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TomJ2433's avatar
TomJ2433
Helpful | Level 6
3 years ago

DropBox won't open files

Recently DropBox started saying it can't open the files I have uploaded onto it, or that have been shared with me by others.  I have plenty of extra storage space, so that can't be the problem.  This is mostly jpg photo files, but music and docs, too.  When I try to open, it says "Would not preview this file".  When I download it and try to open, it says "It appears that we don't support this file format."  And if I try to open it from File Explore, it gives that same error statement.  I am hearing from all the others that have shared these files that they are getting the same results.  What's going on???  (I have the latest DropBox versions, and am working on a Windows 11 pc.  The other users are on various systems....Windows, Apple, etc.

  • I'm disappointed to see there was no reply when I answered your questions.  I have apparently solved the problem, but I am quite disappointed in how Dropbox seems to handle files.  I looked at the history of the files in question and found that I did indeed modify them, unintentionally.  And that was the case even for files I had previously deleted!  It turns out that when I got my new computer and moved all my files from the G drive on the old computer to the D drive on my new computer, it corrupted the files in my Dropbox list in File Explorer on the new computer...even though most of the files there had been copied / pasted into those folders on the original computer.....so apparently they weren't really pasted in, just a link to the original location.  While thus corrupted, the file names still showed in File Explorer so I had not checked to see if they opened.  Had I done so, I would have seen that they do not, and thus the versions on the Dropbox website were also corrupted.  Note again that even the files shared from fully 40 other users in my Dropbox were also corrupted by me getting a new computer, even though I had previously deleted their files!!! Those shared files were also corrupted in the Dropbox accounts of all those 40 users!!!  Obviously they were not happy with me.  Fortunately I was able to Restore all the files to their original state from before my changes.  That got everyone working again.  Lessorn learned on how Dropbox apparently works.  My mistake, but still, I don't think Dropbox should have taken it that far, especially on deleted files.

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

    Hi TomJ2433, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

     

    How large are the images you're trying to preview?

     

    You can see the size of the file from the Dropbox site, or from Explorer on your machine.

     

    This will help me to assist further!

    • TomJ2433's avatar
      TomJ2433
      Helpful | Level 6

      Thanks for your effort on this.  The files are between about 1 - 6 MB.  Note I have opened all of them just fine in the past, some I uploaded myself and others were share with me.  Multiple people in my group are having the same issue.  And one more bit of evidence....when I put a new photo on my DropBox account today, I can preview it just fine.  All the files are the same format.  So what changed that I can no longer preview files that used to work for me?  Thanks again for your thoughts.

       

      • Megan's avatar
        Megan
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

        Hey TomJ2433, you mentioned that some of these files have been shared with you. 

         

        Is there any chance that someone accidentally renamed the content, and removed the file extensions? Can you send me a screenshot of an example file name, and the error you get on your end? 

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