Hi @syibimian
I'm Demitri -- a long time tinkerer with the Dropbox desktop application 🙂
That error you're seeing is a filesystem/permissions error from MacOS, that says the file you selected to open, can't be with the existing permissions. That you mention this seems to fix itself after a restart, makes me think something else on the device may be interacting with your files in a way that changes those permissions while in use.
You can take a look at what permissions are in place currently by right-clicking (or Control + clicking) the file and selecting Get Info. If you see either:
- The locked checkbox is ticked or
- Your user profile is not listed as having read/write access
That may prevent you working on your files.
It's important to keep in mind: just about any time you provide your password to an application during install - it likely has access to modify your files. The Dropbox desktop application does as well - but our application will mirror your permissions as they exist in your account online.
I would recommend taking a look at both the kinds of applications you typically use to open these files (maybe one of them is silently crashing and still 'touching' your files in a way that they can't be re-opened without restarting); or potentially take a look at apps like security/anti-virus that scan your files. These services have tools to 'quarantine' files in ways that could effectively result in what you're seeing.
I hope this helps! If from your testing it seems like the Dropbox desktop application is making these unwanted changes to your file permissions - I'd encourage you to submit a support ticket. My team and I can look into any suspected issues on our end - but my suspicion is there's another party involved here.
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