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All Markdown exports of Paper docs no longer show images

Starting a few days ago, when you create a new document in Dropbox Paper and export it to Markdown, the images no longer appear. This happens because the images in the Markdown file are embedded using URLs that point to the domain paper-attachments.dropboxusercontent.com.

The issue is that, as you can verify with any DNS checker (as shown below), there’s no longer an A record for that domain. As a result, all Markdown exports—both those created in the past and any new ones—will have broken image links.

This is a serious bug for anyone using that feature.

Device:
Any

Operating System/Browser (if using the web):
Windows 11
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/140.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Dropbox App Version/Browser Version:
Chrome Version 140.0.7339.210 (Official Build) (64-bit)

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Hannah

Hey everyone, thanks for the nudges here - our team is aware of the issue.

This thread, which is about the same issue was just updated.

Make sure to keep an eye on it for any new updates from the team.

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Hannah

Hey @antozanini, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Can you please send me a couple screenshots showing this issue, so we can have a visual?

Are you having this issue with other browsers as well as private browsing windows?

Let me know and we'll go from there.

antozanini

Hey Hannah, thanks for getting back to me!

Just to clarify, this bug applies to the feature itself and isn�t related to the browser or operating system being used (since Markdown exports are generated server-side).

To reproduce the issue:

1. Create a new Dropbox Paper document.

2. Add an image.

3. Export the document to Markdown.

4. Open the generated .md file, and you�ll see that the image reference looks like this: "![Your caption](https://paper-attachments.dropboxusercontent.com/s_XXXXXXXXXXXXXX_image.png)". As you can see, the image URL starts with "https://paper-attachments.dropboxusercontent.com", a domain that no longer has an A record in DNS (which means it no longer exists).

Here�s an example of a Markdown export from Dropbox Paper opened in a Markdown viewer:

https://i.imgur.com/yjoGPTU.png

Note that all images are broken because they point to paper-attachments.dropboxusercontent.com, which is no longer a valid domain:

https://i.imgur.com/DzwC04K.png

Hope this helps!

Note: I didn't upload the images directly in the post but added links instead because of the "Content Not Published
Your post contains invalid HTML. Remove the following invalid tags before publishing: br (data-end), br (data-start), li (data-end), li (data-start), li-code, li-image, p, p (data-end), p (data-start), span (style)" error.

Hannah

Thanks for the reply, @antozanini!

Would you mind attaching the screenshots themselves to your next reply, from the camera icon under the reply box?

If you're not able to attach the files from that button, try copy-pasting them into the reply box.

antozanini

This is a serious bug that's affecting all Dropbox Paper users right now!

Try the procedure yourself and you’ll see the issue. Keep in mind that the image upload system in Dropbox Paper also uses that domain, so this key feature is sometimes broken as well:

Hannah

Thanks for the additional info and screenshots, @antozanini.

I've gone ahead and sent you an email, so we can take a closer look at this with our team.

Just get back to me when you have a moment.

Thanks.

antozanini

Thanks! Done.

vp996

Hi! We have the same problem. This is very critical because our service documentation uses .MD export. Please, how can we solve this problem?

Phoebeeee

Hi Hannah,

I encounter the same issue... A large amount of my pictures shows "couldn't load preview" status and if I upload a new photo, it shows "couldn't load preview" as well. It seems to be a dropbox DNS issue...... The images in my file are very important for me, I really need these images back to continue my work. Could you please help me...

Hannah

Hey everyone, thanks for the nudges here - our team is aware of the issue.

This thread, which is about the same issue was just updated.

Make sure to keep an eye on it for any new updates from the team.