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Forum Discussion
Request: All files available offline by default
Moving the Mac to the new File Provider is great - very happy this is finally happening and support on the new M1 is much better. Kudos!
Feature request: Really miss the feature to have Dropbox...
Hi everyone, and thanks for your patience.
We're re-launching the option to choose the default status of synced files in the Dropbox desktop application (in the Preferences > Sync tab) for users of the newer File Provider version.
It should be available to you shortly. If you haven't received it yet, make sure to update your desktop app, and let us know if you have any questions!
Dave
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffThanks Dave, appreciate the reply.
But to make it clear this issue isn't on the visual indication that has changed in the beta. In the current beta implementation, if a user wants to make sure that all files are stored locally and available offline, we would need to manually select “make available offline” every single time a new file is added. Regardless on where it's added in the folder hierarchy.
This behaviour defeats to purpose of having a dropbox client app. Users would get the same experience (files are online-only by default) if you'd only give us access to our files via a browser with the ability to download.
Thanks again for the response, it is really appreciated! However, agreed that the feature request - which is how I had always used Dropbox - is to always sync all files and keep full, local copies of all of them on my disk.
This was clearly a key feature of the product for a very long time, and had a dedicated option in the preferences. Would just like to see it come back. If it is indeed planning to come back, I can probably wait a little while. If this is not how Dropbox intends to work in the future, then I'm not sure it will be meeting my needs.
Also note that I have been clicking "Make available offline" frequently, but for weeks of doing so, still don't have the files all local, and the Dropbox app appears to happily say that I am up to date and no need to sync. So even that behavior doesn't appear to be working as expected.
... and one thing to ask for clarification: how would I click on the Dropbox root? It is no longer a folder in Finder, but only a "location" in the sidebar. Right-clicking that location doesn't offer the Dropbox context menus. So I can right-click on folders within Dropbox, but not the "root" folder and described in this suggestion. Am I missing how to do this? Thank you!
The "Make available offline" option is not working recursively for me. So choosing it for a folder will make all files in that folder available-offline but not its sub-folders. So I have to select that option for each folder I have in Dropbox. I won't spend hours doing that, so I hope that bug is quickly fixed.
Also having this issue, my files don't seem to be staying offline even if I go through the manual right-click "Make available offline".
Tim, in the Finder menu if you click Go To Folder or CMD+Shift+G and enter `~/Library/CloudStorage` that should bring you to the correct folder to make all of your Dropbox available offline. I have found that even this isn't a permanent fix and sometimes after adding new files or a computer restart I need to make files available offline yet again.
- Dave
Hi Dave, could you perhaps share if this is tracked internally as a regression issue?
I'm conscious that the title of this thread hints at it being a Feature Request but it definitely isn't. This current behaviour was introduced in recent MacOS clients and is a big step backwards compared to the online/offline 'default' option Dropbox offered for years. Us clicking make available offline every time even a single file is added is not tenable in the long run.
... and to be clear, as I've seen this in other threads, the URL pointed to in this thread gives an "Access Denied" message.
I don't understand why this keeps happening in these Dropbox Forums. Clearly these are threads meant to answer FAQs, which is great, so why are they access permissions blocking even logged-in forums users from reading?
This is the blocked link, which likely has some great info in it I'd love to read!
As far as I can tell the setting is still broken.
Unless...
I wonder, does "new files," in this case, only refer to newly added to dropbox, not newly selected for sync?
Just to clarify because its a little confusing, there are three statuses of a file,
1) Synced-Online only - Visible in the finder but only as a placeholder, not downloaded
2) Synced-Available offline - Visible in the finder and downloaded
3) Not Synced - Only exists in the cloud (on dropbox.com), not visible in the finder
So, I'll keep certain files in the cloud but not synced because I'm not using them in a current project, but then suddenly I need them, so I go into selective sync to download it to the device. Then, since the setting is broken I have to go back to finder, find that file, right click it and click it again to it make it offline. I know that's not the end of the world, but it does bog me down often, especially because the selective sync window is one that doesn't hide like others . It would seem this setting could only exist to solve this very problem. Unless, as I said, "new" means newly created, not newly appearing on this device.
Anyone at dropbox wanna weigh in?
Thanks!
P.S.
Btw, I don't really understand Synced-Online Only, anyway. Why do people want to see files on their finder that they can't open?
I obviously get the need to designate some files in an archive state i.e. cloud-only, and others actively in use. But maybe there's a certain workflow I'm not aware of?
I actually just kind of realized the workaround and answered one of my questions.
If I sync everything except entirely irrelevant files and keep them mostly online only, then I don't need to go into the selective sync window much at all. Syncing can be handled mostly within the finder.
I guess it is kind of obvious and simple that way, I just had been doing it the other way because for a while when you added another device, it would start downloading everything on your dropbox unless you quickly unchecked all...
Dave - (so sorry for the piling on...) - Any idea why I get "Access Denied" trying to go to the link to the forum post you referenced? Tried several times, and am logged in (obviously.) Would love to read it.
Same as Tim and the other user, the issue is not about "seeing" offline files, but if you want to have files available offline you have to download it one by one. This is absolutely not useful.
I also get the "access denied" message. No way of checking Dropbox issues with MacOS.
yes but... just a few minutes later these files will be online only AGAIN, forcing me to constantly click "make offline only", and sometimes blocking me to work if i try to work on the move or with poor connection because the files were moved to online-only again and again, without my consent... really frustrating making files offline before travelling (to work on a plane, for example) only to find out they were moved back online... how can I take active control over this?
