Files do not get downloaded automatically on Mac

My whole team is also dealing with this issue. As an example, if you upload a file from the Dropbox app it will NOT auto download to your Mac like it used to. This is extremely frustrating especially for larger files that I want to have ready to work with on the Mac. This is especially frustrating with any kind of shared folders where many people are working on things and needing to collaborate. Does anyone know if this is also the case with Box? We will make the switch ASAP. BTW we have not found any solve (full disk permission, repairing, etc. does not solve this issue) ☹️

Ben you are cashing in, it works for me, thank you!

All good! Glad it worked for you too. 

Hey marktb1961, thanks for all the info you provided.

Is the 3rd party app that you're using to create these files somehow connected to your Dropbox account?

Meaning, does it appear in your connected apps page?

And are you exporting them to Dropbox from this app, or are they created in the Dropbox folder directly?

Thanks Hannah. Answers to your further questions:

No, the 3rd party app is not connected to my Dropbox account.

I am creating files directly in the Dropbox folder (i.e. in the folder that my collaborator shared with me and that appears as a sub-folder in the "DropBox" location on my Mac).

The app is a Java-based board gaming engine called Vassal. 

Thanks for that Mark!

Can you try these steps, to see if they help at all? If not, then try these steps.

Thanks!

So, to conclude, is Dropbox planning to improve this and allow automatic downloads as it used to be or I am doomed to manual handling?

Yes, however the issue with that resolution is, if you have a very large DB (mine is well over 5TB) with many folders and individual files marked as "online only" or "selective sync" then there is absolutely no way to accomplish this because I would need an internal SSD large enough to accommodate the initial sync/dowload... and then of course the extremely painstaking process of going through literally hundreds of folders and thousands of files to re-mark as online or offline, etc. 

I agree with your point regarding DB account size vs drive space on your Mac - if you don't have enough room on your internal drive then don't mark the whole DB folder to Make Available Offline. 

But, as you pointed out, if you have selected any folders and marked them to be Made Available Offline, then any new files in that folder and subfolders added from external/online/shared location will be downloaded automatically. I believe this was the question of the thread. 

I still think that DB needs to create a work around for storing the DB folder on an external drive, rather than being forced by MacOS to host it in the user library on the internal drive. There are other threads that talk about that and possible workarounds. I am not addressing this here though. 

So perhaps marking individual folders to be made available offline - such as the current project folder you are using - may be more useful to you. That was the first part of my proposed solution. 

Also, I haven't liked using Box personally, but if Box allows you to work on an external drive for storage then it would be your decision to use another service.