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Forum Discussion
Cannot Open Word Documents in Dropbox
I am synced to open Dropbox documents in the online-only mode on my Surface Pro since it doesnt have a ton of hard drive memory. That has worked well for several years. Recently, my Surface Pro has been unable to open Word documents stored stored in Dropbox. Instead, I get the "Unspecified Error" message. I can open pdf files stored in Dropbox without a problem. What changed? How do I resolve this? I have updated my Windows and Dropbox apps. Thanks.
Hi HouseBlend, let's jump right into this!
How are you trying to open these online-only files? Are you double clicking on them, or right-clicking the file or folder and selecting Make available offline and then trying to open them?
Feel free to also send me a screenshot of the error you mentioned above.
Keep me posted!
- Megan
Dropbox Staff
Hi HouseBlend, let's jump right into this!
How are you trying to open these online-only files? Are you double clicking on them, or right-clicking the file or folder and selecting Make available offline and then trying to open them?
Feel free to also send me a screenshot of the error you mentioned above.
Keep me posted!
Mega, thanks so much for your reply! Here is a screenshot of the error message:
In the past, I have ALWAYS simply double clicked the Word file to open it in Dropbox. That is when I now get the error message. At your suggestion, I tried "Make Available Offline." That alone did not open the Word document, but after doing that I was able to double click and open the Word document! Thank you! I previously never had to take the step of clicking "Make Available Offline." Previously i could simply double click the documet and it would open . This seems like a more tortuous path to take to access the document, but if that is what it now required then I'll do it!
It appears that the documents that I open this way remain available offline unless i take the extra step to convert it back to Available Online. Again, this seems like a tortuous path, but since I need to save space on my Surface Pro's hard drive it seems like a necessary extra step.
Finally, after all my whining about torturous paths and extra steps, I have a very dim memory of POSSIBLY changing the Dropbox folders on my Surface Pro from "Available Offline" to "Online Only," again to save hard disc space. That might explain why I must now take these extra steps that I'm describing?
Thank you once again for your assistance! I deeply appreciate it! I welcome any further comments you might have about what I have written.
My best to you.
- Megan
Hi HouseBlend, awesome, I am glad this workaround works for now!
Keep in mind that Dropbox engineers are aware of the problem you mentioned, and are working on a solution. Sorry for any inconvenience this is causing. I'll update you shortly on this issue.
Thanks!
[removed per the Dropbox Community Guidelines] My gmail account but canot open my dropbox. Places help me
