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New Mac Ventura Update - Online/Offline Files Not Syncing

I've recently updated to the v.167.4.4719 version of Dropbox which now changes the location of where your dropbox is located and also changes the way the icons represent what is downloaded online/offline. The issues I'm having are as follows and I wanted to see if anyone else was experiencing this and worked out a way to fix it?

1. Syncing files online/offline. - It seems as if right-clicking a file and making it online gives me the error code "The file is currently in use by an application." even though I just have finder open. Then any files I have downloaded offline, if I try to make them online-only it does nothing, no sync or change of status on the file.

2. New Icons.

Screenshot 2023-02-15 at 1.12.32 pm.png

Above is a file I have online-only that has the green check mark as if it's downloaded offline then also this new cloud icon. If I right-click and go "make available offline" nothing happens. Then if I click the cloud icon, it downloads the file as if it's offline but then the green check mark disappears. Now again if I try to make this "online only" by right-clicking and selecting the option, it gives me the error "The file is currently in use by an application."

Overall this whole update seems buggy and confusing. I've been using dropbox for over 10 years and have never experienced these kinds of issues. I contacted support today and they told me I couldn't roll back my version of dropbox which worked totally fine, and also there's nothing that can be done about this. It really doesn't feel good enough and I'll be looking elsewhere if these things cant be addressed soon. Please share below if you've had a similar experience.

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Comments

Hannah

Hey @Marc James, thanks for taking the time to post to our Community.

We appreciate your feedback about the new Dropbox for macOS app.

Regarding the syncing icons, can you check if the info in this article is helpful?

As for the error you're getting when trying to make a file online-only, have you tried quitting/restarting both the Dropbox app and your computer, to see if that helps?

Let me know how it goes.

Marc James

Hi Hannah,

Thanks for the reply. I've gone over the article regarding the syncing icons, they are not appearing the same way they used to as per my previous message. Plus files have icons for both "Available offline" and "Online only" like the picture I attached, which doesn't really make any sense.

I've done a full restart of my computer and dropbox and nothing has fixed the issue. I'll attach what my finder window looks like as a file appears to be "Available offline" which I then want to change to being "Online only", which I then get an error message and then the file has no status icon next to it at all.

Screenshot 2023-02-15 at 2.55.32 pm.png

Screenshot 2023-02-15 at 2.55.45 pm.png

Screenshot 2023-02-15 at 2.56.00 pm.png

Screenshot 2023-02-15 at 2.56.09 pm.png

Hannah

I see, thanks for the additional info and screenshots, Marc.

Can you try to give Dropbox full disk access on your computer, to see if that helps?

Marc James

Hi Hannah,

I've updated it to give it full disk access but still getting the same errors and incorrect icons.

Please advise if there is a way for me to roll back my version until these issues can be fixed.

INVOKE

Many users having the same issue with this new MacOS version of Dropbox. It's apparently a "feature" not a "bug" and no one that I know of has found any workaround. Any files uploaded from DB app or another user in a shared folder, etc. will not auto download to your other Mac(s). I've had to go in and manually click those cloud with down arrow. It's slowed my team's entire workflow and sadly after many many years with BD, we're working on migrating to BOX because of it. 😥

Marc James

It's a shame they rolled this out without properly testing and ensuring it would work for the community. You could try this which worked for me, I signed out and uninstalled then reinstalled the client, signed back in and it looks like it's put me back on the previous version. I will not update not as long as I can and if it switches over, will probably be moving onto another client.

Marc James

Is there any update or fix to this issue as of yet?

INVOKE

None that I'm aware of. We've just resorted to constantly verifying that things update elsewhere on other devices whenever we upload anything new or start new folders, etc. Somewhat defeats the purpose of having things automatically backed up and in sync having to always track it like this.

chrisvoeltner

I agree, this update is such a bad update... Alfred 4 now no longer searches files either which is a massive pain. Among many other issues like this problem.

Walter

Hi all, I just wanted to let you know that we're aware of this issue and looking into it.

In the meantime, could you try the following steps and let us know how it goes?

Open Finder.
Right-click the Dropbox folder
Click Make online-only or Make available offline to reset.

Note: You will need to select the Dropbox folder (as in the image below) to apply this setting to all files and folders.

Screenshot 2023-04-24 at 9.44.38 AM (1).png

INVOKE

Hi Walter,

Thanks for the suggestion, however as I (and others) have mentioned in past threads, it's very impractical to use that as a solve when we have several terabytes of content with hundreds of folders and sub-folders in DB. To mark the root folder as all online or offline would be a nightmare in both tracking what we actually need to have on or offline, not to mention simply impossible on something like a MacBook Pro with limited SSD space (and you no longer support external drives). So, you see the issue here? What would be your suggestion in this case?

Thank you,

Barrett

www.invokeentertainment.com

chrisvoeltner

Hah wait, they don’t support externals anymore??
Geez, I may have to move away from Dropbox also…

jamesafoster

It's July 2023 and dropbox is still not syncing automatically on Ventura. I guess I have to look at migrating away from Dropbox, too. My job relies on automatic sync between devices. Having to manually check each time that files are up to date and doing some kind of reset if not acceptable.

anaiis

Yes, this update is ridiculous. I am getting this same error where if I try to make a file online only, I get an error that it's being used by some application, with no indication of which one. I've quit and restarted Dropbox. I've tried to mark the whole Dropbox folder as online-only (nothing happens). I'm wasting time on something that's meant to be a productivity tool.

rumbers

Yep, since the last update my Dropbox is useless as it's completely unreliable. Completely random syncing - with some files being available offline, others not, necessitating manually going in and downloading (not that this always works!). I've tried making the entire Dropbox folder available offline (it doesn't do it), and no amount of starting and restarting seems to work. I'm going to be leaving Dropbox for good unfortunately.