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Forum Discussion
Why are my PNG backgrounds not transparent when I upload them to Dropbox?
I had several files (mostly logos) that had a transparent background and they all have white solid backgrounds now. I have no clue what happened but it is causing me serious issues.
Dropbox is not editing your files... it is generating a copy of the file that does not include transparency and displaying that as a "preview" of your file to improve load times on their website.
Dropbox creates the image shown in the center which includes a white background. This means that dragging and dropping this image, or right-clicking and selecting "save image as..." will result in you downloading the Dropbox preview version. HOWEVER, if you use the "Download" button on the top right of the page, you will download the un-edited version of your file.
The problem is that while this change may have shaved a fraction of a second off page load time, it seems to have screwed up a lot of people's workflows as a result. I think Dropbox needs to consider changing it back or at least find ways to ensure these common workflows result in the desired outcome.
Same for me. Here's the link. The hat was a transparent PNG but now has a white BG.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/e9sda4jrvj7fc3p/hat.png
The PNG uploaded is now 24 bit, which means no transparency. The original was 32 bit, with transparency.
This is happening to me too, this is causing problems for my business :(
- Mark
Super User II
As has been said Dropbox simply cannot edit files, so you may wish to look at how they are being edited and uploaded. What applications are you using for that?
Mark wrote:
As has been said Dropbox simply cannot edit files, so you may wish to look at how they are being edited and uploaded. What applications are you using for that?If the PNG files are being saved from Photoshop, there are several things going on. First, if there is a white layer in the backgroung where the layer is turned off in Photoshop, the white layer is still there but not visible. I'm guessing that while Dropbox doesn't "edit" the file, the layer gets flattened with the visible layer and the resulting file is combined. Not ALL applications support transparent PNG files unless the file itself is devoid of any "invisible" (there, but layer turned off in Photoshop) layers that might become visible if the application cannot distinguish between a layer that is visible and a layer that is not. Always advisable to take any invisible layers to the trash.
I use PNGs with drop shadows and bezels all the time in many different applications, and I always remove any non-visible layers. I have not tried uploading such files to Dropbox (yet) but intend to, to see if removing any extraneous layers helps.
