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

Andrew-RFLB's avatar
Andrew-RFLB
Helpful | Level 5
8 years ago

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?
desktop
Mac
Setting up the apps
  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    8 years ago

    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.

Jane's avatar
Jane
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

Thanks for checking in with us on the Dropbox Community (Andrewbond)! Following your post here, I’ve sent you a brief message on the email connected to your Forum profile (as I’ll need to have direct access to your account specifics to further address this issue). You may have a look at your inbox at your earliest convenience if you’d like us to work on that together. Thanks again Andrew; looking forward to hearing back from you!

Ckrupinsky's avatar
Ckrupinsky
Helpful | Level 6
6 years ago
I’ve had the exact same problem for over 8 months as Andrew asked above “when will this be fixed?” We’d like that question answered for all of us that have been coming to the community for this answer. So that question again is “when will this be fixed?” We’d all like to know. Not just Andrew. Post the answer to the question “when will this be fixed” in this thread please.

When will this be fixed? Or what is the solution? Post here please please please.

I’ve lost my patience will this NOT SOLVED ticket.

About Apps and Installations

Have a question about a Dropbox app or installation? Reach out to the Dropbox Community and get solutions, help, and advice from members.

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!