The "online-only" option has disappeared from the context menu on Windows 11.

[Admin_InsightSeminars]

I am also having an issue with Smart Sync in Windows 11. I started in Windows 11, this is not a migration issue. I have a business account with over  1 TB of data and 30k+ files. For months I have been seeing a message in my desktop client:  Dropbox is experiencing some issues. Before opening online-only files and folders, right-click and choose Make available offline. 

The option to make the files Online-Only again has wholly disappeared from the desktop client preferences and the menu options when I right-click on the file or folder. The only option provided is to make my files available offline.

What I've done to troubleshoot the issue:

1. I downloaded and reinstalled the desktop client without uninstalling first....didn't fix a thing.

2. Uninstalled the desktop client and reinstalled it.....also didn't fix a thing. In fact, when I reinstalled it, the set-up wizard gave me the option to start with all files as Online-Only, and the files that were set to Make Available Offline before the uninstall/reinstall still show as Offline. Meaning the uninstall/reinstall did not make them Online-Online again.

I can't preview, open, insert, or attach any file unless I make it available offline. This is causing a HUGE disruption in how we work, administrate file storage, and share files. I do not have 1TB+ storage available on my laptop. The whole point of having Dropbox is for Cloud Storage. We are paying for a product that is not working properly.

What is the fix? And when will Dropbox have it available? 

[Jay]

Hi @Admin_InsightSeminars, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Just for clarification, are you experiencing this behavior for any file you're trying to open on your device, in any folder?

This will help me to assist further!

[Admin_InsightSeminars]

Yes, that is correct.

I received an email from support suggesting it's an icon overlay issue, but that doesn't explain why the option has completely disappeared in the preferences in the desktop client. Online-Only as a check box option in the preferences has nothing to do with icon overlays as far as I'm aware. I'm not missing an icon, Online-Only is gone. If you look at the image below taken from the desktop client options, there is no option offered for Online-Only. This is something that disappeared with the latest update. I was having issues with files not responding when I selected Online-Only, but now Online-Only is gone altogether, and I haven't installed any new programs. I don't even allow my rig to auto-update. I update manually just for this reason.  It seems that Dropbox has made some changes that aren't working as intended and it's very frustrating that they just don't say that.

I'm going to go through the icon overlay steps, perhaps the changes Dropbox made are that we can only access Online-Only now through an icon and it's no longer a check-box option in the client preferences.

And still it's anyone's guess if this will fix the issue of having to download files before I can preview, edit, share, or attach them. Dropbox put out a message for this issue in the Desktop alerts which support didn't even address in the canned response. You can see the message in the Activity Alert window below.

If you know a way to get me to the next tier of support so I can get past all the canned solutions in order to get to a fix that addresses the actual issue, I am all ears.

[Walter]

Hey @Admin_InsightSeminars, sorry to jump in here and thanks for the additional details.

Could you please let us know your ticket ID in order to look it up in our system? 

[Admin_InsightSeminars]

Hi Walter,

Here are all my tickets. I was told on 2/13/23 that all the tickets would be combined and someone would reach out to me. It's now 3/6/2023 and I haven't heard from anyone. I have walked through the basic troubleshooting, uninstall, reinstall, clear cache, adjust icon overlay, turn off anti-virus, and whitelist in the firewall, but my issue is more advanced. Something is interfering with the Dropbox installation on my Windows 11 computer and I need advanced help figuring out what it is. Getting to someone who has that skill set has been nothing short of impossible. I have to believe this is a known Windows 11 issue, known by someone somewhere and I'm not the only person having this experience. If you can help me get to someone who can help, preferably someone who isn't going to walk me through all the same steps that already have not resolved the issue, I would greatly appreciate it.

21018286

21069940

21169506

21170031

[Admin_InsightSeminars]

Update to my earlier post, I reached out to Dropbox Support Chat #21573296 and was told Justin sent me an email from escalation. I did not receive this email, when I replied to the ticket asking when this was sent and how to have it resent, no response.  So I just reached out again on Dropbox Spport Chat #21169506 to re-escalate ticket #21169506. I asked Logan to look up when Justin from the escalation department sent his response and was told he couldn't share that information with me due to privacy.  So basically, there was no email from Justin and this is tech support covering themselves. It has now been 1 month and 2 days of trying to get this issue resolved. This is the worst tech support I have ever received. It doesn't surprise me Dropbox receives 71% negative reviews for its customer service.

If I could change from Dropbox today, I would. We certainly won't be upgrading from the Professional to the Business Plan. I will do everything in my power to steer us in a different direction.

[Hannah]

While we appreciate your feedback here, @Admin_InsightSeminars, I do see a response from our team with some further troubleshooting steps in your -now closed- #21169506 ticket.

Can you take another look?

[Admin_InsightSeminars]

Yes, I received the email from Leela (who is awesome) who combined all my tickets and re-escalated the issue. After that, I didn't receive a response. I believe this is the email I was told came from Justin, which I did not receive. I've gone through my spam filters and scoured my email. I absolutely did not receive it, and when I asked for the date and time of when it was sent so I could take an even more detailed look at my email, customer service refused to give me that information citing privacy reasons. Believe me, had I received that email, I would have been all over it. I am a Dropbox power user. This issue is greatly impacting my efficiency at work and my ability to utilize my Windows 11 laptop. I would love nothing more than to resolve it.

I'm pretty sure there is something blocking the Dropbox system extension from being installed and really need assistance to figure it out. I've already done some advanced troubleshooting: turning off the firewall and anti-virus, uninstalling Dropbox, restarting in safe mode, manually wiping every Dropbox file from my hard drive and registry, and re-installed the app directly from Dropbox.com with the firewall and anti-virus off, and that still did not fix the issue. "Online-Only" is still not available in the App Sync Preferences and is not available as an option when right-clicking file explorer.  The Dropbox app ignores the "Online-Only" setting for some folders during re-install and indexes and attempts to download all files anyway until I run out of disc space. However, some folders still show as "online-only". If I want to access a file in one of those folders, I have to set it to offline to access it, and there is no ability to make it online-only again. That feature does not exist in my desktop app.

[Hannah]

Thanks for the update here, @Admin_InsightSeminars.

Would you mind replying back to that ticket that I mentioned, which should create a new follow-up ticket and then send us the ticket number here?

In the meantime, can you also hover over your Dropbox icon, to check the current sync status of the app?

[Admin_InsightSeminars]

Hi Hannah,

Someone (Naomi) responded to a different re-escalation ticket last night (#2157848). I have already responded to her with the information she requested so hopefully, she can help with some advanced troubleshooting.

Thank you for trying to facilitate the issue.