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Forum Discussion
Corrupted MP4 files when downloading via Dropbox links on MacOS.
Hello,
I’ve been facing a persistent and frustrating issue when downloading single files via Dropbox links. Here’s the problem:
- Whenever I download a single file, it always ends up corrupted.
- I can’t open the file with QuickTime or VLC, and I can’t even import it into Premiere Pro for editing.
- The file downloads completely without any errors, but once downloaded, it’s unusable.
As a workaround, I’ve found that downloading the entire folder as a .ZIP file prevents corruption. However, this is not practical for me—I often only need to download a single file from the folder, and I want it to work without issues.
Sent images below of the problems.
Comparation of a corrupted video downloaded X bad video corrupted
Some additional details:
- I use Dropbox exclusively through a web browser (not the app).
- I don’t have any paid subscription.
- I primarily use Dropbox because my clients share videos with me through this platform.
Aside from the corruption issue, I’ve also noticed that Dropbox download speeds are incredibly slow for me, which makes the situation even more frustrating.
And NO, i dont want to use the Dropbox APP. But if its the only way yo get it to fix, i can try it.
I really need to understand why these single-file downloads are always corrupted and find a solution to this problem. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you.
- Megan
Dropbox Staff
Hey nobitavfx, thanks for posting here!
Does this happen with all of the links you receive, or some specific ones?
Also, I'd be curious for you to try something for me, if you can: when opening the link you should have the option to add the file to your Dropbox account instead of downloading it.
Can you try that, then try to download the mp4 file directly from your account? Does that work?
If I were you, I'd also try an entirely different browser, just to make sure this isn't a browser-related issue.
Keep me posted, and we'll take it from there.
Reply Part 2
Here i'm going to show you the download made by Google Chrome.
As always is ended up corrupted and it gave no error while downloading at all. It just finished like it was actually done. My internet its 500/500 so the problem its not on the internet since if I download as .zip everything works perfectly fine.
Why is this happening.
I can't try that because i dont have a paid account, so i dont have enough space for it. It happens everytime i download a SINGLE file.
And i dont have money for a paid account.
Also ive tried with Safari and Google Chrome, same error. Only happened once i switched to mac, on my windows this doesnt happens. And i have the newest MacOS
