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Forum Discussion
Workaround to use Windows shortcuts on iOS?
Is there a way to get DropBox on iOS to follow Windows shortcut links to another DropBox file in another folder on DropBox? I am a musician and have a very large number of Word song files in on...
- That's not possible with Dropbox and I know of no workaround that would make it possible. Remember that Dropbox on mobile devices does not sync files like it does on your computer. It just shows you a lit of the files in your account and downloads them to the device as you access them. Links, shortcuts, etc. will not work.
- Hi TomMunch,
You could create a .url file with the shared link of the file. It wouldn't be the same thing but you would be able to navigate to the original file from another folder. Search for "URL File Extension" to see how to create one. Other files we support in this way are webloc (Apple thing) and website files. When you open these types of files in Dropbox iOS, we show a link to the url, and if you tap a shared link to a file in your Dropbox account we open that file directly.
The gotcha with this potential work-around is once you create a shared link, it is possible for other people to access the file if they somehow get the link as well. If you're on a business account you can change permissions to prevent this though.
Again, this is a super janky work-around. I can't comment on whether shortcuts is something we want to support but I will ask around for you.
I understand that there is not a file structure on iOS like on Windows, but there should be some mechanism that could see that the file is a .lnk file and then would look for the linked file in a user-specified folder. It's a very simple problem. I guess I'd better put on my thinking cap to figure out a workaround. I figured someone here on the forum would have experience with apps that access DropBox that might be able to do what I'm looking for. Right now I have two apps open - one to see the folders with links and one to open them in the DropBox master folder where the linked files are.
I have been an administrator on other forums, so I understand the ins and outs of administrating posts.
Thanks for your attention.
Maple
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHi TomMunch,
You could create a .url file with the shared link of the file. It wouldn't be the same thing but you would be able to navigate to the original file from another folder. Search for "URL File Extension" to see how to create one. Other files we support in this way are webloc (Apple thing) and website files. When you open these types of files in Dropbox iOS, we show a link to the url, and if you tap a shared link to a file in your Dropbox account we open that file directly.
The gotcha with this potential work-around is once you create a shared link, it is possible for other people to access the file if they somehow get the link as well. If you're on a business account you can change permissions to prevent this though.
Again, this is a super janky work-around. I can't comment on whether shortcuts is something we want to support but I will ask around for you.
You could create a .url file with the shared link of the file. It wouldn't be the same thing but you would be able to navigate to the original file from another folder. Search for "URL File Extension" to see how to create one. Other files we support in this way are webloc (Apple thing) and website files. When you open these types of files in Dropbox iOS, we show a link to the url, and if you tap a shared link to a file in your Dropbox account we open that file directly.
The gotcha with this potential work-around is once you create a shared link, it is possible for other people to access the file if they somehow get the link as well. If you're on a business account you can change permissions to prevent this though.
Again, this is a super janky work-around. I can't comment on whether shortcuts is something we want to support but I will ask around for you.
Thank you, Maple. Having shortcut support would really help me. I hope the engineers will consider this.
The URL thing is what I was thinking for a workaround. I was also thinking that I could create a macro-type workaround that would search the Dropbox folder for the file based on the .lnk file.
