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Syncing icons on the files in the Dropbox folder have changed

Hello
The Finder Extension Icons indicating whether a file or folder is Online Only or Available Offline are showing up in my Finder, however, the statuses are incorrect. For instance a folder that contains files that are both Online Only files and Available Offline files is showing a cloud icon, when it should be showing a white circle with a green checkmark and green outline. I think the Finder Extension is confused. Is there a way to reset the Finder Extension so the icons show correctly without changing the Online Only or Available Offline settings that I have for my files/folders? I do not want to change the statuses of my files/folders, I just want the icons to indicate the statuses correctly. Thank you.
Mac 10.14.6
Dropbox 152.4.4880

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Frennys

Dea All, since a few days I noticed that my dropbox app installed on Windows 11 behaves in a different way than usual. First, I no longer have the solid green dots in my off-line files but white-green dots, moreover the interfaces also changed (I had a menu to select off-line and online sync but now the comments are in the main preference menu). Any explanation? I am sure my explanation wasn't very clear, sorry.

Hannah

Hey @Frennys, thanks for posting to our Community.

Would you mind sending over some screenshots of the changes you see?

That way we can get a better understanding and a visual of what you mean.

Thanks in advance!

Hannah

Hey @johnrinek, thanks for taking the time to post here!

Are you seeing the green check mark in the white circle on files as well, instead of just folders?

Would you mind sending over some screenshots, explaining what you see, so we can have a visual as well?

Also, is syncing up to date on your Dropbox app? You can hover over the Dropbox icon in your menu bar, to check.

Thanks in advance.

jackprest

Hi All,

I've recently had an issue where folders and individual files that are stored locally in my dropbox folder (in finder) are showing up with the "green tick on white background" not the "green tick on green background" as I would expect. I have to click on the file and "Make Available offline" to get the correct green tick to show. This is all for files that are 100% available and stored on my hard drive in local storage.

Also folder which previously showed the "green tick white background" as they held files both stored locally and online only are now showing up as the online only cloud icon. See the below file structure where everything in the folder "2022-07" is stored locally. All the files further in those folders down to individual files have the same "green tick on white background". You can also see my older "zzzTemplates" folder is still "solid green tick". The folder "2022" is also showing up as a cloud online only when it

Screen Shot 2022-07-20 at 9.50.01 am.png

The same thing happens for all new files I move into dropbox via finder.

I spoke with dropbox support and they were useless spent half an hour going in circles for them to then tell me that the "green tick white background" no means available online and offline, so trying here to see if anyone has the same experience, knows this is true or any other help.

I have reinstalled dropbox to latest version. Specs below:

Macbook Pro 14,3

OSX Mojave 10.14.6

Dropbox Build v152.4.4880

Hannah

Hey @jackprest, thanks for reaching out.

Since there's a new version of the Dropbox app out today, would you mind updating the app, to see if you see the same thing?

Thanks.

jackprest

Thanks for the reply @Hannah . Yeah latest build 152.4.4880 just installed again to double check. Still the same issue.

William F.5

Yes, the new system of having two types of green synced icon is incredibly frustrating. For some reason, I have folders that are solid green and folders that are hollow green (even though they are completely local), and I have files that are solid green and files that are hollow green. Yet there is no difference between how I synced them in the first place or how I've used them since then. All of these files and folders are fully local.

I got the following description of the distinction from a Dropbox chat, and it makes NO sense to me:

A file with the available icon (white background with a green tick), means that the file is downloaded to your PC/Mac. Files in this state have been made available by opening the file with a double click or using a 3rd party app.

A file with the online-only icon (grey background with a white cloud), means that the file is online-only and is merely a placeholder file which takes up close to zero bytes on your PC/Mac.

William F.5

Sorry, I pasted the wrong section of my chat. I meant to post this part:

A file with the available offline icon (green background with a white tick) means that the file is downloaded to your PC/Mac. Files in this state have been made available offline by right clicking the file and selecting Make available offline.

A file with the available icon (white background with a green tick) means that the file is downloaded to your PC/Mac. Files in this state have been made available by opening the file with a double click or using a 3rd party app.

michela6

Hello everyone
I would like to know why the icons associated with dropbox files have changed: from green with a white check mark (so that the file or folder is fully synchronized and saved locally) they have become white with green ticks (therefore that the folder contains a mixed files and folders available offline and online only, but all files are marked with this icon, not just folders!)
is it a bug? Will the icons return to the way they used to be? I would like to restore the old icons, then sync locally

Thank you all!

