Camera Upload thumbnail not showing on mac

[Pansy L.]

I use Smart Sync

I'm on a Macbook Air Ventura 13.5.2

I know SmartSync doesn't download the files to your laptop but I'm pretty sure I used to get low-res thumbnails of the images in my Camera Upload folder

Since updating to the newest OS that seems to not work anymore and I just see the generic icons now.

If I "make it available offline" then it downloads the image and the thumbnail works but I'd love to have a low-res thumbnail so I can tell if I should download it or not.

[craftyweeks]

I'm having the same issue! Came across your question when I was searching for an answer. Glad to see though its not just me. 

[Walter]

Hey there @Pansy L. & @craftyweeks - sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

Could you please let us know the Dropbox desktop app's status and version as shown in your menu bar?

Also, can you check your Dropbox folder's location in the app's preferences under the sync tab for us?

Have you tried reindexing your Spotlight at all lately by the way?

Keep us posted please . 

[luizfernandomiller]

Hello,

I'm having the same problem.
I detected that this problem starts to happening in the beginning of September.
Yesterday I upgraded my macOS to Sonoma, but the same problem is happening.
So the problem it's not related to macOS, but happenings in both (the last one and the new one).

This is very bad, because the Dropbox price is too high if compared with others (OneDrive per example that is included in Microsoft Office plan), and this issue is happening again (last year we have this problem for a long time).

Please, fix this.

[Walter]

Hey @luizfernandomiller, sorry to hear you're also having issues with this.

Could you please clarify the desktop app's exact status and version as shown in your menu bar?  

[luizfernandomiller]

Hello @Walter , 

I'm sending the print screen with the information requested.
I'm using macOS Sonoma 14.0 (the problem was happening with the previous macOS too).
I already try to delete Dropbox from my machine e delete all the folder.
I try to resync and the problem persist. Now it's worst in fact, because all the previous files was showing the thumbnail, and only the new one was not showing. Now after resync none online file is showing the thumbnail. 😞

Best,

[Hannah]

Thanks for sharing your process, @luizfernandomiller.

If you switch the files from online-only to available offline and then back to online-only, what do you see?

[luizfernandomiller]

Hello @Hannah  and @Walter 

If the file is offline, the thumbnail is show. Similar problem that happened in the past with Dropbox and Mac.



Other problem that I found is when you try to quickly visualize the thumbnail of offline files (the file is downloaded instead of showing the picture preview in short size).



I believe that the problem is when Dropbox download de file from the server to the Mac.
Because old files was working fine in offline mode. Just the new one downloaded since beginning of September was with the thumbnail problem.
Now that I resync all my Dropbox account, all offline files are with this issue. 😞

Best,

[Jay]

Hi @luizfernandomiller, if the files on your machine are online-only, then they wouldn't have any thumbnails associated with them, since these are just placeholder files containing no data on them.

[luizfernandomiller]

@Jay 

This is not true!
Online files always have thumbnails associated. This stopped working a few days ago.

Two proofs that you are wrong are: if you put a file as offline and then put it as online, the thumbnails reappear. Another proof that competitors like OneDrive work correctly. By the way, if they don't solve this in the next few days, I'll stop paying for Dropbox and stay only with OneDrive that rarely has bugs.