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Forum Discussion
On Mac, aliases in Dropbox to folders within Dropbox no longer work across devices
I'm having the same problem as what the user Robio describes here:
That discussion went to e-mail before a solution was found. Since I'm having exactly the same issue, I would like to know how Robio's problem was resolved.
My problem is this: Aliases used to work in Dropbox for Mac until recently (maybe a week ago?). Until recently, an alias created on one device behaved as it should on another device. The problem did start around when I updated one device to macOS Catalina, but I'm not sure that it started exactly then.
Here's an example of what I'm experiencing. Suppose that I sync my Dropbox folder between two devices, Device1 and Device2. On Device1, I create two folders in my Dropbox folder:
~/Dropbox/Folder1
~/Dropbox/Folder2
In ~/Dropbox, I create an alias of Folder1 using the Finder menu command File > Make Alias. Then I move the alias of Folder1 into Folder2. So now I have
~/Dropbox/Folder2/Folder1\ alias
On Device1, where I created the alias, everything seems to be in order. Folder2 will appear to contain a folder named "Folder1 alias". As desired, this apparent folder will actually be an alias pointing to ~/Dropbox/Folder1. Doubleclicking "Folder1 alias" inside of Folder2 will open Folder1, as expected.
The problem arises when I move to Device2. There, I again see the two folders
~/Dropbox/Folder1
~/Dropbox/Folder2
But, inside of Folder2, there is a file named "Folder1 alias". Instead of a folder icon, the file will have the generic "file" icon. This file will not function as an alias. It is inert, as far as I can tell. At any rate, on Device2, I cannot doubleclick "Folder1 alias" to open Folder1, as I could over on Device1. Instead, I get the error message "Item “Folder1 alias” is used by macOS and can’t be opened."
Nonetheless, if I go back to Device1, the alias continues to work. It's only on Device2 that the alias is broken. Or, rather, it doesn't seem to be even recognized as an alias by the OS.
My two devices are a Mac Pro running macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G9016) and a MacBook Pro running macOS Catalina 10.15.1 (19B88 ). My version of Dropbox.app is 84.4.170.
I imagine everyone is aware of this, but I still had this thread bookmarked, so I just popped in to say this issue appears to be fixed. I don't recall when it was fixed, but I'm running Dropbox 97.4.467 and aliases are working across devices within shared Dropbox folders.
Now if we can just get them to fix the problem of locked folders/files being not staying locked...
- Walter
Dropbox Staff
Hi Tyrrell!
As I'd really need an account and device specific view to better advise on this matter (this is exactly why we had to switch to email communication with Rob as well in the post you quoted), would it be OK if I reached out via your Dropbox email address to have a further look into this with all of our tools available?
Let me know here and we'll take it from there. Thank you!
Hi Folks
I too have exactly the same proble of aliases made between folders in DropBox used to work on MacOSX (for many years) and just recently stopped working. This has to be a generic issue and not specific to any particular user/files, so if there is a solutiuon, it would help teh whole community. Mnay thanks
David
The one thing that has not yet been made clear to me by Dropbox support is whether or not this is now expected behavior. No one has said one way or another whether Dropbox expects synced Mac aliases to use relative paths...
>alias /users/rob/Dropbox/2019 Budget.xlsx alias
>points to target users/rob/Dropbox/Budgets/2019 Budget.xlsx on ROB's computer
>but points to target users/joe/Dropbox/Budgets/2019 Budget.xlsx on JOE's computer
...which is what was happening a few months ago...
...or if Dropbox has been changed so that now the alias follows absolute paths (i.e., if the path includes /users/rob/, it won't work on Joe's computer.
They've asked me to unlink/relink my Dropbox "to ensure it's working correctly" but first I need to know which of the two behaviors they consider correct.
In the mean time, I've found a workaround: Each user creates their own aliases locally. It's far less convienient because User A has to tell User B where to find everything they might want to alias. But it's better than having to hunt.
