API or something?

 

Claudio N.1
Helpful | Level 5
Go to solution

Здравко
Legendary | Level 20
Go to solution

@Claudio N.1 wrote:

This looks interesting. Can I do it programatically using an API or something?


Hmm... 🤔 If you mean to receive a shared link, Yes, there are many ways you can do it for different links types (seems you have found the most typical one). If you mean to manage entire process, No. I don't know a way be automated "Shortcut" management (including creation). ðŸ¤· This seems like a cons of Dropbox API, like many other things, available by Dropbox application and/or Dropbox Web, but not supported by the API yet (no officially, at least). Your thought could be a good feature request! 😉 Let's hope somebody of Dropbox staff will read it.

Need more support?