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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.
Minato
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox Staff
I did ask via Twitter about this issue, specifically how to remove the smart sync because it was messing the preview of all my files.
@minato well I had to remove it completely for everything to work again, a shame I'm really interested in the service but I value the quickpreview OSX has more =/
- Minato
I'm sorry to hear that but it's understanable.
Unfortunately, previewing files that don't exist physically on the computer, can't be previewed,
as Smart Sync creates a shadow placehorder.
Don't hesitate to contact us for any other issues or suggestions you might have!
- That was not the issue, I couldn't preview files that were actually saved locally, and it also messed files outside of my dropbox folder in my computer (for example those in my desktop or my documents that weren't synced to dropbox) Of course I understand you can't preview files that' don't exist, it messed ALL my files.
NorahI've been writing about the same issue in another post and will also write a ticket.
My observations about the problem:
- Occurs when opening finder preview images (spacebar) in "Online only" folder. It show's previews for few files but after that it stops showing them and will not show any preview files even in local files outside dropbox
- Only fix is to Force quit Finder when this happens
- Everyone in our work team who use High Sierra has this problem (we all use smart sync)
- Did not happen before High Sierra
- Still happens after clean High Sierra install / installing latest dropbox client
Hope it will get fixed soon!
- Norah
Please send the email with a guide to troubleshooting to me aswell. We have the same problem in our office.
- Norah
Has this issue actually been fixed or are Dropbox Support emailing individuals to troubleshoot?
It's a little misleading to consider this problem "solved" when the solve was support saying they'd go the email route, and not follow up with any information about what the fix was.
This is a big problem for myself and many of the art directors at the business I work at. I'm currently runnig OSX 10.13.4, and I hardly consider force quitting Finder to be a solve. Anyone know what the conflict seems to be?
