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Forum Discussion
Issues editing Word documents with Dropbox
Hi
I have for ages had the practice of going outdoors and editing word documents stored in dropbox on my phone or tablet with Microsoft Word app
This has always worked like a dream, any changes would be automatically saved with no error messages and synced to all devices.
Now I am getting error messages about "changes made by other user, your file can't be saved" or "can't upload file" sometimes AFTER I've done a stack of work in that file, so all those edits are lost. Or the file will open "read only" !
It seems I have to save a new version with a new name every time I open a file on my phone before I can be sure it will do edits without some drama or other.
Dropbox folder on my computer is working perfectly.
This is driving me insane as I do this work every day, and had no issue til now.
Any ideas?
Hi all,
As Sanchez mentioned, as the problems are occurring from within the Microsoft applications this sounds like an issue on their side. We'd still like to help get this one resolved, so to try and fix sync issues I'm going to ask those affected to try unlinking and relinking their Dropbox account from the Microsoft Office mobile app:
https://help.dropbox.com/desktop-web/microsoft-office-faq#unlink/relink
To unlink a Dropbox account from an Office Mobile app:
- Open the Office Mobile app.
- Tap the folder icon.
- From the list of places, tap and hold Dropbox.
- Once you've held your finger on Dropbox for a few seconds, a trash can icon will appear in the top right corner of the screen. Tap the trash can to remove Dropbox from the Office Mobile app.
To re-link a Dropbox account to an Office Mobile app:
- Open the Office Mobile app.
- Tap the folder icon.
- Tap Add a place.
- Tap Dropbox.
- Tap Allow next to the Dropbox account listed (if you're already signed in to the Dropbox app). Or, to link a new Dropbox account, tap Use a different account. You'll be directed to a browser window where you can enter the credentials for the Dropbox account you'd like to connect.
Let me know if this helps to resolve any issues with syncing files to Dropbox from within the Microsoft Office app!
Frank
I am using word on an iPad to edit and create word documents, but shortly after I start working on them i get the error message on the word app that says “cant upload, something is wrong...” sometimes the error message says something to the effect of the file being open somewhere else and cant save.. Please help!!
- Sanchez
Dropbox Staff
Since the OP is not replying, I will.. Same exact issue. I don’t know how to post screenshots here, so I’ll just say it is a banner that appears at the top of the document but below the toolbar, and there is an X to dismiss it. Sometimes it clears up on its own, but it is becoming more frequent and taking longer to resolve. The only solution is to save with a different file name, thus creating a whole new document, which is quite inconvenient and confusing, as I’m dealing with a novel manuscript, and can’t afford to mix up versions and lose hours of edits over this.
I use both an iPad mini 3 and an iPhone 7, both usin the very latest iOS, 11.2.5. I have version 80.3.2 of Dropbox, although this has been going on for several sessions, now. I’ve tried signing out and back in to both Word and Dropbox, as well as unlinking and delinking the accounts, and I’ve cleared the cache, which is an option in Dropbox. I stopped short of uninstalling either program, as I currently have a nu,ber of documents in the “unable to sync” mode, meaning I would be deleting them permanently.
- Frank_S
Hi megx
My name is Frank and I’m a member of the Dropbox specialist team. I'm sorry to hear that you're having trouble with saving files to your Dropbox account!
Can you let me know where you are seeing those error messages; Do they display within the Microsoft Word app itself or in the Dropbox app? A screengrab of the error would be really helpful for us to understand the source of this problem too. Thank you in advance!
Regards,
Frank
Hi,
I’m running iOS 11.2.5 and I’m having a similar issue. Whenever I open a file in drop box an try to edit it in word, after a few minutes the banner error message comes up “can’t upload - something’s wrong and your changes can’t be uploaded. This is happening right now as I’m currently working on a document
- Frank_S
Hi all,
Thanks for the responses, from what I can gather this is now only occurring from within the Office for iPad App, would that be correct? Based on what SandersKev said about the issue being fixed for him by an update to Office for Android, this sounds like a problem on Microsoft's side, that they have fixed for one OS.
