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Forum Discussion
Couln't download. Remove incompatible characters from the filename
Recently all of my computer with Dropbox have started showing a sync error "Couln't download. Remove incompatible characters from the filename. e.g. emojis, /\"<>:|?*"
The problem filename isn'...
Hey Roy2010, no worries let me share Sam's response here as well.
Hi everyone,
Sharing an update on the topic: our team is working on adjusting this, and it's expected to roll out in our next Stable Build (V190).
You can check our releases here, and we'll keep you informed on the progress.
Thanks,
Sam
I appreciate your patience on this, thank you!
I have a similar problem -- in my case, on Windows 10. A folder that was shared with me long ago contains a few files with ">" characters in their names, which Windows doesn't allow. Those files have never been downloaded to my PC. As a result of the recent Dropbox UI change, I am now receiving alerts, whereas formerly the downloads failed silently. This explanation makes sense to me.
Since the folder was shared with me by someone else, with view-only access, I do not have the option to rename the files.
No problem, I thought. I'll just make that folder online-only, so that it doesn't need to be downloaded to my PC unless I try to access files in that folder from my PC.
This doesn't seem to have had any effect. I am still getting periodically notified that the files can't be downloaded. How can I stop these failing download attempts, other than by unsharing the folder and losing access to it entirely?
The comment that 'this is not a new issue' is missing a bit of context. A few months ago, Dropbox switched from using its own file handling routine to using the MacOS built-in API for cloud storage. Before this point, Dropbox could sync files ending with tilde on Mac. When the switch happened, any files with tildes seem to have been copied to the new folder, but due to the limitations of the MacOS cloud storage API, they cannot be modified by Dropbox anymore. (And new ones cannot be downloaded or uploaded)
So this is not a new issue in that it's older than two weeks when hzee asked the question, but it is a new issue as of a couple months ago when Dropbox switched APIs on Mac. This explains why some people like dsspiegel successfully created tilde files a year ago, because at that time Dropbox was not using File Provider yet.
The change that appeared two weeks ago seems to have been an updated notification system that detects and correctly notifies us of this issue (perhaps along with some others like the ones EatCroc3 mentions). In my case though, after ignoring the issues from the desktop app they haven't bothered me since.
And regarding the .something.swp files, I am guessing that File Provider specifically disallows files that follow the form .*.swp because I was able to successfully create files that started with a . or ended with .swp but not both. It also seems that tildes are allowed in file names unless they are at the end of the filename for some reason.
I think we need to take these complaints to Apple because they are almost certainly pressuring services like Dropbox to use File Provider and also the ones imposing these weird restrictions 🙂
NanoExplorer thanks so much for the helpful response. This makes perfect sense.
The one part I'd quibble with is the idea that we should complain to Apple. I mean, I'm not necessarily opposed to doing so. But I'm paying money to Dropbox. It's not my concern which API's Dropbox uses behind the scenes does in order to sync my files; I'm concerned with the outcome. From my perspective, it seems that Dropbox is using an inferior technology; I'm curious what motivated the transition from their own file syncing system to Apple's File Provider. (This whole thing is surprising ... rsync has existed for decades and can sync any files, but I digress.)
At any rate, it seems that Dropbox is the entity that really ought to complain to Apple.
