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NGraham1's avatar
NGraham1
New member | Level 2
6 years ago

Unspecified Error trying to open word, excel or PowerPoint files

Hello, 

I have a fairly new laptop that was purchased in March that I use for all my personal and professional work. I started a new gig with a company in June and was given access to their Dropbox account. I've never had an issue accessing any file or making edits however the last two week I'm unable to open any MS office files created by any of the team members. I'm able to open documents and files created by me on my laptop. It's been very frustrating as I'm unable to troubleshoot the problem and need help urgently. 

Many thanks! 

Nicolette 

  • Hi NGraham1!

    I understand you are not able to open certain files via the Dropbox desktop app. 

    Is there any chance the files are currently Smart Synced to 'online-only'? If so, there will be a gray cloud icon by the files, and you can right-click on them and set their Smart Sync setting to 'Local'. 

    Alternatively, some applications have limits on the file paths they can access (for example, Excel has a limit of 218 total characters), and so shortening the entire name/path to the file may help. 

    You can check all of our sync icons and possible syncing issues here, too, for reference. 

    If the file is local and the file length is not the issue, can you copy the file to outside of the Dropbox folder and see if you can open it then? This will help determine if this is syncing issue or a file-specific one.  

    Let me know what you find, thanks!

  • Celeste's avatar
    Celeste
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

    Hi NGraham1!

    I understand you are not able to open certain files via the Dropbox desktop app. 

    Is there any chance the files are currently Smart Synced to 'online-only'? If so, there will be a gray cloud icon by the files, and you can right-click on them and set their Smart Sync setting to 'Local'. 

    Alternatively, some applications have limits on the file paths they can access (for example, Excel has a limit of 218 total characters), and so shortening the entire name/path to the file may help. 

    You can check all of our sync icons and possible syncing issues here, too, for reference. 

    If the file is local and the file length is not the issue, can you copy the file to outside of the Dropbox folder and see if you can open it then? This will help determine if this is syncing issue or a file-specific one.  

    Let me know what you find, thanks!

    • NGraham1's avatar
      NGraham1
      New member | Level 2

      Hi Celeste2, 

      Thank you so much for your response. Turns out my files were set to sync online only that was causing the error to show up. I'm in the process of synching the folder that I  work in everyday and see that I'm able to open most of the files now. I also agree there might be a few files where the file name can be shortened. 

      Thank you again for your help. 

      Nicolette 

      • Celeste's avatar
        Celeste
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

        Glad to have been able to help, NGraham1!

        In regards to the file names and paths you can find a full list of incompatibilities here, which may help you locate and avoid bad characters/symbols in the future. 

        Have a great rest of your week ahead! 

    • aa88's avatar
      aa88
      New member | Level 2

      @Celeste - So it this to mean that Smart Sync is not intended to be used to actually open Microsoft Office files? Will I have to select 'Local' for all files like this? I was trying to keep everything SmartSync'ed and so trying to understand if I have a problem (I am experiencing the same problem as the user above) or if this is just the way it is. No MS Work, PPT, or Excel docs will open. All generate the "Unspecified Error". 

      Thanks!

      • Lusil's avatar
        Lusil
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

        Hi aa88

        Welcome to the Dropbox Community!

        Initially, please note that Smart Sync is a space-saving feature for your hard drive. So, by setting files to be online-only, only specific information is downloaded to your computer, such as the name, the location, and the date it was updated. 

        If you want to edit it, you'll have to make it local, so that the relevant information becomes available for you to make changes. 

        I hope this helps clarify a bit, but let us know if you have any other questions. Thanks!