Forum Discussion

Helpful | Level 5

10 months ago

Solved

InDesign will freeze if we try to open files that are online-only

Please note that we have a Dropbox shared among multiple employees. Since yesterday, we've encountered the following issue:

Whenever we try to open any files, such as InDesign or Photoshop files, through Dropbox that have a cloud status, the application freezes. To work around this, we need to right-click on the file in Dropbox, select "Save Offline," and then open it in InDesign through Dropbox. This problem did not occur before. If we don't save the file offline first in Dropbox, InDesign will freeze until we quit Dropbox, reopen it, save the file offline, and then open it again through Dropbox to work on it.

For example, if we click on one of these items that has a transparent X to open files from Dropbox in InDesign, InDesign will freeze first like in img1:

img1

second dropbox freeze also, for example if you right click on any dropbox file , no option to save the file offline or online .... like img2 :

img2

the only solution is first to quit the dropbox then open it again when dropbox became like img3 :

img3

then make the file you want to open through InDesign, Photoshop, or any other app available offline first. Then, you should be able to open it without any problems.

Another problem we're encountering is with opening files from Dropbox in InDesign. The first time we open a file, it displays correctly with icons like in img3. However, the second time we open a file, it appears like img1, with the dark green icon missing and the cloud icon becoming a transparent X. To restore the correct display (like img3), we have to quit Dropbox and reopen it.

Please address this issue as it affects multiple desktops and laptops used by six different users from various companies. Some of these users are on Windows 10, while others are on Windows 11. The problem started appearing yesterday.

desktop

sync

Third Party Integrations

Windows

Rich
7 years ago
That won't do you any good. There are so many things that affect speed that you could have two people with an identical setup and still have wildly different speeds. Your computer, your local network, your ISP, the route your traffic takes to get to Dropbox, the Dropbox network and servers, congestion along any part of the route to Dropbox, throttling by your ISP (very common), failures along the route that cause your traffic to take another path, etc.

Simply put, there is no expected speed. You get whatever speed you're capable of given all the factors above, and many others.

34 Replies

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Hannah
Dropbox Staff
10 months ago
Hey AL ARABY, thanks for reaching out to us.

Were you previously able to open online-only (cloud icon) files without making them available offline first?

If you now manually make all the files available offline first, before you open them through InDesign, does it help?

Keep me posted.
- RSTirendi
  Explorer | Level 4
  10 months ago
  Dropbox, PLEASE rollback the latest update. Since we dont have the option to turnoff updates, it is incumbent on dropbox to roll it back until you have fixed the current version.
- AL ARABY
  Helpful | Level 5
  10 months ago
  @Hannah, Any update concerning the issue , many users vs same issue , so its clear that the issue from updates, please update us concerning this critical issue?
aliwihbi
Helpful | Level 6
10 months ago
Yes, if I manually make all the files available offline first before opening them through InDesign or any app, the issue is resolved, but the problem that InDesign stop freeze but Dropbox look like the attached video link , no option for sync online or offline or view online , its look like no dropbox i should quit to make this show again every time . My concern is why I need to do this? it hard to do every time we have so much files . Previously, when I opened a folder in InDesign, even if the file in Dropbox had an online-only (cloud) status, it would download to my computer and open normally in InDesign. Now, this leads to InDesign freezing and Dropbox appearing like img2.

How to request for a remote session to check the issue
- Hannah
  Dropbox Staff
  10 months ago
  Hey AL ARABY, unfortunately, we can't access your computer remotely or access the video that you attached there.
  
  Would it be possible to send us a series of screenshots showing the issue, instead?
  - aliwihbi
    Helpful | Level 6
    10 months ago
    Dear Hannah,
    
    Please be aware that we've been experiencing an issue similar to the screenshot (img 2) previously attached. The problem is that Dropbox appears not work(not show status or show online or show offline...), and we need to quit the application every time to make appears like img 3 . This is our main concern. Do you have another version that could resolve this issue, or can you escalate the issue?
    you do any updates for Dropbox from yesterday?
    Our version is 202.45551
    
    We have a subscription for 132 TB for 8 years and have had an excellent experience with Dropbox. I'm confident you can assist us in resolving this issue, which has affected the entire team since yesterday. We require support to address this, so please escalate my problem. I'm contacting you as the IT representative for our company, not as a regular user.
    