Joseph R.15

Hi, I'm having the same issue here. A large amount of files stored locally are now all showing a green check mark in a white circle. I have a Macbook, an iMac and a Windows machine, fully up to date. I can't figure out any scheme that would explain the icons I'm seeing. There are folders with no icon, folders with a white check mark in a green circle, and folders and files with both white check marks in green circles and green check marks in green circles, yet everything is stored locally. So only the white check marks in green circles correspond to the icon descriptions on the Dropbox website. I'm fully sync'ed. Confusing.

RobT43

I've been using Dropbox for years on the Mac. Currently using Dropbox v 153.4.3932 on macOS Monterey 12.5. Two days ago most (80%) of folders and files switched from a green circle with a white check to a white circle with green check. There doesn't seem to be a pattern regarding why some are still green and some are now white. Any way to make the badges consistent? All of the files are still local and on online, so that doesn't seem to be the factor.

Megan

Hi @RobT43, thanks for posting here!

Can you send me a couple of screenshots, demonstrating what you described above? That'll help me with the visual.

Also, have you made any changes to the folders or files lately?

Keep me posted!

RobT43

Here is a screenshot. I haven't changed anything. Screen Shot 2022-07-22 at 4.40.19 PM.png

jackprest

A Bunch of us having this issue see this thread... https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-files-folders/Syncing-icons-on-the-files-in-the-Dropbox-folder-have-changed/td-p/610037

Joseph R.15

That just links to this thread. Did they get merged?

William F.5

Mine looks almost exactly the same (just the PC version instead of Mac). I guess this is minor in the grand scheme of things, but this seems like such an annoying change that accomplishes absolutely nothing. I just want locally available synced files and folders all to look the same, so I don't do a double-take every time I open my files.

me-db

I have the same problem on a brand new Mac Mini M1. I thought I did something during the transfer. In addition to having nearly all white icons, the icons on the old iMac don't quite match. That one may have a few more green icons. Most icons don't show until I open a folder.

cindy t.3

I have this exact same issue. Any folder that has even just one file saved online only is now showing up with the offline cloud icon. This is REALLY problematic, since I use multiple layers in my filing system.

As others have noted, the green/white dots with the check also seem to have become a complete mess. I think in my entire 1.5 TB of files I have exactly 4 solid green dots, three of which are on top level files and one of which is on a file folder with just one file. So those have become completely useless as well. But the things showing up with a cloud when only some files in the folder are on-line only are the biggest problem.

It does the exact same thing on both my windows desktop and my surface 7. It just started in the last week or so. I'm on Windows 10 on both computers - there has been a recent Windows update, not sure if the Dropbox issue came before or after. But definitely not happy with how Dropbox is behaving.

ABW31

Hello,

Kindly I would like to know why the green checkmarks of some of my folders is replaced with a white checkmark with only a green (✔) inside.

And does it mean that my folders are not synced?

And how can I make them back to green?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Rich

@ABW31 wrote:
Kindly I would like to know why the green checkmarks of some of my folders is replaced with a white checkmark with only a green (✔) inside.

A white circle with a green outline and a green checkmark indicates a folder that is in a mixed Smart Sync state; some files are local while other files are online-online, not taking up space on your drive but still located in your account.

To set the files back to local, right click them (you can select them all if you want first) and select Make available offline. You can also right-click the folder and chose the same option to set all files within the folder to be available locally.

https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/sync-uploads/sync-icons

ABW31

Thank you! It is all clear now.

Best regards.

Mantas212

I though it was an issue but I realised it's a weird change to DB icon definitions. Earlier the white circle with a green outline and green checkmark meant a folder contains files that are both Online Only files and Available Offline. Now it signifies that a file or folder has been opened by double-clicking, or through a third-party application, and synced. That means we no longer have an icon that indicates a folder contains mixed sync status files but we do have Two icons that show a file is available and synced. Not a fan of this change. 💤

William F.5

Yeah, the new system is completely asinine. Even the people at Dropbox don't seem to understand it or be able to explain it. Keep waiting for the next update in hope that this will go away.

RobT43

Thanks, right clicking folders and selecting make available offline worked great!

cindy t.3

Dropbox: Go back to the icons working like they did before!!!!

