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Forum Discussion
Dropbox icon with checkbox white interior remains a mystery.
Megan from the DropBox staff offered some help to an earlier post entitled "Dropbox icon and folder status on a Mac” but despite my replies, the discussion went dead seven days ago. I still have outstanding questions and would like to revive the discussion. I have selected the preference that all files and folders be available off-line on my primary MacBook, however, I have a mix of checkboxes, that is to say both kinds… green interior and a white check mark and white interior with a green checkmark.
Below is the explanation link that Megan supplied, but there's no mention of the check mark with white interior, which was puzzling because I had seen but lost another page earlier that included that in the explanations.
In looking at this article about syncing icons and reference was made to the DropBox desktop app, which aside from the icon that lives next to the Time Machine icon in the upper right menu bar in the Finder, I'm not really sure what the dropbox desktop app is? Yes it appears in the application folder, but if I double click on it, it simply takes me to the designated dropbox folder within my User folder. Which, by the way, except for emergencies, that is the only way I work with DropBox. The primary thing I want to do is faithfully mirror the activity of the Finder “DropBox” folder on the primary MacBook and have the files and folders populate to other devices.
Finally, all my posts from the last month or so started re. puzzling changes to modification dates following a migration from an old MacBook to a new one. In nearly 40 years of using a Macintosh this has been one of the most challenging technical snafus I've ever encountered.
Thanks,
Paul
syncing icons based on this article?
- Megan
Dropbox Staff
Hey Paul D.4, thanks for posting again to our Community!
Would you be able to send me a couple of screenshots from the icon you're talking about, in order for me to have a visual?
You should be able to attach your screenshot by clicking the camera-like icon when replying back to us.
Keep me posted, and we'll take it from there!
There's a paperclip icon, a link icon, emoji etc., but no camera
I don't see a camera icon.
I'm on a Mac and have tried three different browsers
The green checkmark in the white circle that I've been asking after remains when I've moved files out of the dropbox folder into an ordinary Finder folder adding to the mystery. Can you explain this?
Thanks Jay, now that I know that's possible. Here's a screen grab of the dropbox Finder folder - the cloud icon has gone away since I set the preference to "available off-line" now it is just the two different color checkmarks. The Dropbox icon with checkbox white interior is not described in the article about icons I was directed to, can you explain the difference between the two types of checkmarks?
The other behavior at the heart of my original posts is the way DropBox will bulk change last modified dates that has nothing to do with actual modification on my part, there's this churning where, unlike the behavior on my old MacBook folder modification dates are constantly churning in spite of the fact, no modifications have been made. Note the way all these folders have the same date which does not reflect the reality of usage and modification
ignore the earlier images as they are a little dated, although somewhat representative. If I could draw your attention to this one that I just took, but needed some extra steps to blur.
To recap need an explanation why there are two kinds of checkboxes, and secondly, the screen grab exhibits the bulk changing of modification dates attribute to bold to DropBox and not buy any activity on my part
- Jay
The sync icons with a full green icon mean that the file or folder is fully available offline.
The green outlined icon with a tick inside only applies for folders, and means that there is at least one file inside that folder that is online-only. This article provides more information on those icons.
Regarding the modification date of the folders, these wouldn't be accurate across all devices for the reasons listed in this article.
Thanks, Jay, I will read these articles, but if I set the preference that everything should be "available off-line" why would any files given this preference setting be "online-only" - please explain
- Jay
The setting in the Dropbox desktop application is only for new files added via the site or another another device. If you want to mark the entire Dropbox folder as available offline, you'll need to right click the Dropbox folder itself, and then choose the available offline/local option.
Hi Jay, I appreciate those links. As I read how the checkmark icons reflect the status of folders I can't really understand the difference between the two. #2 seems like a long, confusing way of saying much the same thing as #1. Can you help me understand the difference?
- For folders, this icon means all files in the folder are available offline.
2. For folders, this icon means there is at least one available file in the folder, but no online-only files. There can also be files that are available offline in the folder.
