Camera Upload thumbnail not showing on mac

Hi @Pansy L., you need to specifically select the images or the folder with images, and then right click and 'Make available offline', give it time to download, and then right click again and 'Make online-only'.

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craftyweeks

I'm having the same issue! Came across your question when I was searching for an answer. Glad to see though its not just me.

Walter

Hey there @Pansy L. & @craftyweeks - sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

Could you please let us know the Dropbox desktop app's status and version as shown in your menu bar?

Also, can you check your Dropbox folder's location in the app's preferences under the sync tab for us?

Have you tried reindexing your Spotlight at all lately by the way?

Keep us posted please .

Hello,

I'm having the same problem.
I detected that this problem starts to happening in the beginning of September.
Yesterday I upgraded my macOS to Sonoma, but the same problem is happening.
So the problem it's not related to macOS, but happenings in both (the last one and the new one).

This is very bad, because the Dropbox price is too high if compared with others (OneDrive per example that is included in Microsoft Office plan), and this issue is happening again (last year we have this problem for a long time).

Please, fix this.

Walter

Hey @luizfernandomiller, sorry to hear you're also having issues with this.

Could you please clarify the desktop app's exact status and version as shown in your menu bar?

Hello @Walter ,

I'm sending the print screen with the information requested.
I'm using macOS Sonoma 14.0 (the problem was happening with the previous macOS too).
I already try to delete Dropbox from my machine e delete all the folder.
I try to resync and the problem persist. Now it's worst in fact, because all the previous files was showing the thumbnail, and only the new one was not showing. Now after resync none online file is showing the thumbnail. 😞

Best,

Captura de Tela 2023-09-27 às 15.38.21.png

Hannah

Thanks for sharing your process, @luizfernandomiller.

If you switch the files from online-only to available offline and then back to online-only, what do you see?

Hello @Hannah and @Walter

If the file is offline, the thumbnail is show. Similar problem that happened in the past with Dropbox and Mac.

Captura de Tela 2023-09-27 às 21.59.13.png

Other problem that I found is when you try to quickly visualize the thumbnail of offline files (the file is downloaded instead of showing the picture preview in short size).

I believe that the problem is when Dropbox download de file from the server to the Mac.
Because old files was working fine in offline mode. Just the new one downloaded since beginning of September was with the thumbnail problem.
Now that I resync all my Dropbox account, all offline files are with this issue. 😞

Best,

Hi @luizfernandomiller, if the files on your machine are online-only, then they wouldn't have any thumbnails associated with them, since these are just placeholder files containing no data on them.

@Jay

This is not true!
Online files always have thumbnails associated. This stopped working a few days ago.

Two proofs that you are wrong are: if you put a file as offline and then put it as online, the thumbnails reappear. Another proof that competitors like OneDrive work correctly. By the way, if they don't solve this in the next few days, I'll stop paying for Dropbox and stay only with OneDrive that rarely has bugs.

Yeah, I don't know what's going on here but this has never happened before.

All files are local.

I've made them "on-line only" & then local again, twice, with no luck.

I've restarted the Finder.

I shouldn't have to do any of the above.

I can see all the thumbnails on my other Macs & my iPhone.

When I make the a file "on-line only" on one of the other Macs I can still see the thumbnail.

The problem is on an Apple M1 Max laptop running Monterey with Dropbox v183.4.7058

Am I missing something?

Is there anything else I can try?

All I'm seeing is this:

Screenshot 2023-09-29 at 13.46.49.png

On the other Mac I'm seeing this:
Screenshot 2023-09-29 at 14.17.10.png

Walter

Hey @Snowdog63, sorry to hear you're also having issues with this.

Could you let us know the location of your Dropbox folder as shown under the sync tab in the app's preferences?

Also, did you reindex your Spotlight since you first noticed this?

My Dropbox folder is at the top level of my user area.

I have not refreshed my spotlight, however one might do such a thing.

Nor have I refreshed it on any of the other Macs, where the thumbnails are fine.

Nor have I ever refreshed it on any Mac ever & this problem has never happened before.

🙂

I found a fix for this.

Open activity monitor, view processes by name & search for:com.apple.quicklook.ThumbnailsAgent.

Select it in the list & click on the X in a circle. Force quit the process,

Relaunch the finder.

That fixed it for me, for now. Fingers crossed that it continues to work.

I don't know whether it make this an Apple problem or an "Apple & Dropbox don't play well together" problem, (because between you, you managed to **bleep** up the coloured dots being visible when a file is in the cloud, too), but either way, this is yet another reason to reconsider dropbox as a long term solution, especially with yesterday's email about the "new plan" that's being put into operation.

But anyway, it's a fix for now.

Unfortunately it didn't work for me. From the description of your problem, it is different from mine.

In my case, Thumbnails work for offline and online files from other applications such as OneDrive, etc. Only the Dropbox online ones stopped working.

😕D'oh!

Good luck with your ongoing search.

Hannah

Hey @luizfernandomiller, you mentioned in a previous reply that when switching the files to available offline and then to online-only again, the thumbnails reappear.

Is this not the case anymore?

https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/View-download-and-export/Windows-Thumbnail-photos-not-showing-in-Dropbox/td-p/485594

@Hannah
This workaround to download as offline and then change to online works.
But I have a lot of Gigs at Dropbox to do that. Is not a workaround for me.
A tried to do that in the past days and it took so long.

What I said is that the solution of @Snowdog63 didn't work for me because the thumbnails is working fine in my Mac with offline files and online files (OneDrive, Google Drive and so on). The only problem is with Dropbox. New files downloaded as online were without thumbnail.

Best,

OW1

I just did this from the link below, and it fixed it on my computer- yay!!

@Megan

Dropbox Staff

‎05-11-2021 02:00 AM

Hey Eric, welcome to our Community!

Can you please let me know of the current sync status of the desktop app?

Let's try something. Could you temporarily quit the Dropbox desktop app and see if the thumbnails change?

Go to the Dropbox icon in your system tray.
Click on your profile picture or initials to the right of the search bar.
Select "Quit Dropbox".

@Walter

Dropbox desktop app's status: Files are up to date
version as shown in your menu bar: v184.3.6480
Dropbox folder's location in the app's preferences under the sync tab: /Users/XXXXXX/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox
Have you tried reindexing your Spotlight: Just did it and still the same

Nancy

Sorry for jumping in, @Pansy L..

Is this happening for all images on your Dropbox account, or just the ones located within the "camera uploads" folder on your desktop app?

AliBnz

Same issue - is there any resolution yet?

Hi @AliBnz, have you tried any of the steps in this thread to attempt to resolve the issue?

This is happening to all images not just Camera Upload

Hannah

Hey @Pansy L., thanks for the update here.

Are the photos currently set to 'online-only'? If so, can you switch them to 'available offline' and then back to online-only, to see if that helps?

I went to New Files Default: Changed it to Available Offline. Closed the window. Waited for a minute because I don't want to download everything. Then switched it back to Online-only.

I assume that's what you are asking me to do.

It changed my Dropbox status to Syncing. Not sure what it's syncing so I'll wait a bit to see if maybe it's syncing the thumbmails 🤞🏼

zurimakena

I'm experiencing the exact same problem! I stumbled upon your question while searching for a solution. It's reassuring to know that I'm not the only one facing this issue.

@Hannah @Jay @Nancy Switching it to offline then back to online only didn't work. Still no thumbnails