    Regards
Hannah
Dropbox Staff
10 months ago
Hey brad94, are you only missing the "make online-only"/"make available offline" right-click options, or all Dropbox right-click options?
chrispmil
Explorer | Level 4
10 months ago
I have the exact same issue started happening on the 26th june and file thats are "online only" would crash indesign when i try to open them.
Never had a problem previously, my only solution has been to download everything i am working on and take them out of dropbox - which kind of defeats the object of paying a cloud service!
markusinit
Explorer | Level 3
10 months ago
Hi all,

I hope you can help me. I have scoured the internet for solutions and none have worked thus far.

I am a Graphic Designer and I am currently tasked with creating user manuals for my companies products. As a company, we use a shared Dropbox folder which has a vast library of asset folders, a lot of which I don't require access to as they are CAD drawings. The preferences are currently online only (I know from previous searches that online only is sometimes the issue, but I'll come back to that) and selected sync, as I only need access to a few of the folders on the Dropbox desktop app. Dropbox storage isn't an issue as only 20.53% of 2TB's have been used.

On Wednesday, I encountered multiple issues with Dropbox and Indesign CC. When trying to place a file from the company dropbox onto Indesign, both the File Explorer and Indesign itself would freeze. This meant I had to Control Alt Delete and End Task. I would then open the file again, and various odd things were happening. Sometimes the file would open normally with no error messages. Sometimes I would be met with a file recovery message. Sometimes the file would open, but it would be called Untitled-1.indd. Sometimes the file would open and Indesign would ask me to re-link all of the files placed within the document, and when I tried to do this, I would get an error message about not being able to locate the file, or it would crash when re-linking. Sometimes Indesign would let me place one file, maybe two before freezing again. Sometimes Indesign would freeze or take about 5 minutes when trying to package the files. This process should only take seconds.

When opening the Indesign file, Dropbox seemed to have trouble syncing the Indesign lock file (idlk). I would either get the error message "1 file is unable to sync", or it would just get stuck on "syncing files". The odd thing is, when I closed the Indesign file (indd), the lock file (idlk) would still show as syncing, which makes no sense. Why try sync a lock file if the parent file is already closed?

Currently the attempts I have made to resolve the issues are as follows:

The standard IT Crowd "hello IT have you tried turning it off and on again?" fix - no effect.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Indesign - no effect.

I have tried clearing the cache on Indesign - no effect.

IT helpdesk accessed my PC remotely and tried uninstalling and reinstalling Dropbox - no effect.

I have tried dragging Indesign files from Dropbox to my desktop - no effect and this was causing the company One Drive to have sync issues also.

I tried downloading files from the Dropbox.com website rather than the desktop app - downloading files from the Drobox.com to place them on the Indesign document do not sync, and then would freeze when trying to re-link them after deleting them from the downloads folder.

I have spoken to our IT helpdesk company twice, and the chap I spoke with seemed completely stumped. The other colleague who has Adobe CC is also having the same issue, so it can't be my PC. As you can imagine, this is immensely frustrating to not be able to do my job, and I have lost two and a half days worth of work attempting to fix something that has worked absolutely fine in the 18 months I have worked for the company.

My last ditch attempt at fixing the issue is to set the Dropbox folder to Offline only, so Dropbox is currently syncing 35,000+ files (around 52GB), which will take a while, so I'll update this post if it works. I am not hopeful, however, given that it is essentially the same principal as dragging files off the dropbox to the desktop. As I mentioned previously, I had already attempted this but to no avail. The freezing issue still persisted.

So the two main issues are the Indesign (idlk) lock file not syncing properly with Dropbox, and Indesign freezing when trying to either place an image or even save, export or package the file.

I hope someone somewhere out there in the ether can assist.

Thanks

Rob
- Nejc_R
  Helpful | Level 5
  10 months ago
  I (kinda) figured out a work around for avoiding freezing all the time. It's only a temporare and the issue must be resolved by DB as by all the accounts seen the fault comes from their side.
  If you're working with online only files:
  1. set desired files and links to offline only and wait to sync
  2. turn off DB
  3. open and operate Indesign
  4. save/export files and close Indesign
  5. open DB, let it sync
  
  If you're working with offline only files just ignore the first step.
  
  But as I said, this should not be the norm now. It's recognised the issue (not known before) comes from the last update and DB must react to it accordingly.
  - rjl104
    Helpful | Level 5
    10 months ago
    We've also been getting users to do this as seems the only practical way for users to work with InDesign at the moment.
rjl104
Helpful | Level 5
10 months ago
We also have a large team that work with Adobe CC. Dropbox is the entire basis for our distributed working model. It has always worked amazingly well with a multi-TB drive where majority of files are kept offline except for projects users are actively working on. In the past week we've been plagued by pauses and freezes, mainly using InDesign and Acrobat and some users have had to resort to working outside dropbox. We would really like to go back to an old version of dropbox when things worked perfectly!