What does 'refresh to update' on my offline files mean? How can I do it?

[JuanHerrero]

I have a number of folders set as "Make available offline" on my iPad. Generally this works fine, but sometimes I get the yellow exclamation mark icon and "Refresh to update".  Can someone please tell me what "Refresh to update" means - there is no refresh button and no refresh option in the menu. What am I supposed to do??? 

[Lusil]

Hi there @frankzhan, 

In order to have a better understanding of the behavior you're seeing, could you please provide me with more info? For example:

• Are you unable to refresh your files on your mobile app? 
• If so, is this happening with every file, or is it a specific file type/size?
• Are you getting any errors? 

Any additional details and screenshots (without any personal info) would be very helpful. Thanks in advance!

[EvT]

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@virusthecyrus wrote:

I just find out that for dropbox version 142.2, you can refresh by going to Account --> Manage Offline Files --> on the top right hand coner, there is a refresh logo.

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This does not work for me - after touching the refresh logo, I get the blue syncing icon on my folders but they immediately return to their "Refresh to Update" state.  The only way I have found to refresh them, as noted in an earlier post, is to open and view the folder, and each of the sub-folders it contains.

[Lusil]

Hey @EvT, sorry to hear that you're having trouble with updating your offline files. 

In order to further investigate this matter, I'd recommend continuing this discussion via email. 

For this reason, I was able to locate your support request and have made sure to pass your comments along to the member of my team reviewing this matter for you. 

As soon as they have more info, they'll get back to you with the next relevant steps. 

Thank you in advance for your patience and cooperation!

[DB_Is_Broken]

I have complained about the exact same problem. It all used to work fine on mobile devices until a Dropbox app update several months ago now. Now they cannot seem to fix it. I am going to switch to Google Drive services which just works.

[JuanHerrero]

Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a Refresh option in the submenu for any yellow-icon items? Like this...

[Lusil]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this, @JuanHerrero! 

I'd be more than happy to pass your comments along to the dev team for review. 

If you have any other ideas, you can also post them here where other like-minded users can upvote and comment.

In the meantime, let us know if you have any other questions!

[Readeromnivorou]

Meanwhile, I have STILL not heard back from the Dropbox Support team that said the update is a KNOWN problem as I described it and I still cannot download to my ipad!!!!! 

[CamEicher]

Not surprising about that, the Dropbox support team are dismal. Only helpful person is Lusil here on this forum.  But the official Dropbox support team is unhelpful and somewhat rude when if you happen to get a reply. Good luck.

[dmitriyvi]

Dear Dropbox, this "refresh to update" bug has been going on for way too long. This is such a core feature of your service and if you can't figure this out in months/years it's been reported, I don't know what to tell you.

"refresh to update" message gets triggered on offline folders that haven't seen changes in months and years. This means I never know whether my offline folders will be available when I need them, or there'll be this error message visible instead where there should be files present.

If you can't or won't prioritize this as it should be, your users will happily find a provider that has their offline sync together.

[sma80]

I also suffer from this bug and unlike the solution presented as "solved" here, going to the account tab and hitting refresh does not work for me either.  I hope dropbox fixes their software with ios 13, but in the meantime, here is another workaround I found that works without having to go into each subfolder.  Choose first "remove from device", and then immediately "make available offline" for the folder you have the problem with.  It won't redownload everything, it'll just do a hash compare (I think) and you'll get the green icon back.