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Issues with collaboration on Microsoft Office files saved on Dropbox

Juxedo

Hi, we have a Dropbox Teams plan with multiple members all signing in using Single-sign on (Microsoft 365 accounts).
We are all using MacOS laptops with the DropBox app all installed and set up. We have also connected the Dropbox app within Microsoft Teams and also added Dropbox as an online storage location within MS Office applications.

Issues we're having…

When creating a new Office file/or saving another version of an already open office file onto Dropbox - the file is not set-up for collaborative working (the AutoSave toggle in MS Office Apps is turned off). We have to close the file down and reopen it from the relevant Dropbox folder location via the finder - then the AutoSave toggle automatically turns on allowing collaborative work.

Is there a way to prevent this annoyance and have files automatically be set as collaborative files immediately?

Secondly, we've noticed that Office files over 500Mb on our Dropbox are blocked from collaborative working - is there a way of changing this limit to say 1TB?

Many thanks in advance for any responses.

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Hannah

Hey @Juxedo, thanks for your post!

Just to make sure we're on the same page, you're referring to the collaborative Microsoft Office editing feature described here, right?

As a first step, can you take a look at the article I linked above to see if the entire team has the appropriate system requirements and settings for the feature to work as intended?

Keep me posted.

Juxedo

Hi @Hannah

Thanks for the reply. I've read through the link you kindly posted, and yes, this is exactly how we are all set up. We are just finding that when new files are created, say in PowerPoint, then saved to the Dropbox that the Autosave doesn't automatically turn on - you have to quit the file and open it fresh again.

We've just switched from SharePoint to Dropbox and we used to just save a new Office Document onto the SharePoint server and it would immediately be ready for collaborative work (i.e. the AutoSave toggle would turn on automatically).

Hannah

Thanks for the update, @Juxedo!

Regarding the 500 MB limit you mentioned, I'm afraid there's no way to change it.

Now about the following:

When creating a new Office file/or saving another version of an already open office file onto Dropbox - the file is not set-up for collaborative working (the AutoSave toggle in MS Office Apps is turned off). We have to close the file down and reopen it from the relevant Dropbox folder location via the finder

Is it possible that the files don't get the time to finish syncing first? Especially the ones that are newly created?

Juxedo

Hi @Hannah - thanks again for the email. I've ruled out the time to save thought as it happens with new/blank presenations too.

We're now having issues where files suddenly cannot upload/sync - a yellow alert bar appears in PowerPoint asking us to wait or save a copy. When we save a copy the copied file loses all of it's images and in some cases the file copied file is completely empty and has a 0k file size.

All very frustrating :-(

Hannah

I completely understand, @Juxedo, it does sound very frustrating, but we'll get to the bottom of it.

Can you send me a screenshot of that yellow alert bar you mentioned?

And just to confirm, you're only getting this behavior when updating/uploading files from the local Dropbox folder on your computer, right? How about the Dropbox website?

Juxedo

Hi @Hannah Thanks for the email. Please find attached a screenshot of the yellow alert bar within Microsoft and also an image showing alert icons next to the files of concern when first opening PowerPoint.

image (1).png

We've had this happen on a few devices, both in the office and working from home, internet connections all good as we've been discussing the issues over a Teams video call with the employees with the issues.

image.png

Jay

Hi @Juxedo, thanks for the images.

At this point it might be better for the support team to look into this in more detail.

You can contact them directly via this link, and they'll be able to investigate further.

Juxedo

Thanks @Jay . I've raised a support ticket detailing all our issues. Thanks again.