Aliases dont work after Dropbox upgrade on MacOS

[tcoates]

I have used aliases extensively to organize my DBOX ..  all within DBOX.  For example, i have a folder "ToDO" full of aliases that point to folders that contain projects.  I have 4 Macs ..  and the user names are not identical .. and this system works across all machines, so i am guessing the links are relative.

I recently re-installed Mac#1  with Ventura, and installed DBOX and upgraded,  so the DBOX is now in user/lib/cloud/dbox.  And none of the aliases work.     It took almost 24 hours for DBOX to download 52 GB locally, and after 2 days DBOX is still "indexing"  

1     should i just wait and hope it finishing indexing and then it may work?

2    is there some kind of alias or other link i can establsh that will make all the aliases work?  i dont want to have to re-do all of them .. and then they may not work on the other machines.   

3    i suppose upgradeing the other machines may help unify the aliases .. but i would still have to re-do them all ..

I would really appreciate your advice ..     this over-aliases system really helps with my work and i would like to save it !!

tom

[Megan]

Hi @tcoates, let's jump right into this! 

Keep in mind that following a migration to the new Dropbox for macOS, your files need to be re-synced. Depending on the amount of files you have in your Dropbox, this may take some time to complete.

There are some things you can check to ensure that the migration and the re-sync is still progressing and not stuck.

Click the Dropbox icon in the menu bar at the top of your screen, then take note of the time and the number of files that are currently syncing—this will be displayed at the bottom of the window that appears.
Wait a while then repeat step 2. If the number of files that are syncing has reduced, then it may be worth waiting a little longer to see if the syncing completes.

Do you see a number of files there, or just the message "indexing"? 

If the number of files has not reduced it might be worth checking out the troubleshooting steps outlined in this article.

Also, have you tried creating a new alias as a test to see if they work now? Please know that aliases were never actually supported in the first place and Dropbox, by design, needs you to have the files inside of Dropbox and then alias/junction at the other location.

Keep me posted!

[tcoates]

Hi Megan

I think the syncing completed yesterday or late the day before.  It was listing numbers of files .. than said it was complete.  When i looked at the DBOX folder, it has 53 GB there ... so the files were downloaded.      I selected several direcrtories and made them "online only"  but i cannot tell if that happened.

Now all it says is "indexing" ...    this is on my newly setup MacBookM1-ventura.  My current older macbook and mac-mini just say "your files are uptodate.     The DBOX folder is in   username/Dropbox  in the older machines .. and i have not updated them to the latest DBOX ..

The new machines work fine ... including aliases ..   again note, that i have only used aliases from within DBOX folders,  and they work on oldmachine1 and oldmachine2  eventhough my usernames are slightly different on these two machines.

So .. how can i tell if "indexing" is stuck" ..     again, 52 GB in DBOX and lots of aliases ... so probably a lot of indexing to do ..

Really appreciate you input.

tom

[Walter]

Hey @tcoates, sorry to jump in here, but could you send us a screenshot of the app's exact status and version as shown in your menu bar at the moment on the new computer?

Do you see any files with the sync in progress icon in your Dropbox folder?

Let  us know what you find, Tom. 

[tcoates]

Hi Walter 

I Was exploring Ventura Preferences .. its new to me .. and i saw that dropbox did not have access to my disk as a couple of other things .  i fixed these ..  and the aliases still do not work.

When i rebooted DBOX said it was indexing one file .. then i deleted a couple of the files it said is was syncing in teh last 7 days and it now says "syncing 4 files" ..   the version number when i hover over the DBOX icon in the menubar  is 174.4.5852     the DBOX icon keep disappearing from the menubar .. requires a re-boot to get it back.

I tried to attach a screen shot

really appreciate your time ...    tom

[Walter]

Hey @tcoates, sorry for the tardy response, are you still having issues with this?

As for your aliases, have you tried re-doing them anew after the upgrade to the new version of the desktop app for Mac OS?

[tcoates · Accepted solution]

Hi Walter ..  thanks for the response .. and sorry for not paying attention ... 

So,  everything is fixed, and i am not sure why !!!    In case it is helpful to others:

1.  i keep all my data files in DBOX and access for 4 different Macs.  One mainly .. So my data / docs file structure is the same on all machines and within the local DBOX.

2.  All machines except one running Ventura .. other on Monterey

3.  uninstalled and then reinstalled DBOX one machine at a tile upgrading to the new version of DBOX than puts the DBOX dir in the Library/cloudstuff ... or whatever ..  

4. I told the install to leave everything ONLINE.  So, the install went pretty fast, as did the SYNC..     i think this was part of the problem before .. it was trying to sync 50 GB of data ..     

5. Then,  when the install was complete,  i made only selected folders "available local".   did this on each machine.   

Now for the great part:   i have a folder called TODO which is basically a folder wilth aliases to various projects.   This folder works on ALL OF THE MACHINES.    I use Cocoatech Pathfinde and make this a permanent tab on all machines.   I can take tag the alias using the colored TAGS that are part of the FINDER on apple so if i press the RED tag, all the most importat projects tagged come up .. the same behavisou on all machines .. 

I did have to FIX some aliases after all this, but now the aliasa work for all machines,  ie newly added aliasa work everywhere.

now DBOX, OneDrive, and iCloud are all in their proper place and seem to work happily together, though DBOX in my main storage ..  

Thanks    for your help ... now, i am just livin the dream ..

tom

[Walter]

Glad to hear that and thanks for keeping us in the loop too, Tom.

See you around the Community and take care!