Unfortunately there's not a lot we can do to troubleshoot errors outside of our own applications or website; my recommendation here would be to follow up directly with Microsoft support.
Thanks!
Frank
- Chris_J
Super User
Yikes, so sorry you are having this issue. I would suggest opening up a Support Ticket on this https://www.dropbox.com/support
I will try to escalate this. Sorry I don't have a clue
I am using dropbox on a PC (windows 7, no issues there) and a OnePlus 3T phone, running Android 8.0.0. I have an excel file in my dropbox that I like to update (and have been updating for a while) on both the devices, however lately I've been encountering issues when attempting to update it from my phone.
I appear to be unable to use the "save" function but am able to "save as", hence I am unable to update/replace the existing file from my phone. The file is not open on my PC, nor has it been marked as read-only on any device. Saving from PC works just fine.
Any ideas as to why my phone is suddenly unable to update/replace the file and thus has me save copies all the time?
- Sanchez
Hi Sanchez,
Thanks for your prompt reply
Since this problem has been going on for a little while, ( i would say 2 weeks, perhaps more), I am not entirely sure what might have changed in terms of updates. All my apps (including dropbox) are up to date, I use the microsoft excel editor which was, according to the google play store, last updated january 17th, so that could potentially be a thing. The latest android update was relatively recent but I cannot quite remember when.
I just updated another excel file on my phone, that one saved perfectly.
I then went back to the problem file and it somehow also suddenly saved. I then attempted to alter some things in the problem file again but now the problem is occurring again and it will not save saying "there was a problem uploading this file. Last uploaded 5 minutes ago".
It feels as if the file would still be open somewhere, somehow and thus unable to be updated, however I went through the process that made it suddenly work 5 minutes ago, without any luck. Manually closing and force-stopping the excel app from the app settings page also did not have an effect.
So for about the last week, my Excel and Word apps on my iPad no longer let me download and edit my Dropbox files. Excel says it cannot download my file and that it is unable to connect to the server. Word says it can't find the file and that it's moved location since the last time I opened it. The only thing I did, which doesn't even make sense, is move my Dropbox icon to a different screen. I have had no problems until this and I'm just very confused. Word also says that the last downloaded time for a file was in 2040 after I try opening it. So that's fun.
All of my apps are up to date, but my iOS is only 9.3.5. I've had this thing forever, and that's the last iOS I'll be able to get. I'm not that tech savvy, so please bear with me, but I look forward to some help! Thanks!
- Sanchez
- Hi @Sanchez! Thanks for the welcome!
I sent in my ticket and am now just awaiting response.
I know it might be the Microsoft apps, but it seemed like I'd get a faster response through Dropbox first.
When attempting to open older files in drop box on the mobile app the word documents do not open.
All our users are having this issue.
Everyone on our team has the most recnet IOS version/Android and Dropbox updated.
Yet all files older then 2017 we can not open.
We need to be able to access this infromation on the go!
- Rich
Super User II
What's the error message that you're getting?No Error, just has the loading icon. Just keeps spinning. I can open PDF files no problem.
- MarkCan you post exact software version numbers?
- dbeato
Super User alumni
Are you using the Microsofr Word Application from The appstore or preview?Using Word application, which is also on most recent version.
IOS Word = 2.10
Android word = January 17, 2018 (most recent update released for android)
Hi. I’m having problem when I’m trying to open file in Microsoft Word using iPad . A message popped up saying that ‘Cannot find file. The location changed since you last opened the file.”
When I’m trying to open Dropbox through Microsoft Word, it appears ‘Cannot connect to server.’ FYI, the internet signal is good. I already uninstalled and reinstalled the Dropbox but this problem remains unsolved.
However, the same file can be opened in Microsoft Word using android. I have no idea what should I do to solve this problem. Hope anyone can help me on this. Thank you.
