Dropbox/Mac: "Filename" Can't Be Found

[georgecwbrown]

I can't seem to see anyone else with this issue, but I've had it for a short while now & it's really annoying:

Problem: Most times when I double click to open a file I am presented with the following error. These files are already local prior to me attempting to open them. After dismissing the error & attempting to open the file a second time it is successful & no error presents itself.

Ventura 13.3.1

Dropbox 172.3.7538

[Jay]

Is your Dropbox folder located in the CloudStorage location?

[georgecwbrown]

No it's in my user folder. I did migrate a month or so back into the beta to the new cloud storage location, but rolled back when I ran into too many bugs.

[Jay]

Okay, so this means you have the older set of icons for Mac OS, which are visible here and are the same for Windows icons. The icons you have there, however, are still for 'available' files, and not 'available offline'.

Could you confirm that the files have been marked as available offline by showing a screenshot of the context menu when you right click one of them?

[georgecwbrown]

If I right click the file, it has the same result as if I had double clicked it originally, it allows me to open without an error. 

By interacting with it, it's as if Dropbox rediscovers the link/file.

Both online only & make offline options are there.

This is the thing though. None of these files originated from outside of this machine... earlier in the day I downloaded them from wetransfer, moved them from my downloads folder & put them there on this machine into the local directory. It's as if Dropbox is just losing the link.
In fact there's times I can have been working on a file, saved it, moved it into a 'Done' folder & literally try to re-open it & it will give me that error.

To be fair it's more just annoying as hell. I presume this version of dropbox is imminently about to be dropped in favour of the new cloudstorage location so there's little chance the bug will be resolved. It's a shame the new cloudstorage version just is outrageously awful at being spotlight index'd as I require the ability to search & know with certainty whether a file exists or not.

[Hannah]

Hey @georgecwbrown, thanks for the additional info and your feedback here.

If you select the folder these files are in, or all of the files this happens with, right-click them and select "Make available offline", does that bring up the error again?

[georgecwbrown]

Whenever I add files currently they have this tick... 

A lot of the time when I attempt to open these files (Most of which I know for a fact are local to the machine, as I had just moved them there an hour earlier from my downloads folder) I get the error.

Even after I dismiss that error & open the file a second time & it successfully opens, the tick remains the white version with a green tick, yet it opens fine.

The tick doesn't change after opening but from then on onwards, it is still white background green tick.

As per your suggestion, any interaction with these files seems to 'relink it' (that's my take on it at least). So right clicking & making it available offline does this interaction & changes the icons to:

The issue is though, whilst this action does change to make them fine in terms of interaction. It's the fact that an hour ago I add files from my download folder, & it's 50/50 whether I can open them again without that error. They will ALWAYS have the white background with the green tick unless intentionally right clicked.

For example, I literally just moved this file from my downloads folder this second, so I know its local, however it immediately shows as white background green tick. Is that right?

 

[georgecwbrown]

I can make peace with it tbh, if this version is about to be demolished then it is what it is. 

[maiwennoplinus]

Hi everyone,

I'm so sorry if my issue has already been discussed somewhere, but I can't find it so that's why I'm opening this topic: 

Since a couple of days I get a warning when I want to open some files. The problem only happens with excel files. This is the warning I get (translated from dutch) "Users/myname/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox/file location1/file location1.1/file location1.1.1/file location1.1.1.1/file location1.1.1.1.1/file name.xlsx could not be found. Has the file been moved or deleted or has the name been changed?"

I can only press ok (no other buttons under the warning)... I have already updated my computer (working on a macbook), deleted and reinstalled dropbox and updated excel. But nothing helps. Also, I can still do whatever I want with the files in the online version of dropbox. But the online dropbox kind of kills my workflow, so I was wondering if anyone of you could help me out and give me some peace of mind haha 

Thanks in advance everyone!
Maiwenn

[Hannah]

Sorry to see you're having this issue, @maiwennoplinus.

Are these files currently set to online-only or available offline?

If they're online-only, can you switch them to available offline and let me know how that goes?

[maiwennoplinus]

Hey Hannah!

Thanks for your reply. All my files are available offline. So I don't think that's where the issue lies. 
Plus yesterday I discovered that when I go to the online version of dropbox, I can open my excel files in excel for web, but when I try to download the files, I get the same error... Not sure if this additional info is helpful 🙂

Thanks in advance, 
Have a great end of your week,
Maiwenn