I REALLY need to be able to quickly seen when some files in a folder are synced and some are not. I do NOT need to know whether I opened them last with an app or on my computer. I pay for Dropbox to make my life easier, not for more complexity.

johnrinek

@Hannah
Replying to your message:

Hey @johnrinek, thanks for taking the time to post here!

Are you seeing the green check mark in the white circle on files as well, instead of just folders?

Would you mind sending over some screenshots, explaining what you see, so we can have a visual as well?

Also, is syncing up to date on your Dropbox app? You can hover over the Dropbox icon in your menu bar, to check.

Thanks in advance.

Please see screenshot attached (folder names have been blacked out for security). You will see that the root folder that is selected has a cloud icon, indicating that all the files in the folder are online only. The second folder in the path also has a cloud icon, indicating that all the files in the folder are online only. The third folder in the path has mixed statuses (available offline, online only, and both). What's more, in the third folder that has the mixed statuses, the icons are also not all correct. Essentially, I have no idea what the actual status is of any of the folders or files. Some icons are correct, some aren't. It is very important for me to know which files are local on my machine and which files are online only.

Please let me know how to reset the icons to be correct without changing the actual smart sync status of my folders and files.

Thank you

John

rusdom

100% agree. Dropbox, please go back to the old system with the icons. The new way of categorizing the icons is useless and actually makes things so much worse.

I'm working with so many files, and such large file sizes, and daily I need to switch around what files are local vs online only. So I need to quickly see at a glance what folders contain any localized/offline files. The old system worked beautifully, and made finding localized/offline files so simple. The new system makes it so much worse. Instead of seeing at a glance whether a root folder has any offline files in it or not, I now have to search through every single subfolder. This new system takes what was a really efficient and awesome feature, and turns it into a huge headache.

It baffles me to think that the Dropbox developers would see this as a positive change. And the reasoning behind the change—to be able to distinguish what files are offline because they were opened vs which files are offline because the "offline" option was chosen—I just don't understand how that distinction is useful at all. This new system with the icons solves a problem that didn't exist, and creates a new much worse problem.

I don't want to come across as mean or snarky with any of this. I appreciate the Dropbox developers and I use (and appreciate) their product every single day. It's just that this change came out of nowhere, seemingly fixing a non-existent problem, removes crucial functionality, and literally makes my job a lot harder now. I just have to hope that Dropbox will revert back to the previous and far superior icon categorizing system.

FabrizioPan

Hello,

I find the new Icon Setup useless.
I suggest to bring it back as it was before the Update.

I think the most important thing is to be able to know if there's a SYNCHED LOCAL File in a Folder, that is eaten your Local HD Space.
So the Grey Icon was super useful before the Icons Update. It showed that there were no SYNCHED file in the Folder.
Now the Grey Icon shows me if there ìs at least one Online-only file in the folder, but olso if there anything else (Synched full green, or Half green file in the folder). It's Basically useless... because the important thing is to know if there's some file left that weight on Local HD.

The best solution was that GREY Icon tells me that there is NO LOCAL SYNCHED file in the folder, so I know that the files inside that folder is Only on CLOUD, since the most important thind is managind and knowing witha a glance if there's some Local file in a folder.

Now I dont know at first glance if I have some local file in every folders... i have to open all the folders and look inside. Thant's vary bad Update.

Is there any chance to make it back as it was the Synch system?

Thank you

rusdom

I totally agree with you, the new icon system is bad and causing me a ton of previously unnecessary frustration. It's so hard now to free up space. The new updated icon categorization makes it impossible to know what folders have offlined files buried within them. I generally love Dropbox—and literally it was the old icon system that made smart-sync so incredible/streamlined/useful and had me signing Dropbox's praises to anyone that would listen. But, this new update is just so bad... it seems to have solved a problem that didn't exist, while creating a much worse problem that makes working with Dropbox so incredibly painful now. As we speak I need to clear up disk space, yet I'm faced with hundreds of folders that all now show the cloud icon (despite some of them having offlined files buried within)... so now to find where offlined files might be, I have to search through thousands of subfolders and dig through every last level to get to every individual file. Before, that whole process happened in a split second, simply by looking at the root folder's icon.

Dropbox, thank you for making a great product that really does make the work I do possible, but please revert back to the previous/better icon categorizing system. Please.

FabrizioPan

You are right.
I dont know if this site is User only... But I hope that someone in dropbox can Read this and Understand that the did a very bad Update this time... and it could be the reason to change service... at least for me, I'm wasting my time looking for Local files and Oflline them.