Can't Display Link/The Link does not exist

[MotivatedMover]

Good Afternoon, 

Thanks for your email, We contacted you/Dropbox Support because we have tried the Chatbot, the Help Center and community 

multiple times with no success, this is the only way we could figure out how to get help, I ask that you please try to help us...The issue is we are Sharing a Folder to people and its (the shared folder) is showing that the people have access to the Folder in our Dropbox account and also in their Dropbox Account, however when they go to open up the Folder in their Dropbox it's says Can't Display Link/ the Link does not exist... How do you fix this? 

Best Regards, Motivated Military Movers 

[Walter]

Hey @Alain_Brassard, sorry to jump in here, but could you use the camera icon (insert photo option) within your reply's box instead of sending us shared links to your screenshots? 

Also, have you tried renaming the folder to something else (without French accents) to see if that helps? 

[Alain_Brassard]

Hi Walter, 

I just try to create 2 new folders, on without french accents, one with accents. I successfully shared both.

So the problem does not seem to be related to that after all.

It seems to be specific to some folders, but I still have no clue what's the cause.

Here are the attached screenshots "inline" in the chat. Sorry for the links (I thought that DropBox links would be fine for you 🤣).

[Walter]

And do your collaborators get this error when accessing the shared link to the folder from a mobile device or does this happen on a desktop too or when using a web browser? 

[Alain_Brassard]

Same error from a Web Browser (Chrome) on a PC (Windows 10).

But interestingly, this time, using Chrome instead of the mobile app, the folder was synchronized, despite the error message.

When using the app on a phone or an iPad nothing happens after the error message is displayed, nothing get synchronized.

That said... it looks like a trend, but I'm not 100% sure.
What's sure is that the error message is wrong, the link should be valid, the folder exists 🙂

[Hannah]

Hey @Alain_Brassard, another thing your new member can try, after you've invited them, they can login to their account on dropbox.com, go to the "shared" tab and add the folders from there.

I hope this helps as well.

[Alain_Brassard]

Hi,
My friend was able to see the folder in the « shared » tab on DropBox web site!
Thanks!

So the bug seems mostly being an invalid « Add to DropBox » link in the invite email sent to invited users!

[Walter]

Thanks for keeping us in the loop @Alain_Brassard 

We're glad to it's sorted now and also noted your feedback about this in our system.

Let us know if you have anything else to add or ask. 

[Alain_Brassard]

Hi again Walter,
Unfortunately the workaround you suggested does not seem to work.

As you suggested, I went in the iOS DropBox app and clicked on « shared » in the home tab.
The newly shared folder exists, but it still shows the same error message « This link does not exist ».

So back si square one 😞
Some folders just refuse to be shared with new members (while existing members can still access).

It really points to a bug in DropBox sharing invite links, on some specific folders.

One hint maybe: this seems to happens on very old folders that have been shared for more than 10 years. Not sure if it’s really related, just an unconfirmed observation.
Maybe some maintenance update/migration on DropBox servers went wrong on these folders.

Let me know if you have any workaround in mind or if your engineering team can find a fix.

Thanks!

[Walter]

Thanks for the additional information on this and sorry for the late response @Alain_Brassard 

Could you clarify if the folders you're trying to share are part of your backups in Dropbox or if they're normally stored on your account by any chance?

[Alain_Brassard]

Hi Walter,

I don't use Dropbox backups.

These are just plain standard folders that exit since at least 20 years and successfully shared with other people.

Inviting new members just stopped working recently (pas few months) with that "link does not exist" error, while it was previously working fine. Same folder. Same account. No change on my side.