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Forum Discussion

fkick's avatar
fkick
Explorer | Level 4
8 months ago

Office Downloading Files Even Though Locally Synced through MacOS App

One thing our users have noticed is that in order to take advantage of the Co-Authoring ability, Word or Excel files need to be opened through File ➜ Open ➜ Dropbox (Beta) and navigating to the file. This causes Office to then display a "downloading" window and download the file even when it is already locally synced on the computer via the Desktop app. 

 

When users open up a document from the Finder, Co-Authoring is not available.

 

Are there any plans to add the ability in the office plugin to detect when a file is already local and just open the file? Or to be able to add Co-Authoring from locally open documents? Most users have "muscle" memory to navigate to the file on their desktop/Finder and open from there vs the File➜Open menus in Office.

  • Choi Hyun's avatar
    Choi Hyun
    Icon for Dropbox Product Manager rankDropbox Product Manager

    Hi, 

     

    Thanks for reaching out! In order to start co-authoring from Finder, users will need to upgrade their Dropbox desktop app to the latest version and be on File Provider. Once this is installed, you can start co-authoring after opening files from Finder.

     

    Best regards,

     

    • fkick's avatar
      fkick
      Explorer | Level 4

      Thanks Choi,

       

      Unfortunately our Mac Users use external drives with Dropbox due to the amount of storage we use. Any plans to add this feature for users who don't migrate to File Provider?

      • BenDBX's avatar
        BenDBX
        Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager

        Hi fkick,

         

        Just following up to make sure we answered your question! File Provider is required for co-authoring via Finder, so it will not be available to users who do not migrate.

         

        Thanks,

        Ben