Child Item

Folders and files status icons not working as intended on Windows

Application Affected
Dropbox App for Windows
Device
Acer Helios Neo 16
Operating System/Browser (if using the web)
Windows 11 24H2
Dropbox App Version (if using the app)
233.4.4901

Question or Issue
After the last update, I can see the new Status column with the Icons of the folder/files in windows explorer.

From my understanding, the basic Icons should be like this:
- Blue Cloud Icon: If the file/folder is only online
- Green Check Icon Outlined: If the folder is mixed with online and offline files
- Green Check Icon Filled: If the file is offline or the whole folder is offline

But, it is showing like this:
- Blue Cloud Icon: If the file/folder is only online or the folder is mixed with online/offline files
- Green Check Icon Outlined: If the folder or file is offline (If I double clicked the file and opened)
- Green Check Icon Filled: If folder or file is offline (If I right clicked on the folder/file and selected the "Make Available Offline" option)

It doesn't make any sense for me the way it is now. The two types of green check icons represent the same Status. I have almost 40TB on my company dropbox. Most of the files will be online any given time. So, I want rapidly see the ones who aren't.

Here's some screens with the problem:

There's only one file online, and the folder is with the Blue Cloud Icon.

I've contacted the support and they are scaling up the problem, but I also wanted to check here if anyone's with the same (frustrating) problem.

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Accepted answers

Cordeirovitor

I did the steps and it worked. This is what they've sent me:

Log out of the Dropbox desktop app.
Log back into the Dropbox desktop app.
Click Open Dropbox.
Make your selections on the onboarding screens.
When the setup is finished, click Advanced settings from the final screen.
Check the Opt out checkbox under Dropbox for Windows updates.

All comments

Hannah

Thanks for your post today, @Cordeirovitor, and welcome to our Community.

We appreciate you posting about your experience with this, I completely understand your frustration.

Generally, this here is the behavior you're supposed to be seeing when it comes to the syncing icons in your Dropbox folder.

That said, using the email address linked to your Community profile, I was able to locate your ticket and I see that it's with our specialists.

Make sure to keep an eye on the email chain for any updates and, of course, I'll leave the thread open for any other users that might be facing the same issue and have some insight for you.

Thanks!

plutogenie

Yes, I'm having exactly the same problem after Dropbox updated to the new Status approach.

Dropbox now appears to be using the Windows 11 (in my case) OneDrive status icons. OneDrive exhibits the same behaviour, where there is no icon representing folders with mixed online/offline files. The Blue Cloud icon on a folder, in OneDrive, means that the folder contains only online files, or it contains a mix of online/offline files.

Now that Dropbox has adopted the OneDrive status icons, Dropbox is now useless to me like OneDrive. There is no method, now, to see which folders contain files/folders with some offline files like there was with the original Dropbox icons. File Explorer offers no way to do this.

Hannah

Hey @plutogenie, thanks for your post about this and for your feedback; I've passed your comments along to our team.

Just to confirm, is the behavior you're seeing on your end, the expected one after the update of the Dropbox app?

If not, can you send us a screenshot of how the icons appear for you?

plutogenie

Hi @Hannah

I think the issue is more about behaviour that Dropbox used to have versus what it has now.

If we consider the following folders and contents as shown below:

All folders now have the Blue Cloud icon. Before the update, Dropbox would have shown a green tick with an outline for the first folder, and also the last folder. The contents of the first folder in the above example looks like:

The third folder looks like the following:

And the subfolder looks like the following:

With the Dropbox behaviour before the update, it was easy to see which folders had any offline files, by making it easy to drill-down as necessary.

But as you can see with the examples above, that is no longer the case. In the first image, there is no way of knowing which folders contain any offline files (or subfolders with offline files) because the icon is exactly the same.

I understand that, since the update, the icons above do conform to the new meaning of the icons at:

https://help.dropbox.com/sync/sync-icons-windows

But the problem is that the Windows/OneDrive meaning of the tick with a green outline (which is what Dropbox now follows) is quite different to the original meaning it had in Dropbox. I assume, unfortunately, that Dropbox no longer has any control over the icons used, or their meaning and behaviour, because this is now in the control of Microsoft, not Dropbox.

In my view, Dropbox's decision to switch to Microsoft's status icons is a step backwards. It means I might as well just use OneDrive now, and no longer use Dropbox. My switch to Dropbox was largely because its status icon approach was different to Microsoft.

What is worse, Dropbox doesn't give users the choice to keep the original status icon approach. The change just happened suddenly, with no warning, and no way to stop the update from occurring. There was no opt-out option.

Megan

Hey @plutogenie, thanks for letting me know more about this!

Your feedback regarding our Dropbox desktop application has been very valuable and I will endeavor to make sure your voice is heard.

We listen to your needs because it allows us to fully appreciate how Dropbox fits into and influences your daily routine. I'll forward your feedback to the appropriate areas so we can continue to improve.

If you need something else, please let me know and I will be more than happy to help every step of the way.

AlexandreCruz

In my case the problem is even worse: I have many folders that I made "available offline" (so full green check filled icon) but some of them just remain with the "cloud" icon even though they are available offline because there is no longer that option in the menu. I went through the folders with the "cloud icon" to check if there was a problem in some file inside a subfolder and in the end all the files in the subfolder with the "cloud icon" had the "full green check icon". So the cloud icon is appearing wrongly in some folders which makes this entire system a bit useless.

Megan

Hey @AlexandreCruz!

Have you tried right clicking on the cloud icon folder, and manually making it available offline?

If this doesn't work, then please try signing out of the app and then back in.

Keep me posted, and we'll take it from there!

AlexandreCruz

Hi Megan.

The folders are available offline, the icon is wrong - when I right click it the option to make it available offline does not appear (unlike other "true" cloud items which are correctly online-only). This happens in some folders without any apparent reason.

I exited the app and entered again and it did not solve the issue.

Cordeirovitor

I just got a message back from the support and the icons are going to be like this, since dropbox updated their windows app using a behavior determined by Microsoft. So, it's a dead end behave like it was on windows explorer. Maybe we can talk to Microsoft about it?💁‍♂️

I've asked the support how to go back to the previous version and when they respond, I'll post the steps here in case someone's having the same problem in the future.

Rich

Cordeirovitor wrote:
I've asked the support how to go back to the previous version and when they respond, I'll post the steps here in case someone's having the same problem in the future.

The ability to opt out of the Dropbox for Windows Update can be found in this help article. Just keep in mind that the update is not optional and you will eventually be forced to update again. Dropbox is rolling it out slowly, but it will eventually be rolled out to everyone.

plutogenie

Those instructions didn't work for me. The option to opt out didn't appear. I think it is because I had already upgraded. It appears you need to do this BEFORE the upgrade. I assume that once the upgrade has occurred, it cannot be reversed?

Cordeirovitor

Thanks. That's good to know.

I've already been thinking to switch to box.com, since they have unlimited storage. This is probably the push from dropbox I was waiting.

Cordeirovitor

I did the steps and it worked. This is what they've sent me:

Log out of the Dropbox desktop app.
Log back into the Dropbox desktop app.
Click Open Dropbox.
Make your selections on the onboarding screens.
When the setup is finished, click Advanced settings from the final screen.
Check the Opt out checkbox under Dropbox for Windows updates.