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Forum Discussion
Issues with online only files/folders
I had a problem where my (Windows desktop) dropbox was stuck syncing 43 files for 2 days meaning nothing else was synced up or down during. On another thread I found the suggestion to sign out and sign in again. Which I did. And that did fix that problem.
But I was left with a different problem.
I now cannot automatically open any file which is currently "online only". I am told it is corrupted, unavailable or cannot be accessed by the system depending on the type of file it is. This applies to every online file I have tried - of numerous types and sizes.
Every file has opened without issue if I manually set it to "make available offline" first, but that is a pain and was not necessary previously.
This did not happen before I signed out and in again. Online files were automatically downloaded and opened.
How do I get back to the behaviour again?
Similarly I do not have a "Make online-only" on the right click menu. I know some of these feature have been removed from preferences, but the online help says this right-click option is still present and the features pages strongly imply you can choose to make something online only.
So how do I get that option back?
In what I can only describe as "typical fashion", the point at which I ran out of ideas and asked for help.....both aspects started working. Sigh.
I'm having an issue quite similar. To free up desktop space, I made everything online-only. However, it seems to have kept only zip files; they can't be opened. Likewise, those few folders (3 out of many more) that show in Quick Access on my pc has a popup "Location is not available". I have logged out online, and logged back in.
How do I get all the files showing, regardless of whether they are online-only or not?
I've already reset the router and rebooted. Is the next step to delete dropbox and redownload?
- Hannah
Dropbox Staff
Hey Maureen A., thanks for the nudge here and sorry to see you're having trouble.
Just to confirm that I understood correctly, do you mean that you switched your files to online-only, but only your zip files got switched and the rest remained available offline?
Are you getting some kind of error message when you try to open those?
Can you also send us a screenshot of the 'location' error message?
Hello! Thank you for reaching out. I already submitted a ticket via Support. Just to summarize: I've already run the Task Manager and ended the task which is Dropbox's, then tried opening Dropbox but nothing's opening. Also tried running a new task for Dropbox to boot in the Task Manager, but the tasks disappear after a few seconds. So we're really unable to open Dropbox, and had to resort to using the website instead.
- Walter
Could you maybe share your ticket ID so that we can look it up in our system TriciaTea?
While at it, could you clarify your computer's exact OS version and the version and status of the desktop app as shown in your system tray at the moment?
In what I can only describe as "typical fashion", the point at which I ran out of ideas and asked for help.....both aspects started working. Sigh.
How was this solved, exactly? I also happen to have the same problem.
I wish I could tell you, but I am honestly not sure.
I'd tried restarting dropbox more times than I can count and rebooting my laptop and nothing had worked so I made this post....and when I checked back a short while later the options were there.
My best guess is that there was a delay in the options "waking up" after one of these actions - but I have no actual evidence for that so that could be totally wrong
Sorry I can't be more helpful
