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I see two sync icons next to my folders, even though there are no online-only files within.

Hi, I just upgraded to Dropbox on File Provider which uses the native MacOS file sync APIs. I like my files stored locally, so I changed the Default Sync Preference to Available offline.

As this only affects new files, I also went to the root Dropbox folder in Finder and set it to Make available offline via the right-click context menu. Dropbox then started re-sync-ing all my folders and files.

Problem

Once the file sync was complete, every folder (top level and below) showed a green tick but also showed the Only available online icon (a white cloud with a black outline and down arrow, as shown here). The files in each folder however were available offline (no icon).

This help article (same as the prev link) says that the cloud icon will show next to a folder when "There is at least one online-only file in the folder". However there are no online-only files in these folders, even though it appears that Dropbox thinks there is. This feels like a bug???

Interestingly, if I duplicate one of these online-only folders (Cmd+D in Finder), the newly duplicated folder has exactly the same contents, but correctly shows no icon, ie. it's properly an offline folder. Other brand new folders are also correctly set to be available offline.

Work around

I could probably work around this by duplicating my entire Dropbox contents, top-level folder by top-level folder but then I'd have to a) re-sync everything (12GB+ so not a huge amount) and b) re-configure all my folder level shares which is a bit of a pain. But I don't think I should have to.

Any answers Dropbox folks? What am I doing wrong? Thanks.

Setup

MacBook Pro 14 / MacOS Sequoia 15.6.1 / Dropbox v231.4.5770

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Accepted answers

calmfrog

Right, logging out and back in again has done the trick 👍. For anyone else who encounters this, my steps were:

Log out (Dropbox > Preferences > Accounts > Sign out)
Restart laptop (prob not necessary)
Log in (follow Dropbox prompts)
Dropbox indexes everything. You can see the progress % in the Dropbox status panel (took an hour for 10GB). During this stage the folders have a cloud icon (without arrow).
Dropbox syncs everything - progress shown in the Dropbox status panel (took ~20mins). When a folder's contents are fully synced the folder's cloud icon disappears and there's just the green tick left.
Once all folders are synced, they all have green ticks and no cloud icon. Job done.

Thanks for your help @Nancy and @Megan .

All comments

Nancy

Thanks for posting here, @calmfrog.

Can you also open one of the other folders with the two sync icons next to them and send me a screenshot of the files within? I’d like to gather as much info as possible and investigate this further (also, if there’s any type of personal info, please feel free to mask it).

Finally, there’s been a new app version released in the meantime. Can you update your Dropbox app to it (in case it hasn’t already been updated in the meantime) and let me know if that makes any difference to what you’re seeing?

Keep me posted.

calmfrog

Hi Nancy,

Upgraded to the latest version (232.4.5926), same behaviour.

The folders in my original screenshot have a lot of sub-folders and files so I can't really screenshot them, and I don't think that really narrows down the problem. This issue is consistent across all my Dropbox folders!

Here's some more details though to help diagnose further.

Empty folders that were migrated have the same problem - they show the online-only icon. So even if there are no files in a migrated folder, Dropbox thinks there are online-only files within.
If you delete all the files within a migrated folder, it still shows the online-only icon (consistent with point 1 above).
If you right-click a migrated folder (empty or full) and select Make available offline, nothing happens - it still shows the online-only icon.
If you duplicate a migrated folder (empty or full) the newly created folder is correctly available-offline (no icon).
If you delete (move to Trash) a migrated online-only folder you get this warning ('2013' is the folder name in this case) which is particularly worrying 😳:

Thanks.

Megan

Hey @calmfrog, let me also jump in here!

You mentioned "migrated folders" in your latest reply. In order for us to be on the same page, would you mind clarifying what you mean by that?

For those folders with the two icons, could you try again with marking them as available offline or do you notice that nothing happens when you do?

I know this might sound trivial, but can you try signing out of the app and then back in?

calmfrog

Migrated folders
Sure. During the upgrade to the new version of Dropbox which uses the MacOS File Provider APIs, the Dropbox root folder was moved ('migrated') from /Users/me/Dropbox to /Users/me/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox. By 'migrated folders' I mean everything that was moved as part of this upgrade process.

Make available offline
Marking any of the original ('migrated') folders as available offline has no effect - they continue to show the online-only cloud icon.

I'll try logging out and in again shortly...

Megan

Thanks for the heads up @calmfrog!

Give it a go, and let me know of the results. If this doesn't work, we'll have a closer look and proceed accordingly.

calmfrog

Right, logging out and back in again has done the trick 👍. For anyone else who encounters this, my steps were:

Log out (Dropbox > Preferences > Accounts > Sign out)
Restart laptop (prob not necessary)
Log in (follow Dropbox prompts)
Dropbox indexes everything. You can see the progress % in the Dropbox status panel (took an hour for 10GB). During this stage the folders have a cloud icon (without arrow).
Dropbox syncs everything - progress shown in the Dropbox status panel (took ~20mins). When a folder's contents are fully synced the folder's cloud icon disappears and there's just the green tick left.
Once all folders are synced, they all have green ticks and no cloud icon. Job done.

Thanks for your help @Nancy and @Megan .

Megan

Awesome news @calmfrog! 😇

If you need anything else, just give us a shout.

Theresa

Hi @calmfrog and welcome to the Dropbox Community! I’m really glad to hear things are back to normal now and thank you for coming back to share your update. It’s always so helpful when people follow up, especially with sync icon issues like this ✨.

I’m Theresa 👩‍💻, one of the community managers here. Since you’re keeping such a close eye on how things sync, I’d love to know... do you have a favourite Dropbox feature that helps you stay organised or keeps your workflow smooth?

Looking forward to hearing more,

T 😺 (Dropbox Community Manager)