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

Dropbox seems to be corrupting files…

I’m afraid we’re are migrating away from Dropbox, however whilst doing so we have noticed the following issue…. (Windows 11 – Latest Dropbox Version). Hence we though this may be useful.

  • Most of our 2TB files are stored as “Online” only using Selective Sync.
  • We then change the file status to “Available offline” so Dropbox copies(sync’s) the files back to the local disk from Dropbox.com.
  • After some time (several hours) the Dropbox app confirms that all files are sync’d and the Dropbox task bar icon also indicates a complete/no activity status.
  • The PC is rebooted and Dropbox is then uninstalled
  • When trying to view via the PC the now sync’d  Zip, Jpeg, Docx some of the files are corrupted/won’t open.
  • As a test using Dropbox.com we manually download a problem file using MS Edge and the files will open correctly.
  • It would seem that the Windows Dropbox client indicates it has finished its jobs even through it hasn’t fully completed syncing … We've also noticed that the corrupted file vs good file byte size are the same. We could duplicate this fault.

Any thoughts ?

desktop
Dropbox Plus
sync
Windows
  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    2 years ago

    Hey Brooknei, thanks for reaching out to the Dropbox Community.

     

    Can you please clarify, how you made the files available offline?

     

    You mentioned selective sync, so did you sync the files back through selective sync settings, in the application preferences?

     

    Or were the files set to "online-only" and you right clicked them and choose to make them "available offline" that way?

     

    With selective sync, when you sync a folder that was previously unsynced, the application will sync it as "online-only", so the issue would make sense, if you uninstalled the Dropbox app without making it available offline first (by right-clicking).

     

    Keep me posted!

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

       

      Hi Hannah .... I hope the below helps ....

       

      Can you please clarify, how you made the files available offline?

      Open File Explorer and navigate to the file or folder.

      Right-click the file or folder and select Make available offline.

       

      The files set to "online-only" and you right clicked them and choose to make them "available offline" that way?

      Correct ... Using the method above.

       

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

        Thanks for the additional info!

         

        And can you also send us a screenshot of the error you're getting when trying to open the synced files?

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