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Forum Discussion
Smart Sync and Quick Preview on Mac
Smart Sync causes my quick preview function (spacebar) to not function properly on my Mac. I can't preview thumbnails, or quick preview any videos or photos. Any ideas why this happens?
Likely because you're trying to preview a file that doesn't exist on your computer.
When you set a file to Online Only, the only thing that's left of that file on your computer is the necessary information to make it appear in the folder. Since there's no content in the file, your OS (nor any other program) is able to preview it.
Remember, when you set a file to Online Only, the file is removed from the computer leaving behind only a marker file. In order to access that file, whether it be to open and edit it or simply preview it, the file needs to be on the computer (Smart Sync doesn't allow you to open files directly from the Dropbox servers). When you open a file, it's synced back to your local drive and then opened as normal. When you're done with the file, if you want it to be online-only again, you need to mark it as such.
I am having the same issue as the above posters. I just installed Dropbox the other day (after upgrading to High Sierra). Now, none of my files can be previewed in Finder. When I relaunch Finder, previews will show again for a few minutes, but then the same issue happens again and I can't preview files anymore. I have tried turning off Smart Sync and online-only settings, but it hasn't worked. How do I turn off the online-only setting so that all of my files can be downloaded and previewed in Finder?
I am having this same issue. Previews sporadically working on High Sierra. Having to Force close Finder just to get it working for a few moments. This absolutely is a bug that needs to be fixed. They will of course not admit that.
So far my Dropbox customer service experience has been terrible. It took them 7 days to allow me to upgrade my plus account to pro. I am now experiencing these issues and I will not hold my breath about Dropbox caring in the least bit. I think each person simply has to decide if they can live with this arrangement.
- Jane
Dropbox Staff
Anyone tried is the same problem also in the latest Mojave betas?
Mojave is coming out today and as always I'm really afraid of upgrading because of dropbox and how well it will work with the new OS.
Just as I feared, the problem is actually much worse in Mojave. We did a clean install of Mojave for two new Macbook Pro's and the quick preview stopped working completely after using dropbox for a while.
The only new thing is that force quitting finder no longer fixes the issue temporarily. Rebooting does not fix it either. Great stuff!
DO NOT UPDATE TO MOJAVE YET IF YOU WANT TO USE QUICK PREVIEW IN FINDER
Has anyone here considered switching to Box.com, or already using Box and not having any of these issues? I use to be on Box through my previous job and never had issues like this. Im nearing desperate to move on from this issue as I have to look through tons of photos a day and this is really hindering my productivity.
Lauri I. God, that sucks. Sorry for all of the frustration you've probably encountered, but thank you for passing the info along.
LeahlcMy employer is actually in process of testing out Box— apparently it doesn't suffer from the same syncing issues, but only time will tell. Fingers crossed!
In the meantime, I'm cancelling my (personal) subscription later today. It's just not worth the headache anymore, especially with customer service putting the blame on the user and/or claiming that it's "The OS's fault" (guys, guess what, you're supposed to update your software as the OS gets updated) — Imagine the lovely responses we're going to get when our information is compromised or when data is lost (which will inevitably will happen at some point).
At this point, Dropbox isn't exactly the type of company I'm cool with safekeeping all of my work docs— especially if they can't be bothered to fix a problem as fundamental to most of our workflows as this.Good luck out there everyone.
CNowell, I'd love to hear how Box works out for you. I've found the only thing that works is syncing everything locally, which defeats the purpose of SmartSync for me (smaller hard drive, more files stored in cloud). So I'm currently archiving things to Dropbox but not using SmartSync the way I like, which means I can drop my plan down a notch and save a bunch of money. But if Box can actually do it right, their $15 plan looks terrific to me - and less than I'm paying for DropBox.
So has the issue been resolved at all? I had issue on High Sierra and now also on Mojave.
