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Android scratch folder disappeared

Hi, I have been using dropbox for a while to sync audiobooks between my pc & phone (S9+). After a phone restart today, the scratch folder & all files are missing. I tried redownloading the files & dropbox says it ha(green arrow) but I can't find them & still no scratch folder.

I've tried restarting the phone, reinstalling dropbox, checking the sd card, but no go.

Suggestions?

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Accepted answers

Jay

Hi @PhantomRick, this is due to a recent change in the Android app, which you can see more details about here.

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Здравко

Hi @PhantomRick,

Have you used "Make available offline" feature on the target files/folders to make sure they won't get off on some circumstances (primarily memory need)? 🤔

Hope this helps.

PhantomRick

I've been using dropbox exclusively for my audiobooks for a couple of years now. I have to manually download the files & had the scratch/[user] directory tagged in the audiobook player library. The scratch/[user] directories have disappeared. Files I download / mark for offline within the dropbox app are still saying they have been downloaded (green down arrow), but I can't find them on neither the internal storage nor the sd card.

Здравко

@PhantomRick wrote:
... I have to manually download the files & had the scratch/[user] directory ...

Hi again @PhantomRick,

I have no idea why you will need to "manually download" anything. 🤷 Dropbox application take care for this, usually, and keeps the content in sync. The "scratch" directory is something for internal use and isn't officially supported! Actual place template (relative to phone common data directory) is: Android/data/com.dropbox.android/files/[user id]/scratch 🧐 which is something different from that what is in your post (order of 'scratch' and '[user]' got swapped, at least)!

@PhantomRick wrote:
... The scratch/[user] directories have disappeared. ...

If not pointed explicitly for offline access, on some circumstances, as pointed already, the 'scratch' content could get 'disappeared'!

@PhantomRick wrote:
... Files I download / mark for offline within the dropbox app are still saying they have been downloaded (green down arrow), but I can't find them on neither the internal storage nor the sd card.

Here I have to confess, I'm getting confused. Have you 'downloaded' or 'mark for offline' the things? These are two completely different things! Don't mess them. If you have downloaded something, it should be on same place where it have been downloaded, if not removed somehow. Dropbox doesn't anything to do here. If you have marked something for offline access, it should be on the pointed place above. If you can't find it, probably you're looking on wrong place, I'm guessing.

Hope this add enough clarity.

PhantomRick

Okay. I don't remember the file structure exactly, because I set the player library a while ago. When I change my audiobooks on the pc & the pc app finishes syncing, I then go to the phone app, select all files & "make available offline", to which the individual files are then one by one download. After all selected files are downloaded, they are then marked with a green down arrow.

I cannot set the folder "Make available offline" because I would need to upgrade for that option & 2Gb is sufficient for my needs.

So far you have criticised the terminology I have used & told me how I doing it wrong. Please let me know how I can make this work so I can find the files locally on my phone & set the directory in my audiobook player to see those files.

This shouldn't be that complicated.

Здравко

Android/data/com.dropbox.android/files/[user id]/scratch 🤔

Did you check there or not yet? Check it!

PhantomRick

Yes. Both internal & external.

Android/data/com.dropbox.android/files/ is empty on the external sd card, Android/data/com.dropbox.android/ is empty on the internal storage.

There is no [user Id] folder.

Здравко

[user id] should be something like 'u235631156', not literally the same.

Anyway... If the 'files' folder is empty, I can't say anything more. Sounds very strange! As a last resort you can try application reinstall.

PhantomRick

Tried that. I said that in my original post.

Jay

Hi @PhantomRick, this is due to a recent change in the Android app, which you can see more details about here.

PhantomRick

Thank you for your reply Jay.

Since the update has hidden the downloaded files from outside the Dropbox app, this makes it unusable to me & I will be uninstalling.

lostsheep007

Having read your linked answer I struggle to understand what value Dropbox creates by denying access to my own files on Android outside of the app, when they're synced offline to my device. I only see inconvenience in this. You can also only export multiple files, not folders, and of course nothing is synced any longer. A step backwards for Dropbox IMHO. I now will have to manually manage the files I used to rely on dropbox to manage.

William L

I am also not getting downloaded files into the scratch folder, it is missing.

They are downloaded to my android tab since I can access content with an editor which uses content addresses and I am offline, but where are they located.

Help.

Здравко

Strange... 🧐 🤔 My local Dropbox files have never hidened and always reside on the same place:

изображение.png

I have verified this on Android 6, 9, and 10. The above is from my last phone running Android 10. 🤷 Dropbox version 214.2.6 (the last one at this post moment). All media files get accessible successfully. 😉 I'm successfully playing a song with VLC right now.

bteitler

I'm having the same issue on my Note 9. This offline files folder randomly deletes for me after working for a few weeks. I've been through this cycle a few times, and sometimes it starts working again mysteriously. I would second the opinion that the feature is extremely limited bordering on useless without being able to have unrestricted file access to the offline files. It is still unclear to me whether the feature is supposed to work (i.e. should always be in the scratch directly) but buggy, or if Dropbox is intentionally clearing the scratch folder periodically even though I have offline files there.

cann0nball

Hi,

I had an important file in the scratch folder, which stopped syncing awhile ago, but didn't notice until recently.

Now, after latest Dropbox upgrade (226.2.2), I also can't access the file from Android FS...

So now I'm stuck with an old copy, missing some important data...

If I understand correctly, the file is hidden, not deleted? Is there any way to get access?

Здравко

Hi @cann0nball,

Yes, you are right. Unfortunately, Dropbox forcibly introduce their new "feature" without option to be turn off. The files/folders get hidden even before version 226.2.2. 🤷 Take a look here for more info (some option).

Good luck!

cann0nball

Hi @Здравко

Thanks for the response. Won't the file in the scratch folder get deleted if I uninstall Dropbox in order to install an older version?

The issue I have is that the file in scratch folder was newer (updated) than the one available in Dropbox.

It stopped syncing awhile ago, even though it was marked as offline , no idea why.

Здравко

@cann0nball wrote:
... Won't the file in the scratch folder get deleted if I uninstall Dropbox in order to install an older version?
The issue I have is that the file in scratch folder was newer (updated) than the one available in Dropbox. ...

If you have updated your Dropbox application already to recent version, your "scratch" have gone wipe out already! I'm not sure what you mean "newer" here?! 🧐 If you have some new file version available, better make sure there is a copy on safe place. Generally the "scratch" is a buffer place and better don't rely to be in sync for any version, that's not guaranteed. The actual trouble here is place where this folder reside on for recent versions, nothing more (the new place gets visible only for the application for non rooted device). I'm not certain what's going on with the folder; on upgrade most probably just gets moved, but on application downgrade - folder residing on the hidden place just lefts there and the visible place gets filled as before (anew). If in mean time you have put something on the visible place... I have no idea because haven't tested. Just keep it on another safe place in your device by the way till downgrade process done. 😉 That's it.

Hope this clarifies matter.