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Forum Discussion
I worked on and synced a file and it synced as 0 bytes
I was working on a R script. The moment I saved the file and quit RStudio, the script file which is synced in a dropbox folder is turned to a 0 byte file. When I tried to open the file from dropbox w...
Are you on a Mac by any chance?
Mac's create 0 byte files which are then populated with data as they are 'saved'. It sounds like Dropbox has saved the 0byte file that was created at the start of the save but then its not sync'd correctly due to the error given - which my guess is because Dropbox then locked that file while it sync'd. Thats almost certainly why its not saved updates as well during day unless you are over quota and so syncing isnt working.
Unfortunately if its not saved locally (to the folder) or available as a recovered file when you open the software its not saved and so not recoverable. It wont be in recycle bin etc. unless you actually moved it there.
www.dropbox.com/events will show you what has sync'd to the system.
Mark
Super User II
Super User IIAre you on a Mac by any chance?
Mac's create 0 byte files which are then populated with data as they are 'saved'. It sounds like Dropbox has saved the 0byte file that was created at the start of the save but then its not sync'd correctly due to the error given - which my guess is because Dropbox then locked that file while it sync'd. Thats almost certainly why its not saved updates as well during day unless you are over quota and so syncing isnt working.
Unfortunately if its not saved locally (to the folder) or available as a recovered file when you open the software its not saved and so not recoverable. It wont be in recycle bin etc. unless you actually moved it there.
www.dropbox.com/events will show you what has sync'd to the system.
I have this same issue - except it's all of a sudden. Every new doc I create looks fine in Dropbox, but then is 0 bytes so I can't send it to anyone or see it in say Word. I'm on a Mac. It doesn't matter whether I create it in Word and save to Dropbox or create in Dropbox as a Word doc. I'm freaking out that everything I've written in the last... who knows... is now not available outside of Dropbox unless I cut and paste? It shows "up to date" for syncing but says disc created online are not available in desktop apps. What is the point of Dropbox if I can't access my files outside of it? I'm confused. I guess I need to always write in Word and then save to Dropbox? My problem is Word constantly crashes, but that's another story... or I just need to get rid of Dropbox and go 100% with Google docs. Thanks for any advice!
- Jay
Dropbox Staff
Hi JanaV, could you clarify this in more detail? How soon after you upload it to Dropbox does the file become zero bytes?
Is it zero bytes on the site first, or on the machine first, which then syncs to the site?
Thanks for the reply, Jay. It seems to be immediate. Even if it's online-only, it is 0 bytes although it's still there in dropbox and I can work with it. So if I want to attach it to an email, I have to copy and paste it into a Word doc and save it on my hard drive or desktop. I guess it may have something to do with this: https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/desktop/macos-12-monterey-support but I hope they fix it soon since it's difficult not to be able to have full access. It's especially problematic for another reason - my Word crashes continually and so I can't really work on the desktop app for Word! I was just hoping there was another work around other than copy and paste since I have long files - book chapters - that I have to cut and paste by hand and it's a pain.
Hi,
I have the same issue with Rstudio files. If I leava Rstudio opened, I can sse the script. However, if I close it, and try to open it in another PC with my dropbox, the file opens as empty...and it says 0kb.
I don't see a solution on the thread, although its marked as solved? what should we do?
thanks,
- Megan
Hi gafap, thanks for posting here today!
Have you checked some of the troubleshooting steps that we offered throughout this thread?
Could you please clarify how you save the file in Dropbox when you are finished editing, and the version of the app that you're using?
Keep me posted!
