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.

[Snowdog63]

Yeah, I don't know what's going on here but this has never happened before.

All files are local.

I've made them "on-line only" & then local again, twice, with no luck.

I've restarted the Finder.

I shouldn't have to do any of the above.

I can see all the thumbnails on my other Macs & my iPhone.

When I make the a file "on-line only" on one of the other Macs I can still see the thumbnail.

The problem is on an Apple M1 Max laptop running Monterey with Dropbox v183.4.7058

Am I missing something?

Is there anything else I can try?

All I'm seeing is this:

On the other Mac I'm seeing this:

[Walter]

Hey @Snowdog63, sorry to hear you're also having issues with this.

Could you let us know the location of your Dropbox folder as shown under the sync tab in the app's preferences?

Also, did you reindex your Spotlight since you first noticed this? 

[Snowdog63]

My Dropbox folder is at the top level of my user area.

I have not refreshed my spotlight, however one might do such a thing.

Nor have I refreshed it on any of the other Macs, where the thumbnails are fine.

Nor have I ever refreshed it on any Mac ever & this problem has never happened before. 

🙂

[Snowdog63]

I found a fix for this.

Open activity monitor, view processes by name & search for:com.apple.quicklook.ThumbnailsAgent.

Select it in the list & click on the X in a circle. Force quit the process,

Relaunch the finder.

That fixed it for me, for now. Fingers crossed that it continues to work.

I don't know whether it make this an Apple problem or an "Apple & Dropbox don't play well together" problem, (because between you, you managed to **bleep** up the coloured dots being visible when a file is in the cloud, too), but either way, this is yet another reason to reconsider dropbox as a long term solution, especially with yesterday's email about the "new plan" that's being put into operation.

But anyway, it's a fix for now.

[luizfernandomiller]

Unfortunately it didn't work for me. From the description of your problem, it is different from mine.

In my case, Thumbnails work for offline and online files from other applications such as OneDrive, etc. Only the Dropbox online ones stopped working.

[Snowdog63]

😕D'oh!

Good luck with your ongoing search.

[Hannah]

Hey @luizfernandomiller, you mentioned in a previous reply that when switching the files to available offline and then to online-only again, the thumbnails reappear.

Is this not the case anymore?

[luizfernandomiller]

@Hannah 
This workaround to download as offline and then change to online works.
But I have a lot of Gigs at Dropbox to do that. Is not a workaround for me.
A tried to do that in the past days and it took so long.

What I said is that the solution of @Snowdog63 didn't work for me because the thumbnails is working fine in my Mac with offline files and online files (OneDrive, Google Drive and so on). The only problem is with Dropbox. New files downloaded as online were without thumbnail.

Best,

[OW1]

I just did this from the link below, and it fixed it on my computer- yay!! 

https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/View-download-and-export/Windows-Thumbnail-photos-not-showing-in-Dro...

Megan

Dropbox Staff

‎05-11-2021 02:00 AM

Hey Eric, welcome to our Community! 

Can you please let me know of the current sync status of the desktop app?

Let's try something. Could you temporarily quit the Dropbox desktop app and see if the thumbnails change? 

• Go to the Dropbox icon in your system tray.
• Click on your profile picture or initials to the right of the search bar.
• Select "Quit Dropbox".
•  

[Pansy L.]

@Walter 

• Dropbox desktop app's status: Files are up to date
• version as shown in your menu bar: v184.3.6480
• Dropbox folder's location in the app's preferences under the sync tab: /Users/XXXXXX/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox
• Have you tried reindexing your Spotlight: Just did it and still the same