Smart Sync causes my quick preview function (spacebar) to not function properly on my Mac. I can't preview thumbnails, or quick preview any videos or photos. Any ideas why this happens?
Likely because you're trying to preview a file that doesn't exist on your computer.
When you set a file to Online Only, the only thing that's left of that file on your computer is the necessary information to make it appear in the folder. Since there's no content in the file, your OS (nor any other program) is able to preview it.
Remember, when you set a file to Online Only, the file is removed from the computer leaving behind only a marker file. In order to access that file, whether it be to open and edit it or simply preview it, the file needs to be on the computer (Smart Sync doesn't allow you to open files directly from the Dropbox servers). When you open a file, it's synced back to your local drive and then opened as normal. When you're done with the file, if you want it to be online-only again, you need to mark it as such.
Thanks for checking in with us on the Dropbox Community (@Andrewbond)! Following your post here, I’ve sent you a brief message on the email connected to your Forum profile (as I’ll need to have direct access to your account specifics to further address this issue). You may have a look at your inbox at your earliest convenience if you’d like us to work on that together. Thanks again Andrew; looking forward to hearing back from you!
I have emailed support back. When will this be fixed
Hi everyone. I recieved an email from Dropbox support after emailing back and forth for a few days. I had to press them for a straight answer, after continued vague answers.
In the end, it seems they are well aware of the issue, but haven't found a good solution yet. I'm assuming there are lots of pieces involved, including with MacOS.
It doesn't upset me so much that Dropbox has a bug. What is frustrating is that they don't come out and say it directly on this forum so that we don't have to waste our time emailing and explaining something that they already know about.
If you want to email with Dropbox support to help them resolve this issue, by all means do so. But there shouldn't be any need for extensive explanations and screensharing.
Thanks for pinging me back here Andrew (@Andrewbond)! I’ve made sure to get back in touch with you a couple hours ago; please have a look at your inbox whenever you have a bit of spare time & we’ll take it from there!
When it comes to your inquiry @Ckrupinsky, would it be okay if I reached out to you via email directly, in order to look into that together?
To respond in case anyone else is having the same problem as me: since using Smart Sync, I'm also finding that the quick preview function is also being disabled for files that are downloaded to my local drive, and also for files that are on my local drive and NOT saved on DropBox. Any ideas what's the issue?
Hey there (@SDRoberts), I’m following-up on all the reports posted here & just so as to determine where the issue lies for the behavior you're describing, I’ve sent you a brief message on the email connected to your Forum profile (gathering all the details you’ve included on this discussion). Please have a look at your inbox whenever you have a bit of spare time if you’d like us to work on that together. Thanks in advance!
I don't think this solves anything. It just explains why Dropbox isn't working WITH AppleOS anymore.
I've been using both DP & Apple together for a decade. I never used to have this issue with the Previewing of files on a Cloud.
While I now understand what is causing the Preview to stop working I fail to understand how it's my problem. If DP can't fix I'll just move to a different product or build a server.
DP need to understand that they are messing up the workflow for it's users. Fix it or don't. That's fine. But don't claim that it's been fixed when it really hasn't. That is just a lie and will cause loss of faith from your paying (Premium) customers and a devaluation of your brand.
Well, here we are at the end of June. A whole year since this problem was originaly reported and it's still an issue. This is absolutely pathetic. If I didnt already have so much backed up on your servers I would be bailing out right now and going somewhere else.
1) Stop lying, this is not a "solved" issue. Unmark it as such. If you cant, then you should definitely develop that capability to prevent false advertising.
2) After enabling smart sync as part of your upgrade I immediatley lost ability to quick look at files. Additionally, my mac's backup jumped from a typical 1-1.5GB backup to a whopping 576GB backup. WTF!?
3) After numerous reboots, qlmanage-r terminal commands, uninstalls and anything else you could imagine I couldnt get quicklook back.
4) I finally was able to disable smart sync (which was a pain in the ass to find). After a reboot, quicklook is back. Thanks to absolutley no help from Bret, the support individual I spoke to on chat online. Through his bad english I could see he had zero comprehension on how my mac worked, so how am I supposed to get support from someone who has no idea how my computer runs to begin with? He also had no idea how to solve the issue and eventually, once he understood my issue, practically just said "just email us" WITH NO HELP WHATSOEVER.
You guys are pathetic. I'm sorry, but no bug should take a year to be resolved, and even then customer support shouldnt be clueless about the issue after it's been around for a whole year. So now my plan (which they just raised the price of) includes smart sync, which disables a more important feaure on my mac so I cant even use it. Awesome! I always loved paying for features I can't use!
I find this answer from Jane, so annoying, "how you determined that this was attributed to Dropbox & what were the steps you followed along the way" it's been said here, again and again.
