Word crashing when saving to Dropbox folders

[RedTomato]

I use Word almost every day for creating simple documents, and for the most part it works fine.

Yesterday it suddenly began crashing when I try to save a new document in a Dropbox folder. 

Steps for crash: Open Word. Open New document. Type something. Press Save. Save dialogue opens. Select or navigate to a Dropbox folder from the list of folders. Save dialogue briefly opens the folder then Word crashes.

The only thing that has changed is I've just installed 10.13.2 plus the 10.13.2 supplemental update. It could be one of them causing the crash. Or a new Dropbox update - I don't know if my Dropbox version was updated that day. Restarting doesn't help. 

Word does NOT crash if I save to the Desktop folder, or to external drives or USB sticks. 

System: Macbook Air 2013 13", OSX 10.13.2,

Word for Mac 2011 fully updated.  Word Version 14.7.7 (1708905)

Dropbox personal user, version v41.4.80, Finder Integration is turned off.  87% of 10.9GB used. 

Also have iCloud 2TB storage / backup turned on for all my files, working since last Nov. 

If I navigate, in the Word Save dialog, to non-Dropbox folders, all goes well. Navigating to any Dropbox folders causes Word to crash. Strange. 

I quit Dropbox and tested Word. Still crashing. I turned off Dropbox's 'Start on boot' option and restarted, and tested Word. Still crashing.

[Anastasios]

It would be a good idea to completely uninstall/reinstall dropbox and unlink/relink account.

I say this because you mention that you recently installed some Mac updates.

Therefore the different layers of updates one over the other might cause the problem.

If after reinstalling/relinking dropbox the problem still persists please let us know.

[Jay]

The telling point here is that even with the Dropbox desktop application closed, you’re still getting errors when saving Word documents into that folder.

If the Dropbox app did affect things, then quitting the app would only make that folder a normal, non-syncing folder, as with all other folders on your computer.

Does this occur for any other apps that save to that folder, or just Word?

As Anastasios said, reinstalling the Dropbox app would help to see if it fixes any broken permissions for that folder which might have been overwritten since the upgrade. Let me know how it goes!

[RedTomato]

Unlinked & uninstalled DropBox, restarted, reinstalled, relinked.  Problem still persists sorry. 

[RedTomato]

Hi AgentJay, interesting question.  

Chrome, TextEdit, Photoshop, Pages, Photos etc all open and save to my Dropbox folders and sub-folders, no problem.  All file operations work fine. 

Word and Excel both crash when navigating to Dropbox folders and sub-folders in the Save dialog. 

If I open Office documents from within the Dropbox folders, they open fine.  If I make a change and press Save, they save fine. (Pressing Save does not open a Save location dialog).  If I press 'Save As ..' then Word / Excel tries to open the File dialog and immediately crashes. 

If I open Word or Excel, and select 'Open File..' and navigate to a Dropbox folder, they immediately crash. 

I hope that's some help.    My Dropbox folder at the moment is on my desktop, which became an iCloud folder when I activated iCloud optimised storage a few months ago.  I did wonder if that would cause issues, but it has been working fine the last few months.  iCloud does not touch any files in Dropbox (they are marked with a crossed out cloud in Finder). 

[Jay]

And Word or Excel crash regardless if the Dropbox desktop application is running or not, when you navigate to that folder?

There is a small possibility that this is an Office issue. Could you see if there any updates for Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc.?

Like my previous post, it might fix any issues in that program for any strange permissions.

While I personally can’t recommend to re-install Word/Excel (since they’re not Dropbox apps my limit is solving the Dropbox aspect) you might need to do some research on this matter to see if other users are experiencing the same thing and make you own judgement if that is something you need to do.

[stephersla]

I'm having this problem as well - deleted and reinstalled dropbox, disabled Badge. But it's still crashing every time I try to save a new office document into Dropbox. I also have an app called Mail Butler, and when I try to save that into Dropbox, it also crashes. I noticed this started happening after the latest iOs update. 

I looked through every googlable forum there is but can't seem to resolve this.

[RubixVi]

Mac's OSX and Word 2011 has a lot of bugs with all recent updates, including Outlook bugs which renders attachments useless, this is a Mac and Office issue, you'll probably get advised to get the Office 365.

[Sanchez]

@stephersla, welcome to our community! 

Are you experiencing this issue on an iOS device or on a Mac? Can you please check to make sure that you’re fully up to date? 

• iOS is currently on version 11.2.5
• MacOS is 10.13.3
• Dropbox mobile app for iOS is 82.2
• Dropbox desktop app is currently 43.4.49

There is a very good chance that this is an issue with Microsoft’s app, but let’s get you all updated, and see how it goes. 

Cheers!

[RedTomato · Accepted solution]

@RubixVi @Sanchez @stephersla @Jay @Anastasios

I have now solved the issue.   It was because the Dropbox folder was not in the default location.   In my example, I had the Dropbox folder on my desktop as mentioned below AND I was using iCloud storage.   

iCloud moves the Desktop Folder (and a few other folders) away from local storage to an iCloud location.   If the Dropbox folder is in a folder that is being kept in iCloud, sometime it works, sometimes it fails, sometimes it apparently works, but strange things fail, e.g. Word refusing to save / open a Dropbox folder.   The state of play can change with any OS update. 

See: 

https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/mac-osx-sierra-compatibility

https://eclecticlight.co/2016/12/01/macos-sierra-and-dropbox-have-the-problems-resolved-yet/

To solve the issue of MS Office apps crashing when saving to a Dropbox folder, I had to move my Dropbox folder back to its default location, in my user Home folder:

Moving my Dropbox folder back to default location

If your Dropbox configuration fits the scenario described in the previous section, we will ask you to move your Dropbox folder back to the default location. Selecting the Move option will automatically complete this action. Selecting Cancel will stop Dropbox file sync until you resume sync and move your Dropbox folder back to its default location.

You can also manually move your Dropbox folder back to its default location:

1. Click the Dropbox icon in your system tray or menu bar.
2. Click the gear icon.
3. Click Preferences….
4. Open the Account tab.
5. Click the dropdown beside Dropbox location.
6. Select Other…
7. Open the Applications list.
8. Click the Applications dropdown, and select your hard drive.
9. Open the Users folder.
10. Select your computer username (it will likely have a "home" icon beside it).
11. Click Select.
12. Confirm the move by clicking Move.

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@RedTomato wrote:

Hi AgentJay, interesting question.  

Chrome, TextEdit, Photoshop, Pages, Photos etc all open and save to my Dropbox folders and sub-folders, no problem.  All file operations work fine. 

Word and Excel both crash when navigating to Dropbox folders and sub-folders in the Save dialog. 

If I open Office documents from within the Dropbox folders, they open fine.  If I make a change and press Save, they save fine. (Pressing Save does not open a Save location dialog).  If I press 'Save As ..' then Word / Excel tries to open the File dialog and immediately crashes. 

If I open Word or Excel, and select 'Open File..' and navigate to a Dropbox folder, they immediately crash. 

I hope that's some help.    My Dropbox folder at the moment is on my desktop, which became an iCloud folder when I activated iCloud optimised storage a few months ago.  I did wonder if that would cause issues, but it has been working fine the last few months.  iCloud does not touch any files in Dropbox (they are marked with a crossed out cloud in Finder). 

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