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edsnails's avatar
edsnails
New member | Level 2
7 years ago

iOS app won't show business folders

I've just upgraded from free accounts to Dropbox Business.

My team had access to some shared folders and we use a 3rd party iPad app (Documents by Readdle) to sync the folders and display the content.

- We have heavy PDF usage and the way Dropbox app on iOS changes pages on a PDF isn't suitable (scrolling rather than viewing page at a time).

 

So as I have logged in to Dropbox through the 3rd party App (Documents) I find that it will only show my one personal folder and not display any of the shared business folders.

 

Photo below is the dropbox app on iOS - personal folder in purple is the only folder that shows through to Documents app once linked. It won't show any of the 4 other business folders.

dropbox appk

 

 

 

documents app syncs to dropbox via app login but then comes back and returns only the folders in the first 'personal' folder that I have.documents by readdle

 

I've tried several other iOS apps - PDF Expert (also by Readdle), Polaris Office, WPS Office - all have the same sync issues.

The iOS 'Files' app shows all the folders properly - BUT it doesn't display PDFs the way I need them to.

 

ANY help would be greatly appreciated. I changed over not realising this would be an issue and I'm going to have HUGE issues if my team can't show PDFs properly to clients tomorrow.

  • Do you have two separate accounts, one personal and one business, that you've linked together on the Dropbox website?

    If so, and best guess... the third-party apps aren't able to handle linked accounts. The Dropbox iOS app can handle this situation. Third-party apps would need to be capable of that as well. I don't know if that's possible using the Dropbox API, which is what third-party apps use to communicate with Dropbox.

    Your best bet will be to reach out to the developers of the app(s) that you're using, as only they can provide support for their app. Dropbox cannot support third-party applications.

    One thought though, have you tried to log out of the third-party app and log back in using the email address used for your Dropbox Business account?
  • Looks like you’re on the new structure of a Dropbox Business team, which we have some information about here.
     
    As that’s the case, most likely Readdle hasn’t updated their app to take into consideration this, as they can’t apparently access team folders in the Dropbox Business team. Seeing as the icon they’re using for Dropbox is the old icon, it is possible that they haven’t updated it for some time.
     
    However, could you try updating the app on your device to see if that helps, if you’re instead running the older version somehow?
     
    Otherwise, we’d recommend getting in contact with them in order to resolve this matter, since they’re not viewing the Dropbox team folder.
     
     
  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
    Do you have two separate accounts, one personal and one business, that you've linked together on the Dropbox website?

    If so, and best guess... the third-party apps aren't able to handle linked accounts. The Dropbox iOS app can handle this situation. Third-party apps would need to be capable of that as well. I don't know if that's possible using the Dropbox API, which is what third-party apps use to communicate with Dropbox.

    Your best bet will be to reach out to the developers of the app(s) that you're using, as only they can provide support for their app. Dropbox cannot support third-party applications.

    One thought though, have you tried to log out of the third-party app and log back in using the email address used for your Dropbox Business account?
    • Jay's avatar
      Jay
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
      Looks like you’re on the new structure of a Dropbox Business team, which we have some information about here.
       
      As that’s the case, most likely Readdle hasn’t updated their app to take into consideration this, as they can’t apparently access team folders in the Dropbox Business team. Seeing as the icon they’re using for Dropbox is the old icon, it is possible that they haven’t updated it for some time.
       
      However, could you try updating the app on your device to see if that helps, if you’re instead running the older version somehow?
       
      Otherwise, we’d recommend getting in contact with them in order to resolve this matter, since they’re not viewing the Dropbox team folder.
       
       
  • paulineadp's avatar
    paulineadp
    Explorer | Level 4

    I've been having exactly the same issue with a LOT of apps I use for business - I can't access my main folder, just the other one. There are no issues with the sharing permissions and dropbox have been absolutely no help in assisting either, basically saying it's not their problem! I only moved from box sync to them as was having sync issues but if I can't see my files where I need them it's not much use.

     

    If anyone has any ideas or has managed to crack this, would be greatly appreciated.

     

    In the meantime, dropbox help it seems doesn't exist

    • _Nadine_'s avatar
      _Nadine_
      New member | Level 2

      Hi, this is the workaround I finally found out about this issue: the official IOS documents/files app has access to all Dropbox Business account folders (unlike Spark or PDF Expert, which only have access to the personal folder) after getting connected. So if you want to add an attachment to an email from one of the team folders on dropbox, just go the detour via the files App – the same goes for saving attachments or edited pdfs :-)

      • jandrasko's avatar
        jandrasko
        Explorer | Level 4

        The problem with this is that while you can access the PDF from the ios app, if you edit it in PDF Expert or Spark, you can't save it back to a Dropbox Business folder, just your personal acocunt.

        Has anyone found an app that can acess the Dropbox teams folders yet?

    • Mark's avatar
      Mark
      Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
      Sadly if the issue is with third parties (as it seems to be based on those images) Dropbox support cant help - the only people who can are the third party developers themselves.

      Have you contacted the app developers you are having issues with to see if they are even aware of it? They should be as this change isnt a new one - it was well documented, but, that doesnt mean they've updated apps etc.
      • paulineadp's avatar
        paulineadp
        Explorer | Level 4

        Yes I'm currently in discussions with all the 3rd party apps which is taking up a lot of my time.

  • jandrasko's avatar
    jandrasko
    Explorer | Level 4

    Edsnails- any chance you've found any work-arounds for this? It's driving me mad; potentially worth giving up dropbox if it can't be resolved...

    • edsnails's avatar
      edsnails
      New member | Level 2
      Seems like it’s up to the app developer to implement it. Which most should have by now really - it works fine in Apple Files App.
      In the end I had to revert a few folders back to the old style (we only use a few specific folders in Readdle’s Documents app anyway) so they could be viewed again and the rest are in the new team format.
      • ms2019's avatar
        ms2019
        New member | Level 2

        This is the problem I now have with Notability - only sees the personal folder (with my name), not team-space area. Using Dropbox Business. Submitted a problem report to Notability folks yesterday with no response yet. We'll see.

  • _Nadine_'s avatar
    _Nadine_
    New member | Level 2

    Hi, this is the workaround I finally found out about this issue: the official IOS documents/files app has access to all Dropbox Business account folders (unlike Spark or PDF Expert, which only have access to the personal folder) after getting connected. So if you want to add an attachment to an email from one of the team folders on dropbox, just go the detour via the files App – the same goes for saving attachments or edited pdfs :-)

     

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