We are aware of the issue with the badge emails resending to everyone, we apologise for the inconvenience - learn more here.
Forum Discussion
TomJ2433
3 years agoHelpful | Level 6
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...
- 3 years ago
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
3 years agoDropbox 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!
- TomJ24333 years agoHelpful | 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.
- Megan3 years agoDropbox 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?
- TomJ24333 years agoHelpful | Level 6
First, I have attached screen shots as requested, showing a normal .jpg file, plus its modification history and the error statement when I try to preview it. I did not intentionally modify these files on Nov 4 as it says I did. However, I did move my original photo files to a new computer about that time. My photos were all moved from the G drive on the old computer to the D drive on the new one. Hummm. Could that be the problem??? Would DropBox know that? Are the files on DropBox actually still linked to those on my computer even after I put them on DropBox??? And for most of the shared files, I had actually deleted them from my DropBox so the new pc wouldn't even have them on its system....note I did resurrect them from my deleted folders during this current exercise to see what happened to them. (Suppose I delete photos from Pictures folder on my computer? Do they then go away on from what I had previously loaded on DropBox? I wouldn't have thought so.) Anyway, I find that if I Restore the individual photos on Dropbox to the earlier (pre Nov 4) version, they do come back ok. However, there are a lot of photos to individually Restore. I thought I could restore a whole folder or even all my files, but DropBox seems to steer me to ""Rewind" which apparently costs a lot of $$ for my Basic account. True? Any alternatives?
So that's the latest from my end. Thanks for any help you can give me.
About View, download, and export
Need support with viewing, downloading, and exporting files and folders from your Dropbox account? Find help from the Dropbox Community.
Need more support
If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.
For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.
If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!