No Option to "Make Available Offline."

[Jayson L.]

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 my opinion.

I purchased a new ultra-portable Windows computer which has a 256GB SSD on board, but I plan on using my Dropbox files with it, and I have well over 256GB worth of stuff in my Dropbox.

The thing is that I'm often in situations in which I need offline access to my files.

So I purchased a 1 TB microSD card, which will never leave its slot in this machine. Heck, I can't even retrieve it, it seems.

I mounted it so that it isn't considered "Removable Media" by the computer, and then I proceeded to install Dropbox on the computer, with the intent of using the 1 TB card exclusively for Dropbox content...offline.

I left my machine to sync overnight, and what do you know? Everything has a stupid cloud next to it.

I have no option to "Make Available Offline," either in the file/folder context menu or in the Dropbox application > Preferences > Sync menu.

If this is by design, it's a pitifully stupid design.

I'm going to whatever lengths I can to make this work the way I envision, but I'm going to be awfully disappointed if Dropbox doesn't respect use cases that might not necessarily conform to a narrow definition.

If it's an issue with a recent update to the application, then please bug the developers posthaste.

[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.

[TERRACE_87]

Megan Dropboxer - i never received a reply back with a solution for fixing this ongoing issue. please advise.

[TERRACE_87]

Nancy - Dropboxer - please stop repeating steps that we have all tried and are not fixing the issue. your replies and other dropbox staff are clogging up this thread with needless info that is not relevant.

[TERRACE_87]

 Jay - Dropboxer - yes it is, i already stated this.

[papabear_2]

I was able to see the Dropbox context menu options in Windows 10 but now that I'm on Windows 11, they seem to have disappeared. Tried rebooting and reinstalling the app but no luck. Any ideas out there? 

I'm running Windows 11 Pro.

[volk93]

Hi - I may be incorrect but the Dropbox context menu only applies to folders you have already uploaded and synced on Drop box.... If you havent uploaded anything from the 11 PC, that may be why... 

[rmundell]

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. 

[vegasesq]

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.  

[Nancy]

I can understand your frustration on this, @TERRACE_87. However, we need to make sure that all users have tried the same steps, as they may actually help with their issue. 

If you’ve already followed these steps with no result, I can most definitely open a ticket for you and have our support team look into your account directly. 

@papabear_2, welcome to the forum!

Can you let me know what’s the current syncing status and app version of your Dropbox app? 

Also, can you give the above steps a try (the ones I’ve linked) and let me know if you see any difference?

[TERRACE_87]

Not a solution. Again.