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A bunch of my files went to Zero Bytes on Mac

This issue was posted here like five years ago by a different user and the fix worked for them but I've encountered the issue now and the fix isn't working.

Basically, I've got a new Mac, synced all my files from my old Mac but they're mostly showing up as Zero Bytes and they're not openable. I tried going to my preferences->Account->holding down the alt/option key and clicking "Fix Permissions". It prompts me for my computer password, I enter it, it seems to work but doesn't. So I do it again, then I receive the error message in Dropbox: "Dropbox was unable to fix permissions in your Dropbox. Please contact support if the problem persists." I'm on the basic plan, so I don't have access to proper support (bad show, guys) so I'm hoping someone can help.

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mnsngbr

I've also noticed that if I click on the file, regardless of what kind of file it is, it does open and after that it shows in the Finder correctly. But there are way too many files to open individually so I still need a proper fix for this. Thanks.

tigercaptain

Same issue here

vladgasan

Hi @mnsngbr,

Is it possible that the files you synced from your old Mac to your new Mac were online-only? It could be the reason they show up as zero bytes. Can you please check and let us know?

Regards,
Vlad

Rich

mnsngbr wrote:
But there are way too many files to open individually so I still need a proper fix for this.

Select multiple files (or folders) right-click and select Make available offline. You don't have to do it one at a time.

mnsngbr

Thanks for the reply but they're all already selected to make available offline and they're still just zero bytes. The thing that made them appear was opening them and I can't open that many files, was my point!

mnsngbr

Hi Vlad, thanks for the reply. My old computer was stolen and I backed up these files directly from Dropbox, so no, that shouldn't be the case. On my old computer they were actually on the hard drive and backed up to Dropbox as well, so I assumed the same would be the case when I spent hours getting them all downloaded again onto the new computer.