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The user I'm sharing a folder with can't open PDFs on their end.

Hi team,

Recently I joined a shared folder on dropbox, I use a mac and the original user has windows. Once I move folders and documents (as I do the filing), somehow the windows user can no longer open the pdfs, but they are able to navigate through the dropbox, just not open any documents.

Is there a setting I need to change on my mac?

How can I fix this issue?

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Nancy

Welcome aboard the Community, @Colene!

When saying this happens upon moving files/folders, can you clarify what you mean? For example, are you moving/uploading new files/folders within the shared folder and the other user is unable to open them?

Are they getting any errors on their end?

Are they unable to open them on the Dropbox website or the desktop app? You’re able to access everything properly, correct?

Let me know more info and we can take a look.

Colene

Thanks Nancy,

So I work on dropbox offline, and the other person as well. I work on mac and they on Windows. What I think is happening, is that when I make changes - ie, they pop 3 pdf's into folder A, and I go and sub-file them into specific folders ie Folder 1, Folder 2 and Folder 3, so I'm just moving them around within the dropbox, not making changes to the actual pdf or editing. Once I've moved it from folder A to folder B/1/2/3 etc, the other user can no longer open it without an error message popping up or just letting me know that it doesn't open at all on their end.

So someone advised that I only work on dropbox from my end online, so that the changes are instant and I don't have to download/upload sync from my offline version and then the other user just needs to sync their offline version. Does that make sense?

Otherwise I'm not sure what I could be doing wrong when I'm using the dropbox offline.

Rich

@Colene wrote:
Once I've moved it from folder A to folder B/1/2/3 etc, the other user can no longer open it without an error message popping up ...

What is the exact error that they're getting? Are you changing the file name at all? Does the file still have the .pdf file extension?

So someone advised that I only work on dropbox from my end online ... Does that make sense?

No, that doesn't make sense. It shouldn't matter where you're working on the files, as long as syncing is working normally for you.

Jay

Hi @Colene, is it possible that they're trying to open the PDF files from within their PDF program, as in, opening their recent files?

If so, this could mean that the program is trying to find the PDF in the old location, and can't find it, bringing up the error. Are they able to navigate to that folder you moved it to and open the PDF from there directly?

Colene

"is it possible that they're trying to open the PDF files from within their PDF program, as in, opening their recent files?"

- Not sure about that as we work remotely so I'm not able to view the path they're taking currently

- So they can navigate to the folders, including the ones I've created and moved the pdf's to. So I'm not sure why they're not able to open the pdf's once I've moved it from folder A to folder B.

Colene

What is the exact error that they're getting? Are you changing the file name at all? Does the file still have the .pdf file extension?

- Not sure about the error, but I suspect it might be something like this:

"Adobe Acrobat Reader could not open the file because it is either not a supported file type or the because the file has been damaged (for example, it was sent as an email attachment and wasn't correctly decoded."

- I'm not making any changes, just moving from one folder to another

- Yes, they still have the .pdf file extension

Jay

This is what I wanted to check, if they are actually trying to open the files from the new locations directly in Explorer, or if they're using their PDF program to reopen the previous file, without navigating to it directly.

If the file still doesn't open from Explorer, then we can look into other possibilities

Colene

I doubt they're navigating from their pdf program, as far as my communication with them go, they navigate directly on their dropbox .

Jay

After you move the PDF files to the new location, are you able to open them on your end?

Colene

Yes I am

Jay

Okay, and you're not changing the title of the files, which could also cause problems. How 'deep' is the subfolder you're moving it to, as in, are there many levels or just one subfolder down?

Just to be certain, when you're aware of the exact error message the other user is getting, it would help us a lot.

Colene

Here is one example

Colene

Walter

Thanks for the screenshots @Colene

Can you check with your collaborator(s) if they get this error when the file is online-only or even after making it available offline on their computer(s)?

Colene

I believe it's offline, my collaborator doesn't work online.

Walter

In that case, can you ask them to rename it or move it to another location and see if they can open it from there @Colene?

Rich

@Colene wrote:
I believe it's offline, my collaborator doesn't work online.

Just to be clear, this isn't referring to how someone works with their Dropbox, but how the files are marked in their Dropbox folder. If you've added files to a shared folder, they could be displayed initially on their end as Online-only, meaning the files are only in the cloud and a placeholder is displayed on the local computer.

Some application have a problem opening files that are marked as Online-only. Basically, they try to open the file and don't wait long enough for it to download, resulting in an error about the file being missing, the wrong type or corrupt.

Ask the other person to right-click one of the files and select Make available offline, wait for the file to sync and display a solid green check mark, then try to open it.

Colene

Thanks Walter, I'll check with them in the morning

Colene

This is very helpful - I will go check up on this as well

Colene

Hi Rich,

Do you perhaps have a solution for an error like this:

I've suggested all of the above to my colleague but they still can't access some of the files

Colene

Alternatively, could any of the below settings be an issue?

Walter

No, these settings wouldn't be affecting your files and how you preview them @Colene

Have you ensured that your colleagues are trying to open those files after making them available offline on their computers?