Renaming files: windows re-selects entire filename when other files resync

Thanks for your reply and the confirmation of what I expected. That's a lot of pressure... To know that a company with a product with 700 million users, is relying on ME to effect change by contacting another company with 1 billion users. 

I'll call Bill right away. 

So just to be clear, this is an issue with Windows AND cloud storage providers working together and not a solely Windows problem, correct?

I ask because we know the problem disappears when you pause Dropbox, and I've used OneDrive and Google Sync without experiencing this issue for the files stored with those providers, only the files stored on Dropbox.

Which to me implies it's a more specific Windows w/Dropbox issue, rather than Windows w/cloud storage providers in general.

When Dropbox is paused - The issue doesn't happen.
When Dropbox is active - The issue does happen.

To say that this issue has nothing to do with Dropbox at all seems a little dismissive to me.

Off the top of my head I can think of one solution;
Give users an option for synchronising frequency that delays updates for periods of 1, 5, 10 mins (Dropdown/slider/or enter a custom value, whatever) to stop this from happening by essentially doing automatically (pausing) what you're asking users to do manually.

Depending on team sizes - And many users might just be teams of 1, 2 or 3 people, and/or not actively work in the same folders and on the same files, this feature might contribute zero conflicts.

Again, this suggestion is just an extension of your existing 'pause' button feature. So whatever you're doing with that, just make it automated.

N.B. There might be 100 better options, depending on what the actual underlying issue is, but this is something that should be very easy to do.

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Gus_O_o wrote:

When Dropbox is paused - The issue doesn't happen.
When Dropbox is active - The issue does happen.

To say that this issue has nothing to do with Dropbox at all seems a little dismissive to me.

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You're not understanding the cause. Of course it happens when Dropbox isn't paused, because Dropbox is syncing your files, and any changes in that folder (i.e. Dropbox syncing a file) will result in Windows refreshing the folder. If Dropbox is paused, there are no changes happening so Windows doesn't have to refresh the folder.

This same thing happens when ANY process makes a change in a folder. Other cloud services, your browser downloading files while you're working int he Downloads folder, or any other program saving a file in the same folder you're working in... Windows will update the folder.

This is a function of Windows.

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Rich wrote:

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This same thing happens when ANY process makes a change in a folder. Other cloud services, your browser downloading files while you're working int he Downloads folder, or any other program saving a file in the same folder you're working in... Windows will update the folder.

 

This is a function of Windows.

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So wouldn't this happen if you renamed files en masse in Windows? That is saving a file in the same folder you're working on, if you are using f2 + tab to rename files quickly shouldn't this issue appear then? It can sometimes take a file or two to change before Windows refreshes the explorer window, but it never highlights the entire filename contents unless Dropbox is running.

Also, why was I not experiencing this issue with other cloud storage providers as mentioned in my previous comment (Livedrive, OneDrive & Google Sync), solely Dropbox?

Come on the issue is simple. When the icon changes (so when Dropbox syncs something) the name is highlighted again.

So Dropbox changes the icon, Windows highlights the file name. 

This is an issue of interaction between the two. The resolution is not apparent to me, but I'm not some IT guy...

If I had the option to have "Dropbox icons" which change depending on sync status or "Windows icons" which just remain the same. I would opt for Windows icons to prevent this issue. I can check the status of sync'd files elsewhere. The icons are of no moment to me.

This.

Has there been any movement in the last 6 months?

This is still a daily annoyance that solely occurs with Dropbox, the problem goes away if Dropbox is closed, and doesn't occur when using other similar cloud storage/sync services such as Onedrive, Livedrive or Google Drive.

Also, I can confirm that this problem has gotten worse in recent months.

Before, pausing Dropbox stopped the problem completely, so the 'work around' was to pause Dropbox, rename files en masse, resume Dropbox and let it catch up. Annoying but workable.

Now the file issue still persists when paused, albeit to a lesser degree than if not paused - 1 in every 7 documents rather than 1 in every 2 when unpaused. I am unsure when precisely this change occurred, and am unsure if it is a Dropbox update or a Windows one that has caused this further disintegration, but this has only led to further annoyances which still seem to solely affect Dropbox files and not other files hosted through alternative cloud storage providers.

Really hope Dropbox gets back to us about this, considering this issue was first raised in April 2019!

Are you serious with this response? It's not like we are talking about running your app on some unsupported obscure OS. This is just insulting TBH.

Hi Walter 

Thanks for getting back to us on this.

Just to confirm, I have tested Dropbox, Livedrive, Onedrive and Google Drive for Desktop, only Dropbox has these 'highlighting all parts of the name multiple times' bug.

As mentioned in my last comment, seemingly since a new update, either for Dropbox or Windows, this issue has gotten worse, how the sure but annoying solution of pausing doesn't fix the issue either.

Can you please utilise your much more useful and competent Microsoft contacts and ask them to launch a joint investigation with Dropbox into this issue because this has persisted for over 2 years and now is getting worse - plus it's solely related to Dropbox -w- Windows interactions, so far none of the other cloud storage providers have presented this issue, so it is a Dropbox integration problem rather than just a Windows problem.

I can confirm the problem and I can confirm the relation between Dropbox and Windows. I tested Sync and there you don't have the problem.

So for sure there is something that differs Dropbox from other Cloud Apps, which creates this issue.

Another bump for this thread, still a daily annoyance.

please fix this. NOW!

Can confirm this is a right PITA.

Can also confirm it's a DROPBOX problem.