You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.

Forum Discussion

saguilar2012's avatar
saguilar2012
Explorer | Level 3
6 years ago

Some of my files show up as zero bytes

When I save file, the file will appear in my DropBox, but when I open it the file is completely blank or only kept an older version of the document. I realized some of these "saved" items are being s...
Preview
Restore
  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    6 years ago
    If it is still syncing, then it means that it isn’t up to date yet.
     
    I’d recommend waiting until all your files have finished syncing before attempting to open those files.
     
    If it doesn’t stop syncing, try an advanced reinstall of the app to see if this resolves the issue.
elainemorrison's avatar
elainemorrison
Explorer | Level 3

Hi Walter I don't see those icons anywhere.  I find Dropbox to be terribly confusing.  Can you send me a screenshot or Loom video of how one locates these icons?

 

All I know is that I am unable to access my photos as it says zero bytes no matter how I try to access them.  It should not be this difficult and take this many messages for me to resolve this issue.

Walter's avatar
Walter
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
3 years ago

I'm afraid I don't have a  tutorial video to provide, but these icons should be visible on the files you've stored in your Dropbox folder on your computer while the desktop app is running and syncing normally elainemorrison 

 

Apart from that, could you send us a screenshot of the exact error you're getting so that we can have a visual too?

  • elainemorrison's avatar
    elainemorrison
    Explorer | Level 3
    3 years ago

    Hi Walter the issue is when I search them in the Finder on my Mac or I try to attach images within GMail they show as zero bytes.  I then have to go to Dropbox and search and download the images in order to use them.  I can no longer just attach them.  This is a time waster.  My understanding is that this is all due to the most recent IOs update.  Dropbox hasn't fixed the bug on your end and from what I was told there's no intention to fix it.  I'm left inconvenienced and frustrated and want to move all my photos to Google and get rid of Dropbox. 

    • Walter's avatar
      Walter
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
      3 years ago

      Can you maybe send us a screenshot of how and where the files is showing zero bytes elainemorrison? 

       

      Also, since you're using Gmail, have you considered using the Dropbox for Gmail add-on? 

      • DUDLEYKCET's avatar
        DUDLEYKCET
        New member | Level 2
        3 years ago

        My problem is a little different:  I archived files from Dropbox onto an external drive a couple of years ago.  The files were then deleted from Dropbox.  Now all those files on my external drive are zero bytes.  They were not zero bytes on my drive two years ago.

         

        My fear/guess is that in spite of taking forever to archive, Dropbox never really archived the media at all but just made file-names that pointed to the Dropbox media.

         

        Or does someone have another idea?  Yes, it's a disaster ...

About View, download, and export

Need support with viewing, downloading, and exporting files and folders from your Dropbox account? Find help from the Dropbox Community.

Need more support

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!