Apache can't open files in Dropbox anymore

Hey @Ivan Llanas - thanks for using Dropbox and welcome to our Community!

Just to make sure we're on the same page, can you clarify your computer's exact OS version and send us a screenshot of the exact error you're getting?

This will help us assist further!

Sure. My OS is Windows 11 [ 10.0.26100.3775] and a screenshot of the error in the browser:

Thanks for the screenshot @Ivan Llanas - much appreciated.

From what I gather you must have the Dropbox desktop app installed on your computer - am I correct?

If so, could you let us know its status and version as shown in your taskbar?

Whaley Radio

Ours are the same. Others are commenting as well that there having issues

Hey @Whaley Radio - thanks for letting us know. Can you elaborate on the issue you're facing so that we can assist further?

In the Preferences dialog, General tab, it says v223.4.4909.

I also started having the problem - I first noticed it yesterday (5.2/2025). I'm using MAMP version 5.05 (3998) x64 binaries release on Windows 11 PRO 10.0.22631 Build 22631.

If I move the files to my C drive - out of DropBox - everything continues to work fine, but I need to have the files in DropBox.

(I know my students had a problem with MAMP and OneDrive, but I've been using DropBox for years with no problems.)

- Andrew -

Hi all, for anyone still having this issue can you please let us know here so that we can reach out via email to investigate further?

Thank you!

I'm still having this issue.

Thanks for letting me know, Ivan. I've just sent you an email to have a better look internally, so take a look at your inbox and we'll take it from there.

I haven't received an email yet, but I'm still having the issue.

Here's my error:

Andrew

Thanks for the nudge on this @aptokash - I've just sent you an email as well, so have a glance at your inbox and reply to me there to investigate further.

alexned

We were able to reproduce this issue. It seems to be affecting the PHP files.

True. I restored the old path in the Dropbox unit and deactivated the PHP support. It worked. PHP files are shown as text files, of course.

Lung101

Hi Ivan,

If you don't mind: how did you disable the php support of Dropbox? I would also like to get my application to run again until Dropbox provided a fix.

Hi.

I didn't disable anything, I just copied the web contents to another drive and changed the Apache configuration to point to the new location.

Lung101

Hi Ivan,

ah, I see, that is also already my tempory solution

So I will still wait for a Dropbox update to fix it, still thank you for your response!

alexned

Thanks. It's been a mess since relogging made a new Dropbox folder, renaming the "old" one. I'm moving all the files from the older to the new one, so I guess it will reindex the whole 2TB.

Hi.
Following the opt-out instructions in https://help.dropbox.com/installs/dropbox-for-windows as suggested fixed the problem.
A mess when it recreates Dropbox folder but, finally, it is solved.
Thanks.

Is this really a 'solution'?

If we opt out, can we always opt out or will there be a time in the future when we need to opt in?

It seems like this is a temp fix, rather than the solution to the actual problem.

Andrew

So I followed the OPT OUT instructions, and when I restarted DROPBOX it looks like it is creating a second copy of all my files on the C drive! It looks like the same problem as IVAN below. THIS WAS NOT A SOLUTION!!!!

And the extra copy failed because I didn't t have enough space on my C drive!!!

So I saved a copy of a large non-Dropbox folder onto a drive, and deleted the folder to free up space. I'll load this back on once my DROPBOX sync works.

Once it does, can I safely delete the DROPBOX (OLD) folder on my C: drive? )

Note: The DROPBOX(OLD) folder has 11,260 files.
The DROPBOX folder has 11,215 files

HELP!!!!!

Hannah

Hey @aptokash, before deleting anything, you need to make sure the opting out process is finished and the Dropbox app is "up to date", when hovering over the Dropbox icon in your system tray.

Then, you need to determine which Dropbox folder is the one syncing with the app. So, you'll need to check the "sync tab" of the Dropbox app preferences, to find the actual location of the syncing Dropbox folder.

One you've figured that out, and made sure you have all your files in the Dropbox folder you want to keep, you can delete the extra, unsynced Dropbox folder.

Let us know how it goes.

No. It's not a real solution, it's just a workaround which works for me.

It seems that PHP under Apache fails to open files with some of the new Windows file attributes. It's a PHP bug. Well, it's a misunderstanding between an old software (PHP) and a new one (Windows with funny file attributes).

I just updated my Apache server and PHP module to their latest versions. But I am tooooo lazy and busy to test it now. If it's not working I'll have to recreate the Dropbox folder and I'm not in the mood of that. When the course is over I'll create a VM and synchronize only the web folder to test this new server version.

richardsyuk

I have just upgraded dropbox to 226.4.5094 and a number of my PHP scripts no longer work.

getcwd() works.

file_exists() , file_get_contents(), etc stopped working.

I initially thought because files not available offline but i think all the files available offline and still experiencing the issue

I am using very old version of PHP, i.e. 5.5.12, on Windows 10 build 19045.5965