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After update and "migration" no longer can find offline files.

I have quite a few ofline files. Mostly chaptered audio books, in mp3 format. My audio book player needs to know where they are. The built in player is not good for audio books, it lacks many features. It was working yesterday but after the Dropbox update I received they are gone, or moved from the previous location. They have green checks in Dropbox as offline, though it was frustrating to watch my data as it downloaded all these offline files again. Regardless they say they are available offline, but I can't find them in any search. The only thing I was able to do to continue listening to my current audio book was, export the files one by one... 3 clicks for each file, times 45 files in this one book... Not happy about this update to say the least. Can you tell me where the files are, or is there an easier way to export a whole folder?

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Android

Accepted answers

Jay

Hi @tashrobinson, thanks for posting on the Community!

Were you accessing the offline files via the Dropbox mobile app directly, or via another method with a third party app?

If you were accessing the direct file location in the Android system, then this isn't something that Dropbox would support.

To export multiple files from the Dropbox mobile app at the same time, tap the checkbox on the top right, select the files you want exported, tap the ellipsis on the top right, and finally 'Save to device'.

Hope this helps!

All comments

Jay

Hi @tashrobinson, thanks for posting on the Community!

Were you accessing the offline files via the Dropbox mobile app directly, or via another method with a third party app?

If you were accessing the direct file location in the Android system, then this isn't something that Dropbox would support.

Hope this helps!

tashrobinson

Before the update the offline files were accessible in the file system. My audio book player found them so I could listen to them.

The audio player support in the dropbox app is abysmal, so no i was not playing them through the dropbox application.

You dont support this? Can you explain what "offline" files means then? Is it actually saving them to the device or not?

Thanks for the tip on exporting multiple files, I don't know how I had missed that one.

Jay

Offline files are files downloaded in the Dropbox mobile app, and then saved in the file system to be used in the Dropbox app.

While they are stored in the file system on the phone, this location can be changed or removed with updates, so it isn't recommended to use third party apps to directly locate files in the file system. We always recommend using the Dropbox mobile app to access and open the offline files.

Glad to hear you were able to export multiple files!

tashrobinson

Thank you for your reply.

As I mentioned, using the dropbox mobile app to access audiobooks does not work well. For example if I select a mp3 file, the applications I can select to open the file with do not include the audiobook player application which is my preferred player. This is a comon problem with many file types, I'm not sure why it doesnt always allow me to pick my desired application. Even if I pick a different application, it will only play the one single file, then I have to go back to Dropbox and pick the next file and so on. For audio, the desired behavior would be to continue playing files in that folder. This is why I said the audio player support in dropbox is abysmal, it is very unusual anyone would want to pick audio files one by one to listen to.

It's ok to me if updates move the location, but could you tell me what the current location of the offline files is? I was unable to find these stored on my local device with any search.

Thanks for your help.

Jay

If the files can't be located, then they might be in a private, system-only folder that can't be accessed by others apps.

If this is the case, then it would no longer be accessible by the file manager or other apps directly.

tashrobinson

Thanks for your answer.

If this is the new strategy for offline files, I hope you will give my feedback to your team and make these files actually useable, in a user friendly way, from within the Dropbox application. Exporting them is not so bad now that I know how, but then I see no point for "offline" files that are not accessible.

Thanks again.

Jay

Thanks for your patience. I've confirmed with the team that this is the expected behavior as a result of a recent change.

We appreciate your feedback on this matter. If you wish, you can suggest this to be changed back for others to vote on, so the dev team can look into this in future.

theojk1

Since last update of dropbox client (218.2.2) on my android (Samsung S10+) the local folder with the offline files are missing.

The data directory under "Android/Data/com.dropbox.android" where the cached files and the scratch folder was located is now empty. When I try to open a textfile in the offline-list in the dropbox app. it starts to download it (even if it was marked as offline use) and then open the text editor with a crypted file name e.g: "content://com.dropbox.android.FileCache/filecache/4d31e0b8-0669-....... and much more numbers. The original filename is not even part of this cryptic name.

For me it was important to access the offline files directly to open and modify locally. Now this ist not possible anymmore, as im not able to find the offline files at all

Daphne

Thanks for posting @theojk1!

Please take a look at the info here, since you have a similar question to the OP.

Give us a shout if you have any questions!

Boyan M.

Why would you make the offline files inaccessible through a file browser?! It is beyond me to understand why can't I make my music folder accessible offline and point my music player to that specific folder. It used to be possible, but you deliberately removed that option. Why?

Jay

Hi @Boyan M., thanks for posting today, I've merged you to this post with similar queries.

The offline file feature only allowed files to be accessed from within the Dropbox mobile app, and not via the file manager.

If this was possible via an Android device, then this was unintended, and the app has been since been updated as such.

As you're interested in this, you could post an idea here for others to vote on, in order for the dev team to look into the option in future!