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PDF preview using Windows EXplorer

This is for my work account. We use smart sync at work.

Using Windows Explorer if I open a folder I have never been to and there are PDFs present. I will then click on said PDF. A preview pops up in the preview pane within windows explorer. However, once i click on another file, if I click back on the initial PDF the preview pane remains empty. The previews do not come back by restarting windows explorer, or pdf, or PC. The only way for me to get them back is to open and save the document, which is not an option.

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Lusil

Hi @MarcASI, thanks for reaching out to us.

Could you send me a screenshot (without any personal information) of what you're seeing, so that I can have a better visual understanding of this?

Could you also let me know if this .pdf file is Smart Synced as online-only or local, when you try to preview it?

Looking forward to hearing back from you!

MarcASI

If i click to preview an item that is not synced It will show a preview of the PDF. if i then click somewhere else, that file becomes synced. if i click a synced file i get no preview. image below file ending in 00001 is a file i have previewed before, 00002 is a file i have not previewed before. The 00002 does show a preview, for now. as soon as i click elsewhere and click back that preview is gone, and it will sync for me automatically.

Fusion_Tech

I can confirm I've seen the same issue on two separate machines the past week.

All files are online-only and when I click one, it previews normally. It downloads the file and changes the file to a green tick (locally stored, selective sync). After the file has been stored locally with the green tick, it will no longer be previewable. The preview pane is blank. If I copy-paste it to a different folder however (documents, downloads, etc), it previews fine.

The only workaround I've found is to right-click the file/folder, select Smart Sync and change it back to an online-only file. This however only works once as once you click it again it will download itself again and store it locally, cycling the problem.
Is there anything else we can try here?

Jay

Hi there, could you try reinstalling the Dropbox desktop application to see if this helps? Is your Windows device fully updated on all security patches and so on?

MarcASI

All patches installed. Tried reinstalling dropbox. No affect.

Jay

Does this behavior only occur in the Dropbox folder, or on any other folder on your machine?

MarcASI

It only occurs for dropbox folders. I can copy a file that is either unsynced or synced and not showing a preview. And paste it in another non-dropbox folder. In the new folder the preview will show in either case.

Lusil

Thanks for confirming that for us, @MarcASI.

Could you also try the following steps in the exact order listed? Maybe they will do the trick.

Go to the Dropbox icon in your system tray.
Select the avatar icon on the top right corner of your Notifications panel.
Choose Preferences...
Navigate to the Account tab.
Click anywhere in the window under the tab.
Hold down the 'Alt+H' keys.
Click on the Fix Hardlinks button.

If you're asked for your computer's login credentials, enter them, and then wait a bit to see if Dropbox resumes syncing.

If you don't see any improvement in behavior, try the same steps again, but this time, click on the Fix Permissions button.

Let us know how it goes, cheers!

MarcASI

So not only did this solution not work. It made things worse for a day.

It no longer shows the icons for what is synced and what is not synced which was very useful. I have been using smart sync and liked those icons. No previews for any file. It seems to have reverted back after about 24 hours.

ff49kids

I have same issue, When I have a PDF file in the cloud and I click on it, it show a perview in explore and at the same time, downloads the file to my computer. Once file is download, there is no longer a preview for the file. I check the process is non dropbox folders and there is a a perview. Only in dropbox folder once file downloads is there no preview.

MarcASI

An idea that would not fix this issue, but at least make it less of an issue would be if dropbox didn't download files just because they were previewed. Because if I do open a file, and then save it, the preview works. Again not a complete fix, but solves the issue 90% of the time.

Nthreads

It looks like this thread began back in Sept 2020 with no resolution. I have many computers using dropbox at work. Only one new computer has this issue exactly as described earlier in this thread. Once a file has previewed one time it can't be previewed a second time. I can look at files stored in OneDrive and .pdf files preview just fine. This issue makes my workflow tedious, I need a fix for this. Did anyone come up with a solution?

MarcASI

Unfortunately no.

I have a terrible workaround. It works, but your not going to like it @Nthreads .

If it's a folder i rarely access, I exit the folder. Select it and click online only, then go back in and have my 1 time previews.

If it's a folder with fles i absolutly need on my system at all times, or access regularly. So first set the folder to online only so it removes all files, then set it to local. If it downloads the file before you preview it, the preview will work repeatedily.

It only breaks when you preview a file that does not exist on your PC, and then you preview it. It will be forever broken until you make it online only or save it.

Nthreads

@marcasi, thank you for the update. Hopefully, they will fix it soon!

bblaney

Same!!! Help!!!

