My files don't always to my online Dropbox account, even when the app says it's up to date.

[TomFuller]

On my Macbook M1 Pro, I add files to the local hard drive, but they do not always appear on my Internet dropbox account or on my iPhone. Sometimes I "touch" them with a slight modification, and that gets them to sync, but even this does guarantee that they will appear on my account or iPhone. 

[Mark]

What does Dropbox say if you mouse over its icon? Are the files stored in Dropbox on a local drive with no symlinks etc.?

[TomFuller]

It says "up to date" and it will do so even when some files are missing. 

I just learned a new word today "symlink." I don't think I've ever done such a thing. How can I check?

[Walter]

Hey @TomFuller - could you clarify your device's OS version and the version and status of the Dropbox desktop app as shown in your menu bar?

As for checking for symlinks on your device, you can find out more with an internet search. 

[TomFuller]

MacOS: Sonoma 14.6.1

Dropbox: 207.4.5821

And I do not use symbolic links, internal or external. But I would still like to be sure that all my ~quarter million files made it to the Dropbox cloud. 

Thanks!

[Nancy]

@TomFuller, out of curiosity, have you tried reinstalling the Dropbox app, since the issue emerged? I’d like to see if that’ll help at all.

[TomFuller]

I have not. I'll try that. BTW, I have Parallels on my Mac as I work in both Mac and Windows. When I last installed Dropbox (18 months ago), there was no Dropbox version that would run in the Windows virtual machine (because my MacBook M1 Pro has Apple silicon). Is there now a version that can do so? (I just run Dropbox under MacOS but would like to have it in both environments.)    Thanks!

[Jay]

Hi @TomFuller, the Dropbox desktop application now supports ARM processors, so the program should run in the VM.

[TomFuller]

Ah. Good news. Thanks!!

[TomFuller]

As to the question of missing files, I have re-installed Dropbox and will just have to watch for missing files. Until recently I had a very limited Dropbox account (~ 5gb), so there were only a few thousand files. Now I have a 3 tb account and something like a quarter million files. It will be hard to see if one is missing. That's why I raised this query.