How to view previews of online-only files on desktop (like how you can in the mobile app)? - macOS

[meganh32]

I'm trying to figure out how to see previews, specifically of .jpeg online files, on my mac desktop. I use Dropbox almost exclusively for photo management and it's frustrating not even being able to see a preview so I can figure out which files I need to download locally (I just moved from an old computer that had enough storage to download everything offline to a new computer with much less storage so almost everything is online). I can do this on my android app. All of the online-only files on the mobile app are fully previewable and I can scroll through everything before deciding what to download. Is this possible on the desktop?

[No_Icons_No_Dragon]

I downloaded and installed the beta v186.3.6103, followed by a Mac restart, but unfortunately, my online files are still displaying only generic icons. No solution has been found yet for enterprise accounts. My personal account works just fine. I suspect the issue is with one of the Dropbox extensions

[pedroms]

hi sam,

thanks for the answer.

I did the beta installation and restarted my mac.

No icon preview on "online-only" images yet.

I got some strange behaviours:

I changed one image to "offline". the preview icon appeared. Then i change it back to online-only and just the little icon in column view appeared. If i change to icon view, there is no preview icon.

I changed a second image to offline and now it doesn't show the icon preview. Just the image on the side and quicklook preview:

but shows the icon on gallery view:

I changed it back to online-only and there's no side preview but has quicklook preview:

And... there is a third image that i downloaded and then changed back to online-only. It now has icon and quicklook previews but not icon preview in column view (image below). It has icon preview on gallery view (left icon on image above).

And there are some images that i didn't changed anything and they has quicklook preview  but no icon and side preview:

other images have side and quicklook preview but no icon:

some images in a different folder are this way:

But mostly the files online-only still don't have any kind of preview

the preview settings on the folders are enable:

this is what enable on system settings:

And as you can see, there no more green label and cloud label on the files anymore.

[Sam DBX]

Hi @No_Icons_No_Dragon, thanks for the feedback.

Our team is still working on the Team's folders previews, and we'll update everyone once we have solid news.

Hi there as well @pedroms, just a heads up that the recent adjustments were made targeting File Provider users, if you want to opt in (if you haven't done so) here are the instructions. Otherwise, we're expecting upcoming changes in macOS 14.1.

Let me know how it goes,

Sam 

[_MKT]

Mac Studio 2022 with Apple M1 Max running macOS Sonoma 14.0 - can confirm i'm subscribed to dropbox beta updates and currently on 

V186.3.6141.

I tried quitting dropbox + reopening, tried restarting mac before I even logged out of dropbox entirely and back in, which required re-syncing files and despite the default setting being online only it initially warned me there wasn't space on my computer for all my team's dropbox folders - had to selective sync half then go back into preferences and sync the other half later. 

STILL CAN'T SEE THUMBNAILS in finder for my team dropbox's online only files.

Since someone above mentioned the various ways you can preview files (none of which work for me currently) I wanted to clarify, I think we all would love to see previews in any way shape or form, for all file formats, but if we had to choose just one way to focus on fixing first, I think everyone would agree opening a dropbox folder in finder then selecting View > as icons would be the main preference. 

[pedroms]

hi sam,

i don't feel secure about opting in the file provider version. 

i didn't try yet reinstalling the app. Is it possible to reinstall desktop app and make online-only (and offline) files maintain theirs status?

[Lizajane]

I am not able to see .jpgs still.  I am running Dropbox 185.4.6054 on a Macbook Pro M1 Ventura 13.5.2 (22G91). I am able to see .psd files that are offline, but sadly not .jpg.  Why does it work for some on this thread and not all? 

[HappyTales]

@Lizajane you're not using the latest beta, so you could try updating to that. The issue with it working for some and not for others appears at this point to be linked to those of us using Team folders. If you're not in a team, hopefully updating to the latest beta will solve your issues. Otherwise, you're in the same boat as the rest of us, just waiting!

[missfluffy]

Just throwing it out here, although it seems that the issue has been well documented already. I have not been able to see .jpg previews since upgrading to Ventura.  I am currently running Dropbox 188.4.6302 on a MacBook Air M1 Sonoma 14.1.2. 

[CharlotteR]

I can't believe this is still an ongoing issue! This is still making it very difficult on a day to day basis to do my job. Is there any word on a fix?

[massimilianogrieco]

Hi, I agree with Charlotte. We've been here since the first pages of this thread and I truly can't believe that this is still going on.
There aren't words to explain how frustrating is to not being able to preview files in a Creative environment.
I'm so disappointed on how unprofessional Dropbox is resulting on this issue.
I had this issue on Mac OS Ventura and I still have it on OS Sonoma V. 14.2.1 (Dropbox version: 192.3.4870)