We are aware of the issue with the badge emails resending to everyone, we apologise for the inconvenience - learn more here.

Forum Discussion

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

What is this UFO icon on some of Dropbox files online?

There is a UFO symbol next to one of my uploaded files, does anyone know what that means?
Preview
Sync
Web
  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    7 years ago
    Hi there, the UFO generally means it’s a file without an extension at the end, so Dropbox doesn’t know what filetype it is, such as ‘test’ instead of test.jpg, test.docx, test.pdf, and so on.
     
    If it’s supposed to have a filetype, rename the file with the extension and it should show a proper icon instead.
Jay's avatar
Jay
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
Hi there, the UFO generally means it’s a file without an extension at the end, so Dropbox doesn’t know what filetype it is, such as ‘test’ instead of test.jpg, test.docx, test.pdf, and so on.
 
If it’s supposed to have a filetype, rename the file with the extension and it should show a proper icon instead.
Chelles803's avatar
Chelles803
New member | Level 2
5 years ago

Is there a way to open a saved file in my Dropbox with the flying saucer as the icon?  I really need to figure out what these documents are.

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    5 years ago

    Hi Chelles803, thanks for joining the Community!

    It depends on what type of file it was originally. If you know the general type of doc, then you can guess at the file type.

    The safest bets for me would be mp3 for music files, mp4 for videos, jpg for images, docx for documents, xlsx for spreadsheets, and so on. I could list out all the file types, but it would take too long!

    If you know who sent you the files, try asking them to see if they know what they were. Alternatively, if you renamed the file yourself, try looking at the version history of the file to see if the renaming is visible there.

    Hope this helps!

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!