My .jpegs won't open because they have an iCloud extension

[ChristinaE]

I copied hundreds of photos over to my dropbox folders and now can't open many of them. the extension icloud has been added to many of them and now I can't access them.

Any idea how to fix this? 

Thanks!

[Lusil]

Hey there @ChristinaE, I'd be happy to help look into this with you. 

I'll just need a bit more information, such as:

• What do you see when you hover over the Dropbox icon that's next to your computer's clock?
• Do you have any pending updates on your OS?
• How did you add the photos to your Dropbox account?

Keep me posted!

[ChristinaE]

Hi Lusil,

I just see a black box with a >_ in the top corner.

I just did all my updates last week, up to date with macOS Catalina Version 10.15.6

Any help is appreciated!

[Lusil]

Thanks for getting back to me, @ChristinaE. 

Could you send me a screenshot of what you see when you hover over the Dropbox icon on your menu bar? 

Also, could you clarify for me how you uploaded the images to your account?

Let me know of any updates, cheers!

[ChristinaE]

Hi Lusil,

I had just did the "click and drag" from my laptop to the drive. Some are fine and I can open no problem, but there are a lot that I can't. 

[Daphne]

Thanks for those screenshots @ChristinaE!

As the files are ending in ".iCloud", this means that the files that you copied over are just placeholders for the actual file. This would explain why the files can't be opened.

Can you just clarify for me, did you "drag and drop" the files from the iCloud photos app?

If so, when you want to make a copy of photos from this app, you need to:

1. Select the photos you want to copy
2. Click "Files" from the menu bar in the top left
3. Choose "Export"

This will make a copy of the actual files and so they should show with the correct extension. This will allow the files to be previewed too in Dropbox. 

Let me know what you find!

[ChristinaE]

I had just highlighted the photos from my hard drive and dragged them into my drop box folder.  

I have since deleted my original files so I guess I'm out of luck.

Thank you for all your help.

[Jay]

I'm sorry to hear about this, @ChristinaE. Since they had an iCloud extension, have you checked if the files are available on iCloud itself?

[fuqubox]

Hi, 

I have the same issue.

I move my Mac's Desktop including all files to Dropbox via Drag'n'Drop and most of my .jpg are now shown as .jpg.icloud files. I cannot open them with any program. In "Get Info" I cannot change the program from Preview to something else to open it

as this field is shown as grey. Yet the file sizes indicate that these are not empty inoperable files but still they still contain their data ( e.g 1.6 MB size). I tried changing file extension to .doc / . rtf / .txt but none of them make the files readable. The icon that is shown in Finder says Green on Black: EXEC . Though, in "Get Info" the files are simply stated as .jpg (I do not see .icloud in this interface).

I have tried opening the files in iCloud but they are in the same broken state.

In a particularly bright moment I deleted the original files (GENIUS.....) as I thought all files would have been transferred to Dropbox already.

What I have gathered so far in all kinds of threads is that it could be something went wrong during upload and the system created a placeholder file but eventually did not complete the upload. What would go against this theory is that there still seems to be data within the files as "Get Info" says filesize e.g 1.6 MB.

Can anyone help me with resolving this issue? Are there file converter programs or any last resources?

Thank you very much in advance guys!

[ChristinaE]

Thanks for getting back to me.

My drop box is up to date as is my OS system.  The icon has "119.4.1772" up to date beside it.

When I added them I just did a click and drag from my desktop folders to my drop box folders.