1. The Problem didn't exist before smart sync, once I activated the feature this issue started happening.
2. The Problem dissapeared once I disabled smart sync, have been using dropbox since then, just not the "smart sync" function.
There's a lot of "relevant information and details" in this thread 14 pages of details. The support interaction has had nothing of support about it. It's been you guys saying this is a problem with the OS, not caused by smart sync, not related to dropbox at all. We are annoyed and uncool about this situation because it has been handled poorly to say the least.
@Jane Your response is insulting.
How have you NOT attributed this to dropbox yet? There are dozens of posts around the internet of people not having this issue until enabling smart sync. I made absolutley 0 changes to my system except enabling smart sync and then the probelm started. How in the world could you possibly push that off as anything else? And then it is furter confirmed after I disabled smart sync that the problem went away. Stop blaming something else and just accept the fact you guys screwed up, and have been screwing around on this issue for the past year. I've got degrees in computer engineering, electrical engineering, and computer science. I have a better understanding of how software and technology works probably better than most of your support team. So dont talk to me like I dont know what the hell I'm referring to or like I dont know how to troubleshoot and diagnose an issue.
I also have absolutely zero confidence in your colleague. He responded to me saying the same exact thing you said a year ago on this forum, "However for the time been I am afraid that you will need to make the files local to be able to preview". HE DOESNT UNDERSTAND MY ISSUE EVEN AFTER I CLEARLY EXPLAINED TO HIM THIS WAS ON EVERY FILE ON MY COMPUTER EVEN OUTSIDE OF DROPBOX! He also doesn't understand how a Mac system works since he had zero idea what I meant by quicklook and preview. I dont want him working my case anymore, move me to someone else who actually knows how a mac works.
Jane has to be a bot. It's just the same gaslighting in every single post, and it boils down to what tech support has been telling customers they don't care about for decades: hmm, dunno, must be your other software/your hardware/your stupidity. Not our fault! Thanks for the money, sucker!I "solved" this problem by quitting Dropbox and going back to relying on my Mac hard drive with physical and cloud backups, and archiving old files onto a NAS server which also gets a cloud backup.Dropbox hasn't gotten a penny from me in more than a year (this issue is actually several years old). It's very clear to me that Dropbox's leadership has actually decided they just don't care about losing Mac customers because there aren't enough of us and sorting out why their product doesn't work for us isn't cost-effective. So they just send this bot in to perform "tech support theater" in which somehow we can never quite give "her" enough information to convince "her" it's anything Dropbox should bother looking into.I don't pay to be treated that way. And Dropbox obviously didn't care that I left.
Just to reiterate what I said in a previous post. Dropbox is well aware of exactly what the problem is. There is no need to waste your time emailing back and forth or screensharing to describe the problem.
That said, they actually do have a solution. Not a very great one (which is probably why they don't roll it out to all users.) But after emailing back and forth with them and explaining my problem and calling out their insincerity, I noticed that the problem was suddenly solved on my account and that of my coworker's. Our dropbox will now show previews for images even when they are in the cloud only.
The problem is, it doesn't perform very well. It takes a really long time to download a lower resolution image and desplay the preview. But it does work. More importantly, it no longer disables quick look for the rest of my files that ARE downloaded.
My guess is that this isn't a solution they can send out to everyone, for some reason or another. But it does seem that if you give them enough greif, they might enable this feature on your account.
Take a look at this screenshot to see exactly how this works.
Thanks for circling back to me on this matter @sam011989 as I can see that your open ticket has now reached our specialized colleague’s inbox & you’re discussing your options there, then it would be best to further enquire on that correspondence on any progress. Thanks again for taking the time to work on that with our team!
I have hit and miss performance with previewing cloud files in Finder. It looks like it works alright in the new Dropbox App. I'm guessing that is what the official solution will be to this problem.
I need an answer to this.
Hi all!
If this is not too much to ask, could all the affected users log a ticket with our team providing all the relevant information so we can assist further (while being able to drill into your account specifics)?
Thank you all for your cooperation and patience on this matter.
PS: You can submit a ticket through this page directly:
https://www.dropbox.com/support
I am having the same problem in august 2020
Hi @jgalindo; thanks for joining our Community and thanks for using Dropbox!
Just to make sure we're on the same page, can you please let us know some additional information so we can advise further?
Are the files that are showing this behavior set to be 'Online Only' via the Smart Sync feature perhaps? Do the previews come back when you right (or control) click on them and set them to be 'Local' again?
Any additional information will be much appreciated.
Hi, no they are not set to online, they are normal, thats why I dont understand why.
Thanks for getting back to us, @jgalindo.
Could you send us a screenshot (without any personal info) of exactly what the files look like from your end?
Looking forward to hearing back from you!
