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Couln't download. Remove incompatible characters from the filename

Recently all of my computer with Dropbox have started showing a sync error "Couln't download. Remove incompatible characters from the filename. e.g. emojis, /\"<>:|?*"

The problem filename isn't shown, the "Go to File" link just takes me to the root directory of my drive, and I obviously can't search for those bad characters. How do I find this file to solve the sync issue?

Screenshot 2022-05-15 07.34.56.png

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Megan

Hey @Roy2010, no worries let me share Sam's response here as well.

Hi everyone,

Sharing an update on the topic: our team is working on adjusting this, and it's expected to roll out in our next Stable Build (V190).

You can check our releases here, and we'll keep you informed on the progress.

Thanks,

Sam

I appreciate your patience on this, thank you!

All comments

Gabrielle Neal

I have received an error report in the last couple of weeks from my Dropbox stating that files could not be downloaded due to incompatible characters.

These files are mostly archives and some are over 5 years old.

It is not possible to save a file with incompatible characters.

Has Dropbox got a problem they need to tell us about?

Has someone made a programming error that has created incompatible characters where none existed?!!

Has anyone else in the Community had the same error?

Several of our staff have the same problem.

Can we please get some help to fix these files!!

It will take weeks to go through every single file and fix the errors !!!

Megan

Hi @Gabrielle Neal, welcome to our Dropbox Community!

Keep in mind that the syncing issue you described is most likely due to the OS on your device.

It's not coming directly from Dropbox, but some operating systems have certain characters that they don't accept.

You'd need to rename these files via the website, and they'd then sync without any problems.

You can see more about this right here.

I hope this clarifies things.

Allegra248

Yes! I am having the same issues. I have a list of over 999 sync issues - ALL WITH FILES THAT ARE OLD AND HAVE BEEN SYNCED PREVIOUSLY. Again, these are not new files. These are old file that have been in my folders for years and years. It just started last week and is starting to get frustrating. I'm thinking about cancelling to be honest. We work with hundreds of files a week.

-Giancarlo

Allegra248

Megan,

I have a list of over 999 files....that does not seem practical. Any other suggestions?

-Giancarlo

Gabrielle Neal

Thanks Megan,

I have done as suggested.

My question is HOW did this happen to files that have previously synced fine.

These are HISTORIC files, not something loaded in the last week, and they were fine when they loaded.

I actually don't know how they were ever created on any computer with invalid characters.

Majority of them had a : in the file name.

I have worked with computer a long time and this character has never been allowed by PC or Mac.

The only thing done differently this last fortnight is I upgraded to Windows 11 and then changed my mind when things stopped working. I have since gone back to Windows 10.

Next idea please.

chikega

Same here, some of these files go back 10+ years and all of a sudden it's an issue? I know Dropbox hires some of the most talented programmers on the planet. The interface that is presented to us is clumsy to even begin attempting to change hundreds of files. "Go to file" for each and every file is extremely unrealistic. It actually opens each file in a new browser window ... yes we're inside the file. We don't need to be inside the file in order to rename the file. Who designed that interface should spend a week using his/her creation and see how painful it is to use. DropBox should present an interface of all offending files like in an explorer/finder window that would allow us to multi-select and run a REGEX-based script to remove the offending characters. /\."<>:|?* C'mon DropBox, you can do better than this!

Allegra248

So I uninstalled and reinstalled Dropbox and it seems to have worked.....I still have no idea why that was happening.

Allegra248

To clarify, the old files in question are still not syncing.....but the good news is it's not preventing new files from syncing properly. Which was the main issue.

-Giancarlo

mpops

We cannot rename or delete hundreds upon hundreds of files! That is ridiculous.

The files that cannot sync are all files that DROPBOX created, because they end in .dropbox.attributes. So at some point dropbox created these files - from image files - and now it decides they have incompatible characters and will not sync them.

Our image files have a half dozen or so users across multiple families and locations, and there is NO WAY for us to clean up the mess that these attribute files have created.

Come on Dropbox, FIX the mess you made!

Gabrielle Neal

Sorry Megan, but no this link you supplied didn't clarify anything.

These files have appeared out of nowhere with a full colon inserted.

This is not our practice to create files in this manner.

Please, can someone please give us a better solution than "you will have to rename them yourself" or it is our "OS on our device".

I am sorry, but both of these sound like a cop out.

antchapmanaudio

Just started getting this on Windows 10 today, with files that were previously synced perfectly for many years. The characters it claims are illegal actually aren't in W10. Has there been a silent app update that has changed some stuff?

mpops

For a while this problem disappeared for me, and now the inability to sync are back yesterday. Hundreds upon hundreds of old files that have synced for years suddenly do not sync. What is going on????

Mike B.53

OMG, yes, this!

