Dropbox files not showing in Finder on MacBook Air

Question

I just purchased a new MacBook Air and am having problems accessing Dropbox. I have downloaded the Dropbox app, but my Dropbox files will not open in Finder as they do on my Mac. I can only access my Dropbox files by:

(1) opening the Dropbox app in the tool bar,

(2) clicking on the Dropbox icon in the app and selecting 'View on Dropbox.com',

(3) clicking on my initials and selecting 'Sign out',

(4) then signing back into Dropbox.

It would be much easier just to view my Dropbox files in Finder as I do on my Mac. Not sure what I'm doing wrong? Any suggestions welcome.

Hannah · Answer

Hey @MartyG2, sorry to jump in here.

It seems you have posted here from two different Community profiles, @MartyG1 and @MartyG2.

That means you have two different Dropbox accounts linked to those profiles.

This leads me to think that you might be logging in to a different account online, than the one you have linked to the Dropbox application.

Check your account settings here; do you see the same email address there as the one you see when you click on the Dropbox icon in your menu bar, then on your initials/profile pic, then on "preferences" and then on "account"?

MartyG2 · Answer

Hi Nancy

Thank you for your help with this. The first screenshot below shows the Finder / Dropbox page on my Macbook Air.

The second screenshot shows the screen which appears when I click on the 'www.dropbox.com' on the above page. The Dropbox page shown below seems to assume that I don't already have a Dropbox account, and asks me to open and pay for a new account.

I can sign out of the above page by clicking on the 'MG' in the top right hand corner, and it gives me an option to 'sign out'. When I sign out,  the following screen appears:

I can then log into my Dropbox account via that screen, but when I log in, the following screen appears:

The above screen does show my Dropbox files, but it does not let me amend Word documents using my Microsoft Word subscription, it only lets me use  'Word for Web'. It is far more clunky and less user-friendly than the process for using Dropbox on my Mac.

Perhaps i need to uninstall and then reinstall Dropbox, although i have already done this a couple of times and the same thing happens.

Unfortunately I don't know the syncing status or Dropbox version, they don't appear when I hover over the Dropbox icon in the menu bar on my Macbook Air.

This is all very frustrating. Any suggestions to solve the problem would be gratefully received. Thanks again for your help with this.

Kind regards,

Martin Garrett

Nancy · Answer

Welcome aboard the Community, @MartyG1!

Is it possible to send me a screenshot of what you see exactly on your end? It'd be much easier to further help with a visual, to be honest.

Also, can you let me know the syncing status and app version of your Dropbox app on the MacBook Air? You can see both by hovering over the small Dropbox icon in your menu bar.

Don't forget to ping me, when you've got more updates.