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
Spotlight Search Doesn't Link to Files in Dropbox in macOS 13 Ventura
After upgrading to macOS Ventura, I was prompted to upgrade to "Dropbox for macOS 12". I proceeded with that, it moved my Dropbox folder to ~/Library/CloudStorage and confirmed all was successful. No...
- That’s the same problem I had. I solved it by doing a complete clean install of dropbox. You may not need to do all of this, but to be safe, in Dropbox settings Selective Sync uncheck all of your folders and wait for them to be removed from your Mac. Once that’s done, unlink your Mac from Dropbox preferences. You should see the Dropbox getting started screen. Quit Dropbox and move the app to the Trash. Remove all dropbox files from ~/Library being careful to look at the path name. Only remove things that are within a Dropbox parent folder. Look in library application support, and library preferences. Empty the Trash. Restart your Mac. Reinstall Dropbox from dropbox.com. Once reinstalled, to make things faster sync only one small folder and wait for the prompt that new Dropbox for macOS 12 is available. You should see the message within a few minutes of reinstalling Dropbox. Allow it to upgrade and migrate your files to the new location. Once that’s done you can then sync all your folders. Let your Mac index itself and the problem should be solved.
I have tried re-indexing but Search is still not working. Can you please make the previous version of Dropbox available to MacOS users until such time as this is fixed? Thanks!
Re-indexing won’t work (some people falsely believe this works)
Dropbox themselves published that it won’t work and yet their staff on these forums deceive us into attempting these futile attempts to resolve
Just fix the software Dropbox or give us the old version it works fine, not sure why you changed it you’ve created many more problems to a solution nobody asked for
Dropbox themselves published that it won’t work and yet their staff on these forums deceive us into attempting these futile attempts to resolve
Just fix the software Dropbox or give us the old version it works fine, not sure why you changed it you’ve created many more problems to a solution nobody asked for
Okay.
So this discussion here started in last November. So many users here have complained about the changes.
The only way available to get Dropbox work as it was previously is, to uninstall, reinstall, then “keep it from being upgraded to the version for Ventura”.
I guess Dropbox engineers will not want to fix this issue.
I (or we) just want Dropbox guys announce either of “we are aware of the issue and trying to fix it”, or “it's the new specification and you'll have to accept this behaviour”. However, after three months since this thread initially opened, there is no such announcement from Dropbox.
I think I'll have to switch from Dropbox to other service(s) very soon.- I recommend pCloud so far so good
If Dropbox don’t fix this I’m switching permanently (although it will be painful) but that will be after a decade of business with Dropbox across multiple accounts I will be leaving Hey kohj,
The problem here is that you need the older version. I spent a few minutes on the Dropbox site but could find anywhere to obtain older versions.
I did, however, find this site which seems to have older versions: https://dropbox.en.uptodown.com/mac/versions
What's even weirder, is that on my computers which I did NOT upgrade (and on which search works) it shows the same release as my computer with the new (broken) version: v167.4.4719
This is very discouraging. Dropbox is not perfect but it's been good enough for me for over 10 years. But like you, if they do not fix this I will have to find another solution.
And - as you said - the lack of any response from Dropbox support is unprofessional.
I will experiment with some of these older versions later today and get back.
I do not think Dropbox team will answer. At least here in this forum. It's a part of their politics - to answer means to accept there is some issue. No answer - no problem😊
The "best" way ist just mark this case as "solved" in order to involve into this issue more and more users which do not know they have to avoid a last update, provided by Dropbox. They could deactivate update notification to avoid this frustration, but they do not. And I guess, they wont..
eheilner san, thank you so much for the link to older versions.
Downgrading Dropbox is, after all, one of the “temporary hacks” until the Dropbox company releases the fixed version.
However, we cannot strongly believe that they will release the fixed version.
Anyway I submitted a “Support Ticket” online, for Dropbox's current standpoint and status. Let's see what I will receive...
Update: I got an initial reply from the support team, but it was just like the “template”, like this:
As I understand you are having issues when using Spotlight search to open your files.
Please try the following to resolve the issue:
- Open the Dropbox folder in Finder, wait a little while, then retry the Spotlight search.
- Since the Dropbox folder was moved to a new location with the new macOS update, it needs to be re-indexed. Opening the folder can prompt this.
- Another reason is that the entire disk might need to be reindexed. Follow these instructions from Apple to rebuild the Spotlight index.
- Note: The help article mentions the Documents folder, but you need to use the Dropbox folder instead.
- Also note: In some cases the entire hard disk may need to be re-indexed.
If none of the above steps seem to help, please let me know and I can investigate further.Then I sent him back with details. Let's see what comes next.
- Open the Dropbox folder in Finder, wait a little while, then retry the Spotlight search.
- The support team haven’t offered any solutions - same old generic responses
The next reply (in response to my lengthy description of the issue) sounds somewhat hopeful:
Thank you for alerting us to this problem. Dropbox engineers are aware of the problem and are working on a solution.
Sorry for any inconvenience this is causing. We'll update you shortly on this issue.I sincerely hope this “shortly” will come very shortly.
- Do you have their email address this person from Dropbox? Can we email them directly to push them
It wont help - they wont response. You have to open a ticket. But if you do, it wont help as well, because solutions they provide doesn't work. Stay on the old version and do not update! There are no other solutions at the moment
