Syncing icons on the files in the Dropbox folder have changed

[johnrinek]

Hello
The Finder Extension Icons indicating whether a file or folder is Online Only or Available Offline are showing up in my Finder, however, the statuses are incorrect. For instance a folder that contains files that are both Online Only files and Available Offline files is showing a cloud icon, when it should be showing a white circle with a green checkmark and green outline. I think the Finder Extension is confused. Is there a way to reset the Finder Extension so the icons show correctly without changing the Online Only or Available Offline settings that I have for my files/folders? I do not want to change the statuses of my files/folders, I just want the icons to indicate the statuses correctly. Thank you.
Mac 10.14.6
Dropbox 152.4.4880

[arigoldfilms]

Dropbox recently changed (aka ruined) the usability of its formerly-useful Smart Sync finder icons.

CLOUD ICON - this icon used to show up when a folder was 100% online-only. Very useful - you could see that a folder was there, and not eating up local drive space. But now it means only that "any little part" of a folder is online-only. This ruins its usefulness, because if I’m trying to clear up hard-drive space, I can’t tell which Cloud folders are the “offending” ones that may secretly possess a gigantic file, deep inside a folder, that is eating up tons of local drive space. With this Dropbox icon change, the only way to make sure you are freeing up hard drive space is to constantly throw your *entire* Dropbox into online-only mode. It makes the whole system kind of useless.

WHITE WITH GREEN CHECK ICON - the white-styled green check icon used to represent folders that were a mixture of online-only and locally-downloaded. This was useful, because you could quickly see folders that might contain downloaded files, and navigate to downloaded or cloud-only files. But the new version of the white/green icon only tells me if an App has opened a file, instead of me choosing to download it. Basically a waste, not useful, and confusing as it functionally double-up with the fully-green checkmark icon described below.

DARK GREEN CHECK ICON - this dark green icon remains effective because it's clear: it means a file or folder is in the cloud AND is also fully downloaded to your computer.

If people want more icon options, Dropbox should make more icons. But to kill off the effective old icons and re-define them in a useless way is bad for businesses that manage a lot of media. It will force my business to move to another cloud service if it's not fixed.

[leandrosilva]

Latest feedback from Drobpox:

"Hello, thank you very much for that.

We are aware of what our users have been saying about the new sync icons.

Dropbox is always looking for ways to improve for our users. We always want to make things easier and simpler. We'll make sure your feedback is given to the engineering team who look after Dropbox on people's desktop and app. They are always looking for ways to improve the Dropbox experience.

Thanks again for reaching out to us. Have a great week."

[rusdom]

@leandrosilva thanks for sharing! Hopefully enough people reach out to Dropbox for it to make a difference.

[rusdom]

Someone from Dropbox mentioned that it could help to up vote this idea and that ideas with the most up votes regularly get reviewed by the Dropbox team. If you have a sec, it could help for everyone to go give it an up vote, and maybe comment on that thread as well.

[cindy t.3]

This shouldn't even be an issue -- it NEVER SHOULD HAVE CHANGED.

Marking a folder online only when just one file is online only makes Dropbox too cumbersome to be very useful anymore. I don't have time to go scrolling around to see what I have available on my computer and what isn't.

I've already started looking for a replacement in case this isn't fixed by the time my subscription renews. 

[leandrosilva]

Hello,

What surprises me the most is that someone at Dropbox proposed this 'good' idea and the rest of the staff or the people who decide go ahead with it. Nobody inside questioned why, nor the advantage for its users?

Let's make this update because it will improve the user experience and help them do something (which no one can explain)... instead, let's deliver a  'concept version' of what Smart Sync would be.

[jackprest]

Totally agree this change pretty much stops dropbox being an effective cloud based file system. I can no longer easily manage my folders and see what is online/offline. Baffling why this would be changed. Please revert to the old icon system. Likely to leave Dropbox for another service as its ability to work smoothly between offline/online was its main selling point for me.

[jackprest]

Also this page wont let me upvote this idea..? But I can up vote others

[jackprest]

@Nancy Thanks tried Chrome and worked fine!

Upvote in, would vote twice if I could, this change sucks and for the life of me can't figure out what it would actually be useful for! Please change the icons back!

[Maximilian89]

Yes, please bring the old system back.  I cannot work with this new system.  I am very close to cancelling my account over it.