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Special Character in Filename causing lack of syncing

I'm moving my files around - syncing via the cloud between a Mac and a PC - and, while I was doing a visual check to ensure the files were correctly synced, I noticed one file that was not syncing. Eventually, after trying various things to try and force a re-sync, I noticed there was a vertical bar character '|' in the filename. I removed that from the filename and the file now syncs.

Is this expected behaviour (I can't imagine it would be) or is it a bug? How do I report a bug? I have a free account and there is no option listed for actually contacting support.

The file is syncing correctly from my Mac to the cloud but it is not then syncing from the cloud to my Win10 Pro PC. As far as I know I'm using the up-to-date cliente on the PC but I can't see how to tell.

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Lusil

Hello @dropyak, welcome to the Dropbox Community!

Certain characters can be used on some operating systems, but not others. This also means that, while your files may be visisble on the website, they may not be on a computer that can't handle those characters.

In this case, you are right! The vertical bar you mention is an incompatible character on Windows devices. You can find more info about this, here.

Let me know if you have any other questions, thanks!

dropyak

Thanks, Lusil.

Does Dropbox give any notification to the user that a file wasn't synced?

If I hadn't done a file-for-file comparison, I wouldn't have seen this; I can't imagine that someone with many more files than I would be interested in manually verifying the results of a sync.

Lusil

I understand where you're coming from and, in general, to prevent sync problems in the future, make sure to avoid naming your files with any of these characters as Dropbox can't sync them on some platforms.

If you have any other questions, we're only just a post away, so just give us a nudge.

In the meantime, I hope you have a lovely day ahead!

dropyak

High marks for being polite. Low marks for the quality of the non-answer.

I take it, then, Dropbox does not notify - e.g. create a log - the user of any sync problems for subsequent follow-up? If that is true, on what basis can any business believe your service is reliable if certain files are not synced yet the user is not notified of this?

Surely this can't be the case.

chrisodonnell

Yes dropbox notifies you. There will be a red ! on the dropbox icon (at least on my PC there is).

and if you open the dropbox app, click on your initials and select "view sync issues" you'll see a list of all files that did not sync, and a short message as to why they didn't sync.

nunoa10

I am experiencing the same issues Dropyak is talking about, and there is no red ! on the dropbox icon as you say. As far as the "view sync issues", where exactly can I reach it? Since the problems we are facing are on a PC, there is no app to begin with. So, where else can we see sync issues?

I have only noticed not all the files were syncing by chance. I then compared the amount of files I have on my Mac, and there is a huge difference to those I have on my new PC. It means that a lot more issues like the ones I casually found out, probably regarding special characters Windows don't recognize as well, are still happening. But dropbox didn't notify me about them, and I still can't know which files are missing. Again, I only know they are missing because the total number of files is different from one computer to the other.

So, where exactly should I go in order to fix it?

chrisodonnell

On my PC, the dropbox icon is in the lower left corner.

left click on the icon and then left click on your initials (upper right corner)

One of the menu options is "Show Sync Issues"

nunoa10

Thanks! The Dropbox icon was not visible anywhere, that's why I was not understanding your explanation. I had to made it appear on the lower tab first, and now I can do what you advise. I have 63 files requiring me to rename them now. After a few years using a Mac, it's good to be back on Windows and have an entire evening ruined like this.

chrisodonnell

I have 59 files. But I decided I don't NEED any of those files and will leave them.

Have also alerted my co-workers about "special" characters and have requested that they not use them.

Tony K.16

I see a large list of strangely named files in the "Dropbox Sync Issues" dialog box, but when I click on "Go to file", it opens an explorer window rooted at "This PC", and not the actual file on Dropbox. So, I have no idea where the file is located.

Hannah

Hey @Tony K.16, thanks for the comment here.

These look like they might be system files that are trying to sync to your Dropbox.

Did you perhaps enable the computer backup feature on the Dropbox application?

Do you have a 'PC' named folder in your Dropbox folder and are you able to locate these files there?

Manuelcorde

I have the exact same issue, in my MacBook Pro everything shows up, but in my Surface 8 I couldn't find a file a was looking for, then I started looking for other files, and BINGO, there were more than 1,000 files missing on my Surface. The trouble is that the Dropbox dialog says everything "is up to date", without any issues.

I even uninstalled and deleted my whole Dropbox folder, and re installed it, again, the same number of files we not shown on my Surface.

Please do something, at least, let us know if a file in the cloud is not being shown on the device.

Thanks,

Hannah

Thanks for the nudge here, @Manuelcorde.

Are you still having this issue or did you manage to resolve it?

If you click on the Dropbox icon in your system tray, then on your initials/profile pic and then on 'view sync issues', you should be able to see these kinds of issues.

Let me know what you find.

lenpal

Feature requests:

1. Warn users if a file or folder contains characters restricted on some operating systems.
2. Add a "find" feature in the web console that can help find files or folders using restricted characters, so they can be renamed.
3. Add a global "replace" feature in the web console in which a non-restricted character (such as a hyphen) can be used to replace any instances of a restricted character (such as a colon, pipe, or slash).

Thanks,

Walter

Hey @lenpal, thanks for your feedback!

For future reference, note that you can post your feature requests (preferably separate) in our Ideas section.

You can take a look at this thread for more tips on posting your ideas.

Cheers!

pfortune

To Dropbox: I have thousands of files named with a special characters. I can't synch these without renaming them, and my life won't be long enough to rename them all. If there is no workaround on this, I can't use DropBox, which didn't have this feature in previous versions--used it for 10-15 years!

Please help or tell me to leave.

JohnnieD

I have found i have 384 files that promise to sync but don't and no way of finding out where/what they are. It's a shambles but Dropbox has got noticeably worse in the last year or two. I guess that is near monopoly status