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Forum Discussion
DB on MacOS is corrupting my files (now irreversibly)
Hi,
for a while now I have been having problems with my DB-stored files on my Macbook. I use DB on a Windows (PC) and Macbook Air. Everything's fine on Windows, but the files do not open when I try...
Dear Fiona,
got it to work (i.e. I can now open all files, though I did lose the one that didn't get synced). Turned out I had to allow for Smart Sync in the Dropbox preferences and for some reason this fixed things.
Found the solution here: https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Files-folders/Corruption-of-Excel-Files-saved-to-Dropbox/td-p/289813/page/2
Posted by another user. You might want to show this to other community managers as well so they can suggest this to other users with my problem.
So the fix required changing something with DB. I'd count it as "Dropbox corrupting my files", or at least as "Dropbox being misleading about what it's showing me in the Dropbox folder and not notifying me that I'm only seeing what's supposed to be there and not the actual file that is stored online" :/ .
Shouldn't the files be stored locally by default if someone doesn't enable smart sync? Is that what caused the problem?
Anyway. Thanks for your time and best,
Wojciech
Fiona
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffThanks for the additional info. Dropbox cannot corrupt your files. But we can try to help you figure this out and solve it. See which apps are saving the files corrupted. Please let me know the other file types that you get this issue with.
Some screenshots of file examples you can't open, would be very helpful for this thread as well.
How long has this been going on for? Have you scanned your devices with a security system? Help Center article about this.
Dear Fiona,
got it to work (i.e. I can now open all files, though I did lose the one that didn't get synced). Turned out I had to allow for Smart Sync in the Dropbox preferences and for some reason this fixed things.
Found the solution here: https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Files-folders/Corruption-of-Excel-Files-saved-to-Dropbox/td-p/289813/page/2
Posted by another user. You might want to show this to other community managers as well so they can suggest this to other users with my problem.
So the fix required changing something with DB. I'd count it as "Dropbox corrupting my files", or at least as "Dropbox being misleading about what it's showing me in the Dropbox folder and not notifying me that I'm only seeing what's supposed to be there and not the actual file that is stored online" :/ .
Shouldn't the files be stored locally by default if someone doesn't enable smart sync? Is that what caused the problem?
Anyway. Thanks for your time and best,
Wojciech
- Fiona
Hey Wojciech, happy to hear it is solved.
Thanks so much for posting your solution and feedback.
Selective Sync is the Dropbox feature that removes the files from the local Dropbox folder completely. Smart Sync is meant to show you the "ghost" files locally.
Since Smart Sync extensions were not enabled at all, this feature cannot have affected the files. Without Smart Sync, all files are local. I understand there might have been an issue with Excel and how it saved the version of the file you edited.
Is the file you had the issue with functional and synced to Dropbox now? :thinking:
Dear Fiona,
Yes I know what selective sync is and I know what smart sync is supposed to do.
Thing is, that I didn't have smart sync enabled, and I could not open some of the files in DB. Once I enabled it, they started working. And this has been the experience of another user that I have linked to above. So clearly, something doesn't work as intended.
There's no issue with Excel. The issue is with Dropbox. I had problems with other Office files, PDFs, and pretty sure something else, but that's irrelevant. Thing is, that even if it was something that didn't work between Office and Dropbox, I'd still say that Dropbox is the side that should try to fix the issue and not Microsoft (sorry).
AND, the files only did not work on my Macbook. The same files worked on my PC. So something was wrong with the syncing on Macbook. Not with the files per se.
So again - it's a Dropbox issue:
1) It only happened to files on Dropbox.
2) It only happened on one device, so the files themselves were not generally corrupted (i.e. third party app did not damage them) just badly synced to that one device.
3) The thing that fixed it was enabling a Dropbox option.
Another Dropbox user had the same issue and fix.
So please stop saying that Dropbox couldn't have done it and pointing fingers at other apps. Just try to figure out what went wrong.
And no, I have not recovered the one file that didn't sync properly at all, I had to redo the work. Doesn't matter now. I'm just answering to highlight that it's a Dropbox issue.
Best,
Wojciech
