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No thumbnail previews for Sketchup (.skp) files unless Offline

I have Dropbox 189.4 & Windows 11 23H2, and have noticed that for 'Online Only' Sketchup files, I can no longer see thumbnails of file contents when browsing Dropbox folders with File Explorer. As soon as I make a file or folder available offline, all the thumbnails appear. Similarly, if I change a file to Online Only, it's thumbnail disappears in the folder view.

Even having the file selected for some time in File Explorer, and the Preview Pane visible, the thumbnail does not appear.

Is there some way to fix this? It used to work fine, unfortunately I am not sure exactly when it broke, so have no idea what change caused it.

thanks

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Nancy

Welcome back to the Community, @keithswd!

Can you let me know what’s the current app version that your Dropbox app’s running, as well as its syncing status?

Also, I’d like you to send me a screenshot of what you see on your end, so that we can have a visual.

Finally, just to clarify, is this only happening with this specific type of files? If you make another type of file online-only, can you still see the thumbnails properly?

Keep me updated.

keithswd

Hi Nancy,

The version is 189.4 as mentioned (189.4.8395 to be really precise!). Sync status is 'Up to Date'.

Here is a screenshot of a folder in File Explorer which contains a set of Sketchup components, currently set as Online-Only and with one file selected, no thumbnails or preview:

Screenshot 2023-12-21 184338.png

Here is the same folder after making the first two rows of files 'Available Offline':

Screenshot 2023-12-21 185243.png

This is a similar component library folder, but in image formats (png, psd, jpg etc) rather than Sketchup. Here all the thumbnails show (after a bit of a time lag) even though the folder is Online-Only:

Screenshot 2023-12-21 184914.png

I hope that demonstrates the issue clearly.

Thank you.

Jay

Hi @keithswd, just to clarify that I understand, if a file is online-only, you don't have a thumbnail of the file, but if it's local, then you do, is that correct?

keithswd

Yes correct, that is the current behaviour for this file type.

Jay

This would be expected behavior for online-only files, since there is no local copy of the image to be cached for there to be a thumbnail.

When the file is local, then Windows can create a thumbnail.

keithswd

That's disappointing as it really slows down identification of files when browsing for a model to insert into a scene in Sketchup. What is different between image files that show thumbnails even when online only and Sketchup files which do not? Is the culprit Sketchup, Windows or Dropbox?

thank you

Hannah

Hey @keithswd, sorry for the delay here and happy new year!

I would have to agree with Jay in this.

Since this happens only with this specific file type, it would be simply due to not being able to pull/generate a preview through Dropbox, when the file is online-only.

We appreciate your feedback, though, and I'll happily pass it along to our team.