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Lost Dropbox Quick Actions on Mac - "Make Available Offline", etc

Hello,

I'm on a MacBook Pro which is running the operating system, Sonoma 14.4

Starting a couple of weeks ago, I suddenly lost the ability to access the Dropbox desktop app "Quick Actions". I used to be able to select a file within the Dropbox app, right-click the asset(s) and have a variety of options made available. For example, here are some screen captures:

Before:

After:

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app but have had no luck getting those options to appear again. I am currently on the Dropbox app version 194.4.6267

However, I am able to do a workaround and drag the file(s) to my actual desktop, thus forcing the sync. Then when I'm finished with the asset, I put it back into the Dropbox app and use the Dropbox icon available on the taskbar at the top of my screen to "manage hard drive space" and make the assets "online only" again.

Is this a compatibility issue between Dropbox and Sonoma? Colleagues of mine still on Ventura are not experiencing this issue and still have the quick actions available to them within the app.

Please let me know your thoughts - thank you!

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Accepted answers

Jay

Thanks for the information. I'd recommend checking with the support team directly for them to investigate this matter in more detail on their end.

All comments

Walter

Hi there @eweberGA - sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

Could you please send us a screenshot of the app's exact status as shown in your menu bar and a full page screenshot of the files you're noticing this on to check their syncing icons etc?

Also, what is your Dropbox folder's location as per the Sync tab in the app's preferences?

Let us know what you find and we'll take it from there.

eweberGA

Hi there,

Thanks for getting back to me! Here is a screencap of the Dropbox app in my menu bar as it appears at the top of my screen. I had to black out the file names as I work with a company's assets and want to keep the file names private:

Screenshot 2024-03-11 at 1.25.59 PM.png

The app still functions when I drag the files to my desktop - it will still sync them, but I'm manually dragging them out of the app onto my desktop, "forcing" it to sync the files.

Here is a screencap of a folder on the Dropbox containing files that I'm normally able to sync to my machine - you will see there are no icons indicating the cloud status or the green check. Right clicking any of these just gives me normal Mac "Quick Actions" no official Dropbox options. I also had to black out some information here as well to keep the properties private. All of the folders within this Dropbox are behaving the same way.

Screenshot 2024-03-11 at 1.46.01 PM.png

And finally, here's the screencap of my app's preferences and the Dropbox folder location:

Screenshot 2024-03-11 at 1.26.45 PM.jpg

Does the location need to be changed to something else?

Hope these screencaps help, let me know if you need more info. Is it possible to share additional information in a more private discussion forum or via email?

Thank again!

xample

also having the same issue! Files are not showing a green tick either so not sure which files are online and offline

Mark

Which version of Dropbox are you guys using?

Does a reinstall work?

www.dropbox.com/downloading

eweberGA

Hello, unfortunately reinstalling didn't help. We tried it a couple of times and no luck.

xample

Same, reinstall didnt work. Also signed out and back into my account, this has made the problem worse and now non of my files are syncing on my computer, they are all online only even though ive selected certain folders to sync and i cant seem to get them to be available offline!

xample

ive just gone into preferenced, sync and changed the location to my user folder and this has solved the issue. I can now right click again.

eweberGA

My work around for this has been to literally drag the files themselves directly from the Dropbox app to my desktop - this forces the files to "sync" to my computer and from there I can review the files, rename, etc.

Then once I'm finished with the files, I drag the files BACK into the Dropbox and by clicking into the Dropbox icon at the top of the screen...

Screenshot 2024-03-11 at 4.44.25 PM.png

...I access my preferences dropdown here...

Screenshot 2024-03-11 at 4.39.36 PM.png

...and access Manage Hard Drive Space. From there, I select the files that are "synced" to my computer and click "Move to Online Only"

Screenshot 2024-03-11 at 4.40.24 PM.png

Megan

Hey there, @xample! Glad to see that you managed to solve this on your end, great news!

Also, amazing job on the screenshots @eweberGA!

Can you also try these steps, and let me know how they turn out for you?

eweberGA

Hi Megan,

I tried the steps listed for Extensions, but I didn't have a "Dropbox Finder Integration" option available - when I found the Extensions section, I only saw the following:

Screenshot 2024-03-11 at 8.02.07 PM.png

I attempted unchecking each box then refreshing the Finder but the Dropbox App options still haven't appeared.

Megan

Hey @eweberGA, can you also follow the steps shown here, perhaps?

eweberGA

Hello, thanks again for your help with all of this. No luck on the force quit either -

Screenshot 2024-03-12 at 8.21.33 AM.png

What's odd is the Finder doesn't recognize that Dropbox is even "open" as an application despite the fact that I am actually IN the Dropbox and able to access folders, etc. Again, I've blacked out folder names, etc. to keep the privacy of the materials.

Jay

Hi @eweberGA, the icon in the dock isn't the Dropbox desktop application.

You should see the real app visible in the menu bar at the top of the screen. Is the app running and syncing there?

eweberGA

Hi Jay,

Yep, the app is actually running on my machine - here's the top bar and what it looks like opened up:

Screenshot 2024-03-12 at 10.38.34 AM.png

Screenshot 2024-03-12 at 10.33.50 AM.png

I am able to actually work on files via a workaround where I manually drag the files I want to review on to my desktop. Then when I'm finished, I manually drag them BACK onto the Dropbox again and by using the toolbar up top, I will select Manage Hard Drive Space and push them back to online.

The initial problem is that I'm not able to sync them to my machine like I used to a couple of weeks ago - where by right-clicking an asset on the Dropbox, I would see these options available:

I am not seeing these official Dropbox actions anymore:

I'm currently on Sonoma OS and my colleagues on Ventura are not experiencing this issue and are able to see those Dropbox actions still.

Jay

Thanks for the information. I'd recommend checking with the support team directly for them to investigate this matter in more detail on their end.

COH1

I'm experiencing similar issues and have been told to install the DB for MacOS File Provider. I found it very disconcerting to see my folders disappear from my Mac! I had a particular structure for projects (on my desktop) v records (in my documents folder) which no longer seems available to me. Everything is still somewhere and findable but I am not able to replace the file structure on my hard drive as I would like it. I have paused before the install to see if anyone has taken this action and found it works OK. Reading some of the articles I see that the default location for the dropbox folder in this new system changed when you do this:

Your Dropbox folder will be moved to ~/Library/CloudStorage.

How, therefore, do I get the structure back on to my local drive?

P.I. H.

I have a similar problem on Win11: the menu not being available.
The workaround appeared to be to change the screen resolution and the font scaling(!).
Only then the menu needed to choose which folders get synced became accessible.
It's not a "solution" at all...