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Issues editing Word documents with Dropbox

I have for ages had the practice of going outdoors and editing word documents stored in dropbox on my phone or tablet with Microsoft Word app

This has always worked like a dream, any changes would be automatically saved with no error messages and synced to all devices.

Now I am getting error messages about "changes made by other user, your file can't be saved" or "can't upload file" sometimes AFTER I've done a stack of work in that file, so all those edits are lost. Or the file will open "read only" !

It seems I have to save a new version with a new name every time I open a file on my phone before I can be sure it will do edits without some drama or other.

Dropbox folder on my computer is working perfectly.

This is driving me insane as I do this work every day, and had no issue til now.

Any ideas?

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Accepted answers

Frank_S

Hi all,

As Sanchez mentioned, as the problems are occurring from within the Microsoft applications this sounds like an issue on their side. We'd still like to help get this one resolved, so to try and fix sync issues I'm going to ask those affected to try unlinking and relinking their Dropbox account from the Microsoft Office mobile app:

https://help.dropbox.com/desktop-web/microsoft-office-faq#unlink/relink

To unlink a Dropbox account from an Office Mobile app:

Open the Office Mobile app.
Tap the folder icon.
From the list of places, tap and hold Dropbox.
Once you've held your finger on Dropbox for a few seconds, a trash can icon will appear in the top right corner of the screen. Tap the trash can to remove Dropbox from the Office Mobile app.

To re-link a Dropbox account to an Office Mobile app:

Open the Office Mobile app.
Tap the folder icon.
Tap Add a place.
Tap Dropbox.
Tap Allow next to the Dropbox account listed (if you're already signed in to the Dropbox app). Or, to link a new Dropbox account, tap Use a different account. You'll be directed to a browser window where you can enter the credentials for the Dropbox account you'd like to connect.

Let me know if this helps to resolve any issues with syncing files to Dropbox from within the Microsoft Office app!

Frank

All comments

Benjaminhamrah

I am using word on an iPad to edit and create word documents, but shortly after I start working on them i get the error message on the word app that says “cant upload, something is wrong...” sometimes the error message says something to the effect of the file being open somewhere else and cant save.. Please help!!

Sanchez

Hey @Benjaminhamrah, welcome to our community!

Can you give me some more specifics about this? Screenshots of the errors or other messages would be helpful too.

Are you running our latest mobile app, 80.2? What version of iOS is your iPad on?

Let me know.

Thanks!

Eja99

Whenever I work on Microsoft word files offline then re-connect to the internet I get an ‘upload failed’ error message in Microsoft Word for IPad Pro. I usually have to save a new copy to get it to sync to Dropbox and then half the time it won’t save changes in the new copy and I’ll have to create another one. Any help on this would be awesome.

Sanchez

Hey @Eja99, welcome to our community!

Has this just started happening? Can you make sure that your iPad is running the latest version of its supported OS (11.2.5 for newer devices), and that you’re on our latest app, version 80.3?

I would also see if there’s an update for your mobile Office suite.

Have a look at the above, and let me know how it goes.

Thanks!

Eja99

Thanks for the response. As far as I can tell I have the latest version of everything and I’m still having the same issue, word isn’t syncing any changes that I make while not connected to the internet.

Thanks again.

Jberkowitz

Since the OP is not replying, I will.. Same exact issue. I don’t know how to post screenshots here, so I’ll just say it is a banner that appears at the top of the document but below the toolbar, and there is an X to dismiss it. Sometimes it clears up on its own, but it is becoming more frequent and taking longer to resolve. The only solution is to save with a different file name, thus creating a whole new document, which is quite inconvenient and confusing, as I’m dealing with a novel manuscript, and can’t afford to mix up versions and lose hours of edits over this.

I use both an iPad mini 3 and an iPhone 7, both usin the very latest iOS, 11.2.5. I have version 80.3.2 of Dropbox, although this has been going on for several sessions, now. I’ve tried signing out and back in to both Word and Dropbox, as well as unlinking and delinking the accounts, and I’ve cleared the cache, which is an option in Dropbox. I stopped short of uninstalling either program, as I currently have a nu,ber of documents in the “unable to sync” mode, meaning I would be deleting them permanently.

Sare

I’m having the exact same issue on an iPad Pro, running iOS 11.2.5 and Dropbox is 80.3.2

Any help would be great, not happy to be paying for Dropbox and to have to deal with this issue every time I open a file.......

Jay

Just to check, the doc you’re editing on Word, is it one that was previously downloaded from Dropbox when you were online, or simply created in Word offline, and then chosen to upload for the first time to Dropbox?

Have you tried unlinking and relinking the Dropbox account with Word to ensure the connection is stable? Let us know how it goes!

Eja99

Yes this is a document that's been previously downloaded from dropbox when I was online. Re-adding dropbox to word doesn't seem to make a difference.

Thanks.

Jay

Thanks for that. Are you on WiFi when making this change?

Were you using the Office Online web-based version, or the installed Word app on your iPad?

I’d recommend all users to forward details about this to our team here in order for us to investigate this matter further? Thanks!

Eja99

Thanks Jay. I was using the installed word app. When making the edits I was offline, and then when I reconnected to the internet there was an erro saying changes could not be uploaded and I had to save a copy of the document. If I am online the entire time then theres no issue.

