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Forum Discussion
Where are "available offline" Dropbox files and folders stored on Android devices?
I know this question has been asked a million times (I've googled it), but I still can't find where my offline files are stored on my phone. I've looked in SD card>Android>data>com.dropbox.android>fi...
Thanks for the update David K.124!
First off all, note that making a file “Available offline” makes a local copy of your file within our mobile app. The file can be then viewed offline and will sync with Dropbox. If any changes are made to the file while you are offline, the changes will be synced once your device is connected to Wi-Fi.
On Android, you can make a file “Available offline” by following these steps:
- Open the Dropbox app and navigate to the file you want to make available for offline access.
- Tap the arrow to the right of the file name
- Toggle the switch next to “Available offline” on (green).You can find out where all of the files you have made available offline by tapping the menu button and selecting “Offline files” to open the folder.
Could you try exporting the MP3 file from the Offline Files or Home view now and let me know if this persists? You should be able to see "export" option for MP3 files as well after pressing the ellipsis button (...) so if this is still not happening please send me a screenshot so I can have a visual of this as well.
Thanks for your patience and cooperation again David. Please let me know if this worked for you.
They're both up-to-date. I have the "update automatically" option turned on for my phone, and as I said in an earlier post, I deleted and re-installed Dropbox (92.2.6).
I also understand that files aren't stored locally by default on a mobile device, in order to conserve space. But that's what the "Available offline" switch is for, isn't it? Again, as I said in my first post, even though I've turned this option on for some files, I can't find where they're stored.
Finally, to repeat myself one more time, I don't see the "export" option for MP3 files, although I do see it for other types of files.
Walter
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffThanks for the update David K.124!
First off all, note that making a file “Available offline” makes a local copy of your file within our mobile app. The file can be then viewed offline and will sync with Dropbox. If any changes are made to the file while you are offline, the changes will be synced once your device is connected to Wi-Fi.
On Android, you can make a file “Available offline” by following these steps:
- Open the Dropbox app and navigate to the file you want to make available for offline access.
- Tap the arrow to the right of the file name
- Toggle the switch next to “Available offline” on (green).
You can find out where all of the files you have made available offline by tapping the menu button and selecting “Offline files” to open the folder.
Could you try exporting the MP3 file from the Offline Files or Home view now and let me know if this persists? You should be able to see "export" option for MP3 files as well after pressing the ellipsis button (...) so if this is still not happening please send me a screenshot so I can have a visual of this as well.
Thanks for your patience and cooperation again David. Please let me know if this worked for you.
Yes, I do see the "Export" option if I view "Offline" files. But as I said, all this is too much trouble just to be able to copy some MP3 files to my phone, it's far less work just to copy them over a USB cable.
I've been usng Dropbox for several years now, and I'm sure I didn't need to do this on my old phone, which had an earlier version of Dropbox. (Was this an "enhancement" they introduced?) So I still don't see any real advantage to using Dropbox on my phone any more.
- I have a very similar situation. My plan is month-to-month. If you do not adress something so basic after all this time, I will move ererything onto my phone and cancel my subscription. Secondly, it looks like even though i store DOZENS of gigabyte in offline mode, and have a terybyte plan, i can only export single 3 minute mp3 files. It's not even music. Your own mp3 player cant play them but VLC can. i have hundreds of them. Do you intend me to click 3 times for every mp3 file? What's going on?
- Walter
Sorry to hear about this dosp33.
As I'd really like to help with this, may I reach out to your Dropbox associated email address to have a further look into this with all of my tools available?
In the meantime, can you make sure you're using the most updated version of your devices' OS and our mobile app's as well?
Thanks!
It's an embarassment that you don't give people proper access to their folder structure to move things around easily, don't let people move files onto the external microSD within the dropbox app, don't let people export several files or a folder or folders from the app on the phone, seemingly only let people export single files, don't offer a proper mp3-player that actually works well (playing all files in a folder in sequence for instance). Etc.
This has been such a waste of time. What is your service actually for? People don't use clouds like yours for backup reasons, but for ease of access on multiple platforms and while traveling, when you for instance have low data, bad connections, no connections. What is the terrabyte of data plan for when you can't store and use simple mp3s- are you kidding?
I'm starting to think I will be better off without your service.
Everything is up-to-date. Go ahead.
