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

Andrew73's avatar
Andrew73
Helpful | Level 6
12 months ago

"Couldn't sync files" - doesn't exist

Dropbox shows me a notification that it "Couldn't sync files". However, I can't find that file on Dropbox or anywhere else on my computer. It couldn't sync since it had special characters in the title. Now I can't even find the file, and when I press "View file", nothing happens. How can I get this notification to disappear?


  • Andrew73 wrote:

    ... clicking on "View file" does nothing. It doesn't even seem to exist on Dropbox either. ...


    Yes, it's normal such file to neither exist on Dropbox nor be possible viewing. As I said, such a file name gets rejected on early stage and cannot exist in Dropbox! Don't try to find it online or on other machine (different that the origin). Bad thing is that in the error message only filename exists, but not the full path to there 🤷. Try find it locally on your MacOS 12.7.2 using some local search tool in Dropbox folder. As a corner case, try reinstall your Dropbox from "zero" (wiping out the existing Dropbox folder - tale care in such a case not to lose something).

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

    Hey Andrew73! Can you send me a few more details on this? 

     

    What type of files are these? Can you attach a screenshot? 

     

    Also, what’s the OS version of your computer, as well as the Dropbox app version?

    • Andrew73's avatar
      Andrew73
      Helpful | Level 6

      The file is a Pages file (attached).

      This shows up on my macOS 12.7.2 computer, but not my computers running the newest macOS version.

       

      • Здравко's avatar
        Здравко
        Legendary | Level 20

        Hi Andrew73,

        Unfortunately, Dropbox file/folder names may contain only symbols part of basic multilingual plane of Unicode (😡 Big drawback 😕). You have :blossom:(daisy) in your file name that's out of that symbols set. So in spite acceptable on all present day systems (including all supported by Dropbox), Dropbox itself reject them. That's why this file cannot get sync from your macOS 12.7.2 (where it originates from) to your newest macOS. You need to rename the file (and let Dropbox sync it) or to move it by hands (not relying on Dropbox). 🤷

        Good luck.

About Create, upload, and share

Find help to solve issues with creating, uploading, and sharing files and folders in Dropbox. Get support and advice 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!