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rdt17's avatar
rdt17
Helpful | Level 6
2 years ago

Conflicting copies of excel file

Our small company of 3 have been using Dropbox Online for 2 years.  We are all on Apple Macs, running the latest version of Mac OS, working at home

 

Recently the Dropbos app for Mac was updated, and now we are having  the following problems

 

1. When a file is opened, changed and saved, it is saved as a conflicted copy, even when there is only 1 person working on the file.  I know this can happen when the file is open and someone else makes changes.

 

2. We have a master file for data, and hundreds of other files are linked to extract data from this file.  When the data in the Master is updated with data for a specific excel file and saved.  I then open the  excel file , and the updated data is not in the file.  All the older date is there, 

 

 

 

Something is not working.  We are all very novice Dropbox users and have tried to trouble shoot, but nothing seems to be working.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Russell

Desktop
Dropbox Family
  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    2 years ago

    Thanks for the info about the Badge, this might help reduce the conflicted copies on your account. 

     

    Regarding the links, since the Dropbox folder has moved, the location of local files are now different on your machine. Has the Dropbox folder moved for all your colleagues, or just on your machine?

     

    Are you able to create a symlink or alias to the new location of the Dropbox folder?

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

    Hi rdt17, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

     

    Firstly, could you clarify how you open a file? Is it on the Dropbox site, via an app, from within Finder? What file are you opening?

     

    How are the Excel files linked to the original? Is it via a formula in the Excel file or using a script or other feature?

     

    This will help me to assist further!

    • rdt17's avatar
      rdt17
      Helpful | Level 6
      2 years ago

      Hi Jay,

       

      Thanks for stepping in.

       

      We have Dropbox App in our laptops, and open all the excel files, by selecting the specific file we want to open.

       

      Files are linked with a straight forward Excel Data Link, awhen they are established. 

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

        Does anyone have the file open at any point? You can tell by using the Dropbox Badge. Does this occur every time?

         

        Does anyone use the web version of Excel to edit files while you're in the file?

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