Chris_J

Yikes, so sorry you are having this issue. I would suggest opening up a Support Ticket on this https://www.dropbox.com/support

I will try to escalate this. Sorry I don't have a clue

Frank_S

Hi @megx

My name is Frank and I’m a member of the Dropbox specialist team. I'm sorry to hear that you're having trouble with saving files to your Dropbox account!

Can you let me know where you are seeing those error messages; Do they display within the Microsoft Word app itself or in the Dropbox app? A screengrab of the error would be really helpful for us to understand the source of this problem too. Thank you in advance!

Regards,

Frank

Jay

Interesting… Could you send us an email here in order for our support team to investigate this matter further?

Any extra details you can provide there would be great!

Anicestorm

I am having the same issue! I’ve noticed it for a month, but it has escalated and now I can’t even make a simple comment in a word document without triggering this error. Please help! I am a novelist and I can’t constant be renaming a document for every sentence.

Eja99

Update, now is no longer syncing with with Dropbox even when connected to wifi. I have to save a new copy each time I make changes. Dropbox support indicated it was a Microsfoft issue, but I still haven’t been able to resolve.

Sanchez

Hey @Anicestorm & @Eja99,

I think we should go with @Jay’s suggestion, and get your cases into our support system for further review. If you haven’t already done so, please submit your tickets here, so our team can take a closer look.

Thanks!

Eja99

Hi Sanchez, I did that. The response was that it’s a microsoft issue. I haven’t been able to get any resolution from Microsoft either.

SandersKev

I am using dropbox on a PC (windows 7, no issues there) and a OnePlus 3T phone, running Android 8.0.0. I have an excel file in my dropbox that I like to update (and have been updating for a while) on both the devices, however lately I've been encountering issues when attempting to update it from my phone.

I appear to be unable to use the "save" function but am able to "save as", hence I am unable to update/replace the existing file from my phone. The file is not open on my PC, nor has it been marked as read-only on any device. Saving from PC works just fine.

Any ideas as to why my phone is suddenly unable to update/replace the file and thus has me save copies all the time?

Sanchez

Hey @SandersKev, welcome to our community!

Sorry to hear that you’re experiencing this, so let’s take a look.

Can you tell me what has changed on your phone recently? Has there been an update to the operating system (Android) or the document editor you’re using? Does this happen with all excel files? Are you using the latest version of our app (80.2)?

Let me know, and we’ll go from there.

Thanks!

SandersKev

Hi Sanchez,

Thanks for your prompt reply

Since this problem has been going on for a little while, ( i would say 2 weeks, perhaps more), I am not entirely sure what might have changed in terms of updates. All my apps (including dropbox) are up to date, I use the microsoft excel editor which was, according to the google play store, last updated january 17th, so that could potentially be a thing. The latest android update was relatively recent but I cannot quite remember when.

I just updated another excel file on my phone, that one saved perfectly.

I then went back to the problem file and it somehow also suddenly saved. I then attempted to alter some things in the problem file again but now the problem is occurring again and it will not save saying "there was a problem uploading this file. Last uploaded 5 minutes ago".

It feels as if the file would still be open somewhere, somehow and thus unable to be updated, however I went through the process that made it suddenly work 5 minutes ago, without any luck. Manually closing and force-stopping the excel app from the app settings page also did not have an effect.

Memories23

So for about the last week, my Excel and Word apps on my iPad no longer let me download and edit my Dropbox files. Excel says it cannot download my file and that it is unable to connect to the server. Word says it can't find the file and that it's moved location since the last time I opened it. The only thing I did, which doesn't even make sense, is move my Dropbox icon to a different screen. I have had no problems until this and I'm just very confused. Word also says that the last downloaded time for a file was in 2040 after I try opening it. So that's fun.

All of my apps are up to date, but my iOS is only 9.3.5. I've had this thing forever, and that's the last iOS I'll be able to get. I'm not that tech savvy, so please bear with me, but I look forward to some help! Thanks!

Sanchez

Hey @Memories23, welcome to our community!

I’m sorry to hear about this, and I would like to put you in touch with one of our support agents for assistance. By writing in to our team, our agents can access certain details of your account and help with some more account-specific troubleshooting.

You can submit a support ticket here, and then let me know your 7-digit ticket number so I can make sure that someone gets on it right away!

Keep in mind that this may end up being an issue with Microsoft’s app, instead of ours, but we’ll let our team make that determination.

Cheers

Sanchez

Thanks for the extra details, @SandersKev.

This is sounding more and more like a Microsoft issue, but let’s go ahead and put you in touch with our support team for further investigation.

You can submit a support ticket here, and then let me know your ticket number so I can make sure to get someone on it right away!

Cheers

Memories23

Hi @Sanchez! Thanks for the welcome!
I sent in my ticket and am now just awaiting response.

I know it might be the Microsoft apps, but it seemed like I'd get a faster response through Dropbox first.

Sanchez

Hey @Memories23,

Thanks for getting back to me. Feel free to come back and let us know how this works out.

Cheers!

ducks1899

Glad this thread is here. Same issue. I will contact Microsoft.

Sanchez

Hey guys, our team is looking into this as well, just to see if there’s anything that we can do on our end. I’ll get back to you all here, if I get any news to report.

Have a great weekend

Chris_Williams

When attempting to open older files in drop box on the mobile app the word documents do not open.

All our users are having this issue.

Everyone on our team has the most recnet IOS version/Android and Dropbox updated.

Yet all files older then 2017 we can not open.

We need to be able to access this infromation on the go!

Rich

What's the error message that you're getting?