We're making changes to the Community, so you may have received some notifications - thanks for your patience and welcome back. Learn more here.
Forum Discussion
No Option to "Make Available Offline."
Honestly, this seemingly late "bringing to the forefront" (I guess you'd call it) of the whole "Online Only" vs. "Make Available Offline" thing has been more of a headache than a help, if I may offer...
Not sure if this is okay to share but in the interests of keeping everyone in this loop up to date...
Update: My Dropbox context menus are back. This solution works. Fingers crossed it stays that way!!
I have been exchanging emails with a very helpful Dropbox engineer and he has stepped me through a few options. Most didn't work. This latest one does, but it's a step back to a previous stable version of the app.
I was told that Dropbox are working on an updated version of the app that will bring back the context menus as they are aware of the problem. However, this may take a week or more. In the meantime, he suggested I roll back to an older version of the app that still works with the context menus on the latest version of Windows 11. You can find the download link to the install file here: https://www.dropbox.com/downloading?build=158.4.4564&plat=win&type=full&arch=x64
Now, a few things to note:
1. You do not need to uninstall the existing app. Just click and install this older version on top of it. It will override the existing version.2. Give it time. It takes a bit after the install to click online. Check that the older version of the app has "taken" by hovering over the Dropbox app icon and checking the app version. It should be 158.4.4564.
3. After the install is finished, Dropbox will sync and will re-index all your local files on your hard drive in the Dropbox folder. That will take a while, depending on how many files you have and how big the total storage space is. Be patient.
4. Your context menus will slowly come back online in Windows Explorer when you right-click as each file and folder finishes syncing and indexing. If you right-click and the Dropbox context menu isn't showing, it probably means it is still syncing and indexing. Again, be patient. Once that's finished, your context menus should be back for all your files and folders in Dropbox.
5. VERY IMPORTANT. You need to DISABLE the auto-update for Dropbox until the new stable version is installed (when it eventually comes out) and you stay on this version. 158.4.4564. To do that: open Task Manager (CTRL+ALT+DEL) and go to the PROCESSES tab. Scroll down to BACKGROUND PROCESSES and keep scrolling until you get to "Dropbox Update Service (32 bit)" and click on that to highlight it. Then right-click and select "End task." That will disable the auto-update TEMPORARILY.
NOTE: if you reboot your computer, the Dropbox auto-update task will enable again, so each time you reboot, you will need to disable the auto-update process. Just repeat STEP 5. There is no real way to turn it off permanently, and there's a whole Dropbox thread about it. If you want to read about it, it's here. https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Apps-and-Installations/How-to-disable-DropBox-Update/td-p/199292 I wouldn't recommend it anyway because you do actually want the auto update to work, and it's part of Dropbox's policy. I wouldn't mess with it anymore permanently. If you are in contact with a Dropbox engineer via email as part of this issue, they will be able to turn it off for you on their end, but you have to ask.
Good luck.
Shout out to the Dropbox engineer helping me. He was super helpful and very responsive.
Megan
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHey vegasesq, could you confirm your device's exact OS and the version and status of the Dropbox desktop app as shown in your taskbar?
If you could also send us a screenshot of the options you get when you right click on files in your Dropbox folder, we'd appreciate it.
I also have this problem, and no amount of searching seems to provide an answer. It makes it seriously difficult to use dropbox with a laptop. I need to be sure that some files are available offline but the majority of my files can be online only. Right now Dropbox fills my storage on the laptop and there is no option I can find to "make online only". it just doesnt appear anywhere when I riight click on a file a folder. I have Windows 11, and dropbox Pro. I see lots of people complaining of this, but no answers.
What doesn't make sense is that this was NOT a problem about a month ago. What happened that suddenly made this a problem? I always had OneDrive installed so it could be anything relative to that. And Dropbox is still showing mostly in the top 15 -- are you saying that ALL dropbox references have to be in the top 15 in order for that one menu item about "Make available offline" to show up? I think Windows may have gone through some kind of update -- that's the only thing I can think of that would've caused this problem.
- Megan
Hey rmundell & vegasesq, I hope you're both doing well!
You got the version right, vegasesq. No worries, that number shows you're using the stable version of the app. It might sound trivial, but have you tried re-booting your device, by any chance?
Also, rmundell, can you send me a screenshot of what you see when you right click on a file or folder, inside your Dropbox folder, please? If you could also confirm the version of the app installed to the device, that'd be awesome!
Keep me posted!
This has been an issue for at least a month. Yes, I've rebooted my computer multiple times during that time.
here is the screenshot...
The version of Dropbox is 159.4.5870
mine are in the first 15...
Thanks for jumping in. My registry is similar to rmundell. See below. Looks like most of them are Dropbox -- and Dropbox is in the top 15 positions (although a couple of them would fall outside this number). Do I need to move ALL of them to the top 15 (looks like Dropbox takes up 10 already)
- Jay
Hi rmundell, vegasesq, the Dropbox registry entries all need to be in the top positions, and right now in both your images, they're not showing up at he top of the list.
Given that OneDrive and GoogleDrive are taking up the earlier spots (by using extra spaces) this prevents the Dropbox syncing icons from appearing. However, quitting the Google Drive and OneDrive (if you don't use them) would help since those entries would no longer affect the Dropbox app.
Thats a problem because one drive and Google drive are currently more critical for business than Dropbox, although personally I preferred Dropbox until it started to compete with those applications, with a less intuitive interface. All I want dropbox to be is a safe place to store files that I may want to access in the future from different platforms, or to share with other selected people. It used to do that really well. If this limitation is the case currently, then I would have to discontinue Dropbox, after 15 years of use, except it now threatens to wipe out all my files, and I already fear deleting anything because they disappear from everywhere else.
