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Forum Discussion
Files Open as Read-Only?
I am using Dropbox desktop App on my Mac (home) and PC (work). On the Mac (OSX latest version and Office 2011) everything works fine. But on my PC (Windows 7 Pro, Office 2010) files open as Read Only. If I go to Properties and uncheck "read only" for the file or folder in question, it is fine. But when I reboot, all my Dropbox files once again default to "read only". Can you help?
wrote:
I don't understand why when I open a file - it asks me at the top if I want to enable editing. Which I DO! so I click on it. But after i have closed the document and reopened it the edits I have made have gone. Does anyone know how you save edits on Dropbox withoutmoving a file/document out of dropbox every time?I have the same problem in my smart phone. After I make a change in an excel file, I have to save a copy. Then delete the original. That is the solution I found.
SOLVED:
I found that the reason for 'read only' was my Mac was saving as 'nameOfDocument.doc' and my PC was saving as 'nameOfDocument.docx.
Note that they are different file formats. (.doc and .docx)
Please upvote if this works for you. So people don't need to spend as long as us ;)
Another solution I've found is to pause sync while you are editing your files - this appears to solve the read only issue. Simply turn sync back on after you have completed your edits.
Might be a special case - but I'm dual booting Windows/Mac on a Macbook and had read only issues constantly until turning sync off while I was editing files.
Thanks Michael S., hitting pause sync does seem to help with the files opening as read only on my work PC. It's a little annoying to have to do that everytime I want to work on a file, but probably the simplest fix for now.
I am seeing alot of questions here, but not many solutions. Does dropbox not participate in this Forum Why doesn't Dropbox state this as a problem and provide an FAQ fix. I am just thinking of forgetting DropBox altogether and going to OneDrive
- Rich
Super User II
Does dropbox not participate in this Forum
This is primarily a user supported forum. While a Dropboxer (that's a Dropbox employee) does post once in a while, the majority of the people replying here are users that volunteer their time. If you want an official response from Dropbox, then you need to open a ticket with Support.
Open your ticket here: https://www.dropbox.com/support
Track your ticket here: https://dropbox.zendesk.comReplies take approximately 1 - 3 business days with Pro users getting priority (longer for Basic users).
Thank you I was having the same problem on my Mac and just removed the '/' from the file name and they are opening fine now :-)
As Nick P. already mentioned, as this turned out to be the solution for me:
http://www.howtogeek.com/211496/how-to-hide-files-and-view-hidden-files-on-mac-os-x/
My problem on my Mac was that .xlsx files were opening read only when opening from local dropbox folder, but the file perfectly opened (not read only) when I moved that file out of the dropbox folder. So the problem really is temporary files, Remove them and your problem is solved.
If you are using the app from the appstore Try uninstalling the app and go to dropbox,com and download dropbox directly.
I may have to find another program if DropBox can't fix this issue! It is so annoying and I pay to use this, so I should not be annoyed.
Thomas F.4wrote:
I am using Dropbox desktop App on my Mac (home) and PC (work). On the Mac (OSX latest version and Office 2011) everything works fine. But on my PC (Windows 7 Pro, Office 2010) files open as Read Only. If I go to Properties and uncheck "read only" for the file or folder in question, it is fine. But when I reboot, all my Dropbox files once again default to "read only". Can you help?
