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Forum Discussion
What is going on with Dropbox on MacOS? Spotlight and Finder don't work!!
Dropbox randomly updated to some new version and said everything is moving to Library/CloudStorage or something like that,
now I can't open files directly in Spotlight OR find using folder search i...
Hi Jay,
Finally after 7 months of basically not being able to use my laptop I found the solution in another thread.
I have managed to fix this. (For reference, I have tried re-indexing Spotlight using command line, and does not work).
- Open System Preferences and go to Spotlight's Privacy tab.
- Add the entire hard disk INTO the Privacy list.
- Maybe wait 30s.
- Remove the hard disk FROM the Privacy list.
@davidarden also posted the solution in another Dropbox thread: https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Create-upload-and-share/Dropbox-is-not-searchable-in-Mac-OS-Monterey-12-0-1/m-p/626720/highlight/true#M58591
I am having the same issue. The other threads refer to Spotlight not finding files, which is different than my issue. I appear to have the same problem as OP. Files can be found, but they simply can't be opened, though. This how they look:
There is this weird scrunched Finder icon next to the file names. I can open folders, but not specific files. I tried changing my file type association back and forth, no dice. Tried rebooting, all the usual nonsense.
Dropbox v165.4.4300
MacOS 13.1 (22C65)
- How can I downgrade to the last version that worked properly? I don’t want this new version in cloud storage library folder I want it the way it was before
I just upgraded to new Dropbox version and search appears to be screwed. I can see my files, I can open them no problem. But if I enter *ANY* search criteria in Finder, I get empty results.
To add insult to injury, I tried reaching out to Dropbox chat support and I am told that it is an Apple problem.
Needless to say this is totally unacceptable. If anyone from Dropbox support is reading this, then please address this immediately. Otherwise I'm thru with Dropbox.
- Hannah
Dropbox Staff
Hey eheilner, since the Dropbox folder was moved to a new location, it needs to be re-indexed.
Can you please open the Dropbox folder, wait a little bit and then retry the search, to see if it works?
If not, you might need to re-index the entire disk.
Note: The article mentions the 'Documents' folder, but you need to use the 'Dropbox' folder instead.
Same thing. Post the MacOS upgrade, all my Excel files lost their Excel icons, and were replaced with Finder icons, and then Spotlight was no longer a means to open these files. You could tell that clicking on a file offered by Spotlight would trigger DropBox to start working (tiny clock appeared on DB icon) but then the open operation failed.
This is really amazing that DropBox not only unleashed this much damage, but is not acknowledging it yet.
I had to back up my entire laptop, erase the laptop entirely, reinstall MacOS. And the problem still did not get solved.
