You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.
Forum Discussion
David W.136
7 years agoHelpful | Level 6
"The file has been changed by another application."
Over the past couple of weeks, both of my Macs have been telling me that files cannot be autosaved because "The file has been changed by another application."
- This occurs in multiple applications, including Keynote, Preview, Multimarkdown Composer, and more.
- The error message says that it has failed when trying to autosave
- It lets me revert or "save anyway." The latter seems to work properly, although because this is supposed to be an autosave, I can get the popup every few minutes.
- I am running MacOS 10.13.4
- It seems not to happen when I pause Dropbox syncing
- I am getting the same problem on two Mac laptops
- I have rebooted
- I have looked in the logs to see if in fact some other app is altering my files, but I don't see anything suspicious there. OTOH, I'm no expert.
- I have looked in Activity Monitor for suspicious processes but don't see any obvious suspects.
- Malwarebytes doesn't find any viruses on either machine
Any ideas? Thanks!
- To help isolate this issue, try quitting the Dropbox app by using the following steps:
- Click the Dropbox icon in your system tray (Windows) or menu bar (Mac/Linux)
- Click on the gear icon in the Notifications panel and select "Quit Dropbox"
If the issue persists when Dropbox is completely closed, this suggests that the cause is related to something outside of the Dropbox application. You may want to check other applications or components of your Operating System that could be causing this.Let me know if the issue is resolved when Dropbox is completely closed! As I'd mentioned, the error stopped when I paused Dropbox syncing. But over the past couple of days, I've turned syncing back on, and I am not getting the error.
So, it seems not to be related to Dropbox...especially since it seems from this board that no one else is having the same issue.
Thanks for the reply. If the problem starts up again, I'll quit Dropbox and see if that makes a difference.
- NorahDropbox StaffTo help isolate this issue, try quitting the Dropbox app by using the following steps:
- Click the Dropbox icon in your system tray (Windows) or menu bar (Mac/Linux)
- Click on the gear icon in the Notifications panel and select "Quit Dropbox"
If the issue persists when Dropbox is completely closed, this suggests that the cause is related to something outside of the Dropbox application. You may want to check other applications or components of your Operating System that could be causing this.Let me know if the issue is resolved when Dropbox is completely closed!- David W.136Helpful | Level 6
As I'd mentioned, the error stopped when I paused Dropbox syncing. But over the past couple of days, I've turned syncing back on, and I am not getting the error.
So, it seems not to be related to Dropbox...especially since it seems from this board that no one else is having the same issue.
Thanks for the reply. If the problem starts up again, I'll quit Dropbox and see if that makes a difference.
- NorahDropbox StaffI’m glad the issue has been resolved! Feel free to let me know if you have any additional questions.Have a great week ahead!
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!