Hi @sam-e, if you quit the Dropbox app momentarily, and then try to open the file, do you notice different results, or do you get the same error then?

sam-e

still the same thing

closed dropbox, restarted. same thing

closed dropbox, restarted computer, tried again, same thing

same error

Walter

Hey @sam-e, sorry to jump in and thanks for the screenshot.

Could you send us a screenshot of how the files that give this error look on your end so that we can check their syncing icons?

You could also take a look at this Help Center article in the meantime.

sam-e

is this what you mean? pdf .png

Megan

Hey @sam-e, yes this is what Walter meant, and thanks for the screenshot!

It seems the files are available offline. One more thing I'd like for you to try, is to temporarily move an example file out of your Dropbox folder, onto a different path outside of Dropbox, and check if you get the same error then.

sam-e

i copied and paste onto desktop and it worked

i clicked on it in dropbox folder and gave me the same error

thats weird

Walter

Thanks for the clarification @sam-e - much appreciated.

It sounds like the file path of this file might be too long for Adobe to handle - could you check the complete file path and let us know approximately how many characters it counts?

Another thing you could try is making another copy of the file in your Dropbox root folder as the file path would be significantly shorter.

In any case, please keep us posted.

sam-e

can i share the screen shot privately?

sam-e

morning...... see attached... the thread isnt too long

sam-e

morning

some of the files names are like 10 characters, others are very long. but they are all not working. its not simple to follow your suggestion, i have a lot of files in those folders

Megan

Hey @sam-e, keep in mind that it seems your screenshot wasn't attached here. Can you try again?

Also, can you try moving your files out of the folder they're currently in, and have them on the top path of Dropbox?

So if for example the file is in the path: Dropbox/Cats/dogs/files, I would like for you to move it simply to Dropbox, and then try to preview it there.

sam-e

morning

if i move it into another folder, its available and opens ok

so what do i do?

Megan

Your folder structure must be too long @sam-e.

There are files that your applications can't process correctly because they have file paths that are too long. This behavior is present if there are more than 255 characters in the entire file path. This means from the C:\ all the way to the extension of a file.

As an example if you had a test.txt file in your Dropbox that had the following path: C:\Users\YourName\My Documents\Dropbox\test.txt

This file would have a path that is 47 characters long. So, you would need to move the files elsewhere.

The Dropbox desktop application can read and write to locations that are longer than 255 characters, which means that files will sync to and from those locations, however, the applications used to open or save said files (e.g. Word, Notepad, Excel, etc.) might not support reading from or writing to these locations with long file paths and may show error messages when trying to open, save or edit them.

sam-e

i have the same folder thread for another project and the files works there

there is no issue with opening the files

Megan

Hi @sam-e, can you send us a few screenshots from the file path that you get an error on, and the other file path on the project you don't get an error?

When I say file path, I'd like to see the path they have inside the Dropbox folder. For instance if the file is in Dropbox/User/CATS/DOGS/ANIMALS.