Daphne

Thanks for all your updates here everyone!

Just to confirm, if you make an online only file local through the right click menu (right click > Smart Sync > Local), does the thumbnail show correctly?

Is it only while opening an online only file by double clicking it, or by opening directly from another app, that you no longer see the thumbnail when the file becomes local?

Keep me posted - cheers!

AmyD

I'm still having the same problem based on all of the feedback suggested ine conversation so far

As you can see I have the preview pane option on, but when I single click on the file, nothing shows up in the preview pane for PDF's and Excel files. Please help!!

AnOVa

This is a huge inconvenience for me as well. I have a large number of work files for which it is necessary to use smart sync. After previewing once, the file syncs locally and is forevermore unable to be previewed. ETA on a fix??

gnomedog

I have been grappling with this exact issue ever since I set up a new laptop and installed Dropbox. Searched everywhere on the web, and this finally worked! I hope this helps someone else. The key to this is actually SIGING OUT of Dropbox. I did this by right clicking on the Dropbox icon in the taskbar, selecting the circle with my initials at the top right, clicking on "preferences", then selecting the "account" option at the top. Then you will see the little box that says "sign out" next to your account name. Then I uninstalled Dropbox and reinstalled it, and signed in during the setup process. BTW, I have everything now set to download locally. I don't know if that makes a difference, but it worked! Good luck.

kilip353

I have the same problem on Windows 10 using SmartSync.
I have a lot of big PDFs stored in my DropBox.
As long as the PDFs are in the cloud (grey round icon with the white cloud) I can see PDF previews.
When I open a PDF file, it get's downloaded, and it just shows the Adobe Reader Icon. No more Preview.
So after opening a file it gets downloaded on my computer (green round icon with white chechmark.)
In Adobe Reader I activated the option for PDF previews in Windows Explorer.

This works for files that are not in my Dropbox.
This bug is really annoying, because I need to browse a lot of folders with huge PDF files
Opening them to see their content takes very long.
It would be nice if Dropbox could preview .tif image files.

alexweefs

I can confirm I've seen the same issue on two separate machines the past week.

All files are online-only and when I click one, it previews normally.

It downloads the file and changes the file to a green tick (locally stored, selective sync).

After the file has been stored locally with the green tick, it will no longer be previewable.

The preview pane is blank.

If I copy-paste it to a different folder however (documents, downloads, etc), it previews fine.

The only workaround I've found is to right-click the file/folder, select Smart Sync and change it back to an online-only file.

This however only works once as once you click it again it will download itself again and store it locally, cycling the problem.

Is there anything else we can try here?

____________________________

Dean's Tank Inc.

darcyloewen

I use Nitro PDF Reader as my default PDF viewer/editor. It took quite a bit of communication with Nitro's support team to fix this issue and it's still not perfect, but pdf previews do work for me most of the time now. If I find it's suddenly not working, I simply close and re-open the Windows Explorer window. It would still be great if this issue could be solved so that previews work reliably, but I'm not sure if it's a Dropbox software bug or a pdf viewer software issue.

FWIW, I'm using Nitro Pro 13.42.3.855.

Lin-at-work

I've experienced this same problem and it is very annoying: I use the preview a lot to quickly find documents I need (naming conventions are not a thing where I currently work).

The workaround suggested by MarcASI works: first set the folder to Online only to remove all local copies of the files. Then change SmartSync to Local to download all documents. Preview now works as intended, not just the first time or only on files that I have saved myself. Marc, you were a lifesaver, thank you!

Taking troubleshooting one step further: my current thoughts. When you request a preview of an online document, the file gets downloaded to a (temporary?) location. The preview shows fine. Then when you click away from that file, something happens that makes the Explorer preview not able to find the file a second time. I'm thinking that maybe the file is removed from the temporary download location once you click away and the preview process is stopped for that particular file. Then when you open it a second time, the preview process cannot find the file in that temporary location. Preview: "That's odd, I was sure it was here the last time I looked!"

Or maybe when the preview process is called again for a file that has a Smart Sync marker "Local", it starts looking in the normal local location where it can't find the file until it has been 'properly' downloaded or saved by the user. Preview: "That's odd, it says it's a local file but there's nothing there to show!"

user2891

I also have this issue. Please fix this ASAP. It is enough of a problem that I will switch to Microsoft OneDrive soon, assuming this problem does not happen with its service.

Larry S.6

Agree with the last post. Fix the issue, or we are gone, too...

CouruDavance

Agree with last post. It doesn't work today again !