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Forum Discussion
Dropbox M1 (Apple Silicon) Mac "Open With.." issue.
I rely heavily on "deep links" to open Dropbox files in native Mac Apps. I upgraded to a new M1 MacBook Pro and updated Dropbox to the version that supports Apple Silicon and Big Sur. Dropbox synching works fine, but if I click on a link (from a colleague over Slack, for instance), when it opens the file in the browser, I no longer have the option to "Open with..." local Mac apps. For instance, we use Microsoft Apps (Word/Excel/Powerpoint) and whereas it for instance used to show the local Word app for a doc/docx file, it now only shows Word Online. That's super annoying because the Online versions are much more limited.
I believe this may be a Flash issue, as it seems the "Open with..." menu somehow relies on Flash, and Flash support is ending in December -- I'm wondering if Flash is just not supported on M1 Macs period (I have Flash installed but no idea if it's working or not).
I've tried several browsers (Safari, FireFox, Chrome, Edge, Opera) and the same issue with all browsers, so it's not a browser issue.
My workaround for right now, is to use the Dropbox status bar icon and the "Teams" icon to find the latest files my colleagues have uploaded, but this doesn't work for anything older than a day or two since they get buried.
Any ideas on way forward here? Given the death of Flash, surely Dropbox needs to come up with a new solution?!
Can you tell me how you acquired the native Apple Silicon version of DropBox? I downloaded the latest installer and it installed an Intel only version. Chat with support was unable to direct me to a native version.
Just to update this thread, this is now (finally) working for me again. I assume Dropbox updated something on their side so that it no longer relies on Flash. YAY!
So much for keeping you updated as they promised...
/sigh
- Lusil
Dropbox Staff
Hi there mickliq, thanks for dropping by.
Could you make sure that the desktop app is running when you navigate through the web to find the "Open with" button?
You can check that by seeing if the Dropbox icon sits on the menu bar, next to your computer's clock.
If it is there, could you also let me know what it shows when you hover over it?
Give me a nudge whenever you have the time to check this out!
Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
Yes, of course Dropbox is running (I referred to in as part of the workaround...)
What I see in the "Open with" depends on the file type I choose, but basically for "Office" type files, it will suggest a choice of relevant Office 365 Online app and Google docs app. Again in my example of a doc/docx file, it would show Open in Word Online or Google Docs. For an xls it would suggest Excel Online or Google Sheets...and so on.
Sorry I hit send too quickly.
In terms of what it says in the status bar when I hover over it, it says Dropbox 111.3.447 | Up to date
It is completely awful and unacceptable that Dropbox Paper does not work with M1 Macs yet.
What is Dropbox doing about this?
No M1 web browsers can reliably edit Paper docs. It seems entirely random.
And "Open in app" is just broken.
You can also try this open source solution to create direct deep link between dropbox files directly in the Finder : https://github.com/RomainPct/BoxFinder
