You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.

Forum Discussion

Alex Kasper's avatar
Alex Kasper
New member | Level 1
10 days ago

Why do I need to sync my files manually on the desktop app?

I have stopped automatically downloading videos to my Mac. Folders appear in the finder and videos are also visible, but to download I need to try to open each one separately so that the download starts. What could be the problem?

    • Nancy's avatar
      Nancy
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

      If relaunching your Finder didn’t help much, then I’d suggest performing an advanced reinstall next. 

      Let me know if there’s any difference after that.

    • Hannah's avatar
      Hannah
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

      Thanks, Alex.

      Please try these steps and let me know if they help:

      1. Save your work and quit all programs.
      2. Completely close any third-party cloud apps (e.g., Google Drive, iCloud).
      3. Quit Dropbox:
        1. Click the Dropbox icon in the menu bar.
        2. Click your avatar (profile picture or initials) and select Quit Dropbox.
      4. Relaunch Finder:
        1. Click the Apple logo in the top left, select Force Quit.
        2. Choose Finder and click Relaunch.
      5. Restart Dropbox.
      • Alex Kasper's avatar
        Alex Kasper
        New member | Level 1

        Yeah, this is Dropbox folder. 

        "Your files are up to date"

        v.212.4.5.767

    • Nancy's avatar
      Nancy
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

      Can you send me a screenshot of what you see in your Finder > Dropbox folder?

      • Alex Kasper's avatar
        Alex Kasper
        New member | Level 1

        0 bytes until I open and the selected clip starts downloading

  • Nancy's avatar
    Nancy
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

    Hi Alex Kasper, and thanks for posting here today.

    Are the files you’re referring to online-only perhaps? 

    If yes, you need to select them, right-click on them and select the “Make available offline” option to sync them locally on your desktop app (to do this for all your Dropbox files, you can right-click on your local Dropbox folder directly). 

    Other than that, you'll need to make sure that the default syncing setting for new files is set to offline here.

    Let me know if I’ve misunderstood something, though.

    • Alex Kasper's avatar
      Alex Kasper
      New member | Level 1

      I don't have this feature in the finder. It's only available inside the Dropbox app. Yes, I have the offline mode enabled. But it's not working...

About Create, upload, and share

Find help to solve issues with creating, uploading, and sharing files and folders in Dropbox. Get support and advice from the Dropbox Community.

Need more support

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!