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Forum Discussion

KitKlein's avatar
KitKlein
Helpful | Level 6
7 years ago

How do I tell when a shared file is open elsewhere?

In the past I could always tell when a colleague had a shared file open.  I would know not to make changes if the other open file had changes that had not been saved.  I use the DropBox app on my Mac running OS 10.10.5 in Safari 10.1.2.  My colleague runs in Windows and noticed the same new issue.  

How do we change settings or what do we need to do to get that information again?  I want to avoid two or more people changing the same file and having to merge documents (mostly Word and Excel).

  • I checked things out on another laptop running Windows and Office 2010.  I could see the badges there as I had always done there and on my Mac.  So, the answer seems to be that DropBox no longer supports Office 2008 for Mac, even though it had in the past.  I'm out of luck with badges unless I purchase a newer version of Office.  What a shame.

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    Hi Kit, how were you able to see who was on a file? Were you editing the file online, or using the apps on the machines themselves?

    Did you have the Dropbox Badge running on both devices, which would then show if someone was in the same document elsewhere?

    https://www.dropbox.com/help/business/badge-overview

    If so, what has changed since then? Any details would be great!

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