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?

[CharlotteR]

And this is the email I received to update.

[massimilianogrieco]

Hey @CharlotteR,

I want to thank you because you've been 10 thousand times more helpful than Dropbox Support did.

What is really crazy is that you have v.174 while i already had v.176 and still doesn't work.
I'm so disappointed on how the just ignored this thread and the issue itself.

[CharlotteR]

@massimilianogrieco no worries, I know how frustrating these issues are.

I actually have Dropbox Business / Teams so maybe that's the difference?

[massimilianogrieco]

Hey @CharlotteR, we are on Dropbox Business as well, we are a Team of around 20 people, each one of us experiencing the same issue.

fun fact is that I downloaded your specific version, and after re-syncing again, Dropbox somehow autoupdated my app to v176.3.5024 and I still have this issue.

Unfortunately, I'm having the feeling that Dropbox doesn't realise the level of the problems they are causing with issue, especially if they kind of fixed it, but completely abandoned this thread.

@BenDBX, can you please provide some answers?

[HappyTales]

I'm also experiencing these problems.

I'm on build 174.4.5569

Mac OS Ventura 13.3.1 (a)

I installed the latest updated, which moved my Dropbox files, and I thought this had fixed things. Indeed, all offline files that have been shared with me (so that appear inside my "FionaL" folder) have the thumbnails showing.

However, I still don't see any thumbnails at all in my team folder.

Dropbox team, are you aware that there are still issues to fix?

[HappyTales]

FWIW, thumbnails are also showing correctly in my personal account, so it seems to be a Teams issue.

[CharlotteR]

I was wrong... the issue is not fixed. Or rather, it's partly fixed.

Previously, the thumbnails would not display even if downloaded, but now they do load once the file has been synced locally.

However, images/files that are "online only" are still not displaying thumbnail previews.

This is in my Teams Dropbox account.

It is working correctly in my personal dropbox account.

[Kirepan]

Hey Max and Charlotte,

It's a complete disaster as far as I can see. Still no solution on the 'old' Dropbox app so working with offline files is not possible. And did you read the comments about the new Dropbox app and location of your files? That doesn't encourage me to install it, what are your experiences? 

All the best!

Kire 

[CharlotteR]

@Kirepan the file location change wasn't too bad actually, pretty seamless process! I haven't read any comments about it but my personal experience was fine.

Definitely agree that the thumbnail issue still needs to be addressed.

[HappyTales]

@Kirepan My upgrade experience was also fine. Yes, it moved the files, but that didn't cause any issues. It appears to have fixed the offline-only thumbnails on my personal Dropbox folder, but we still have the same issue with no thumbnails for offline-only files on the Team folder.