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All local files have gone online-only after updating my Mac; I can't make them offline again.

Hey,

I recently updated my Mac to Sequoia 15.3.1 (lates available to me), and now I notice that all the files in my dropbox drive are online only. Most used to be locally available.

When I click on the the little cloud icon it transforms into a clock, but then nothing happens. There is no progress and they don't download.

The files are still available through the web-browser, so nothing has been lost, but I can't understand why everything that was locally saved is now online only, and why I can't download them.

Any thoughts appreciated.

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Nancy

Thanks for letting us know about this here, @compost!

Besides updating the OS of your computer, did you also update your desktop app to Dropbox for macOS on File Provider?

As for your online-only files, if you right-click on them instead and select the “Make available offline” option, are you still unable to sync them locally?

If you are, I’d like a screenshot of what you’re seeing exactly to have a visual and further assist.

Let me know how it goes.

compost

Thanks Nancy,

I'm not sure if I have updated the app. I tend to just update anything whenever I'm told to. How would I know?

I'm able to open individual files now - I wasn't before for some reason. But if I try to make folders available offline - by right clicking and selecting 'make available offline' nothing seems to happen. The cloud icon doesn't go away. Files within the folder are still online only. I can't see any change.

I'll attach screenshots so you can see what I'm seeing.

By my guess it's removed about 350gb from my local drive! I was probably due for a clean up anyway.

compost

screenshots:

Nancy

Thanks for these screenshots! They’re much appreciated.

What if you open one of your folders instead, select all the files inside, right-click on them and select the “Make available offline” option? Are they still not being downloaded to your device?

As for checking whether your Dropbox app has been updated to File Provider, you can open your Dropbox app preferences and go to your Sync tab there (please send me one more screenshot of the Dropbox folder’s location you’ll see).

compost

Hi Nancy,

When I click on the files within the folders, either individually or in groups, and then right click and 'make available offline' nothing seems to happen.

Right now I can not open the fil

es either. I am having to download the files I'm working on through the web-app, which is tedious.

Through the sync tab it looks like I am using File Provider. Screenshot attached. (Note when I was first trying to figure out what was going on, the default sync for new files was set to online only. I changed it to see if that fixed it. It didn't.

any thoughts appreciated.

Tom

compost

When i double click on a file, or click the cloud icon to download, the clock appears, but then nothing happens.

compost

Also, I don't know if this is related, but for the files that I have recently created and added to my folders, I can not open them by double-clicking on them. For Word docs, When I double-click it makes Word active but then nothing happens. I have to open them by going File/Open... and then finding the file I want. This works.

compost

This is not consistent though. Some files open

Megan

Hey @compost, let me jump in here too!

Could you confirm the version of the Dropbox desktop application you're running? You can do this by hovering your mouse over the Dropbox icon in the menu bar. Also, when you click the icon in the menu bar, what message appears on the bottom left?

Could you try uninstalling, and then reinstalling the app? Afterwards, reboot the device in its entirety and let me know how it goes.

Keep in mind that in some cases a folder can have both a green circle with a white checkmark and a cloud icon beside it. This means that the folder contains at least one online-only file, but any newly added files will become available offline by default.

compost

Hi Megan,

I'm using dropbox version 218.4.4348.

The message in the bottom left... do you mean 'Syncing'? It never seems to finish syncing.

compost

I restarted the computer. If i click on the cloud icon it now goes to the clock and then downloads successfully.

However, right-click "make available offline" still seems to do nothing.

compost

I have uninstalled and reinstalled Dropbox.

Files seem to be downloading ok, but in the app, in the bottom left, it says, "reconnecting to connect to the internet." It's been like that for about an hour now.

compost

Saving files seems to sync with the cloud. That is, Dropbox seems to be working. It just looks like it isn't.

Jay

Hi @compost, do you have any proxy, VPN, firewall, security software, or even ISP/router settings that could be restricting traffic to the following Dropbox domains?

compost

Hi Jay,
I don't think so. I recently started using Brave as my default browser, but can't imagine that would change anything?
I haven't consciously installed any of those things. Could they have been part of the latest OS update?
Also, Dropbox seems to be working. When I add new files they automatically sync. The only thing that seems a-miss at the moment is that the bottom left message is still (after several hours) "Reconnecting to the internet... this may take a while" and right-click "make available offline" doesn't seem to do anything. Clicking on the cloud icon does download the files though.

Also, I still don't know why my local files went online-only, but perhaps we'll never know now. The files and folders i have made available offline have remained that way so far.

Thanks

Jay

Thanks for the info, while it does seem to be mostly a cosmetic issue, since files are still syncing and that clicking the cloud icon downloads the files, I'd recommend contacting the support team directly for them to investigate further.