Dumb interface for figuring out what's wrong with hundreds of my files that synced just fine (some for years) but suddenly today are a problem fror DropBox. And, the few "problem" files that I looked at have nothing but the letters a-z and a few spaces.

Mark

@Mike B.53

is the space at the end of the name of the file (e.g. "Mark .pdf" rather than "Mark.pdf")? If so that is an often incompatible with other OSs

Mike B.53

Hi Mark,

Thank you for trying to help me!

No, of today's 138 errors, any that I see do not have a space before the .pdf (or jpeg, indd, png, tiff, etc). In fact, many files have no spaces at all such as "CGI.jpg". A couple of screen caps attached. And these files are both old and weren't previously a problem. Thanks, Mike

Screen Shot 2022-03-13 at 1.39.38 PM.png

Megan

Hi @Mike B.53, let me see what we can do about this!

Can you let me know your app's
syncing status?

Also, have you tried renaming an example file through the website to see if it's going to sync afterward?

Let me know more about it.

mpops

Hi Megan,

Every few days I get an error message from Dropbox saying it cannot sync several hundred files of images taken in 2014. These images have been in Dropbox for all those 8 years. The problem seemed to clear up a while back and I stopped getting the error messages for a while. But alas, the message is back. I assume that old files from 2014 have synced from another person who shares the files - but I don't know. In any case, cleaning them up on my computer is not sufficient, they need to be cleaned up on hte computers of other shared users.

This is NOT an issue of cleaning up the files, it is an issue of Dropbox suddenly refusing to accept file names that have been acceptable for years. Someone at Dropbox has to figure out exactly what is happening and FIX IT!

Mike B.53

Hi Megan,

I'll try to do this test and get back to you. Very busy week…

Thanks!

wcf3

I think this has to do with symlinked files, at least that is what it looks like for my 108 files that suddenly stopped syncing a couple of weeks ago between my Mac and windows systems.

I should add that they sync fine on the Mac, only windows has the problem. I haven't found a way to correct it and they worked fine for many many years...

Allegra248

It has started to happen on my iMac. Luckily it still syncs new files but there is a notification on the Dropbox icon that says the old files won't sync....so perhaps this is more of a Dropbox problem as opposed to a Windows/Mac OS problem...

DimitriLL

We have been experiencing this same issue as well on our Dropbox Business account. Some of our computers have even gotten stuck in syncing, whether due to this issue or not. I had to delete the Dropbox app from those computers, reinstall and resync, which took over 2 days. That didn't solve the original issue of mis-named files not syncing - that is still present.

DROPBOX NEEDS TO PROVIDE A SOLUTION TO THIS.

cathstoneman

Hi, I am also receiving the incompatible characters message. However, for me, it is on recent files - but none of them have strange characters or spaces (or at least none that I can spot). They are files created on my Mac but which won't synch onto my PC.

Since I cannot see where the problem is (no illegal characters) I cannot fix the issue. And as others have said before me, it is really not feasible in any case to change the names of so many files. Please help!

Jay

Hi @cathstoneman, do you have an example of a file or folder name that isn't syncing from your Mac to your PC to confirm what characters are being used?

cathstoneman

For example NA22-CBC-005-ES_merged.pdf

Jay

This file should sync normally, could you attach a screenshot showing the error message you're getting specifically?

tekfranz

For what it’s worth OneDrive runs into a similar issue, but offers to automatically rename the files in question. It seems like a utility in DropBox to do this would be simple as I just noted that direct downloads from DropBox.com remove all special symbols.

Since these symbols are supported on Mac I am going to try A find and replace to rename from there.

Walter

Hey @Dimples, sorry to hear about this.

Can you please let me know the app's exact status and version as shown in your system tray/menu bar?

Also, could you check your account on our website and see if you have any files containing any incompatible characters?

Let me know what you find!

nomadism

I have a rather annoying (and consistent) problem with dropbox uploads. It's a constant reminder that I have files that dropbox tells me that

"Couldn't upload. Remove incompatible characters from the filename..."

But as my screenshot show, there are no incompatible characters actually (as far as I can see, unless dropbox counts unicode Korea as "incompatible.")

Moreover, one of the files does not even seem to exist (the final file without the icon), as when I click "Go to file," nothing happens.

What am I supposed to do here?

For what it's worth, I'm using MacOS Monterey, version 12.3.1

My dropbox app version is v148.4.4519

Due to my own preference, I've disabled "dropbox system extension" but the problem existed even when I had the extension turned on.

Screen Shot 2022-05-18 at 6.36.27 PM.png

Walter

Hey @nomadism, thanks for the report and sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

Just so you know, I merged your post under this thread as it echoes the OP here.

Can you please take a look and reply to the questions I asked @Dimples?

Thanks a bunch!

Dimples

@Walter I couldn't find any files with incompatible characters obvious on dropbox.com. My version of the dropbox app is 148.4.4519. It currently say "Up to Date" but that error pops up on my machine about once a week.