Forum Discussion

Molly m.4's avatar
Molly m.4
Explorer | Level 4
10 years ago
Solved

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. 
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  • tomboates's avatar
    tomboates
    8 years ago

    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.

  • greenrosetta's avatar
    greenrosetta
    Explorer | Level 3
    8 years ago

    This is happening to me too, this is causing problems for my business :(

    • Mark's avatar
      Mark
      Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
      8 years ago
      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?
      • ShelleyW's avatar
        ShelleyW
        Explorer | Level 4
        8 years ago

        Has anyone found a solution to this?

         

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