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Forum Discussion
Couln't download. Remove incompatible characters from the filename
Recently all of my computer with Dropbox have started showing a sync error "Couln't download. Remove incompatible characters from the filename. e.g. emojis, /\"<>:|?*"
The problem filename isn'...
Hey Roy2010, no worries let me share Sam's response here as well.
Hi everyone,
Sharing an update on the topic: our team is working on adjusting this, and it's expected to roll out in our next Stable Build (V190).
You can check our releases here, and we'll keep you informed on the progress.
Thanks,
Sam
I appreciate your patience on this, thank you!
43 sync errors this morning! All due to tilde in filename. Also on version -8395
I have received an error report in the last couple of weeks from my Dropbox stating that files could not be downloaded due to incompatible characters.
These files are mostly archives and some are over 5 years old.
It is not possible to save a file with incompatible characters.
Has Dropbox got a problem they need to tell us about?
Has someone made a programming error that has created incompatible characters where none existed?!!
Has anyone else in the Community had the same error?
Several of our staff have the same problem.
Can we please get some help to fix these files!!
It will take weeks to go through every single file and fix the errors !!!
Yes! I am having the same issues. I have a list of over 999 sync issues - ALL WITH FILES THAT ARE OLD AND HAVE BEEN SYNCED PREVIOUSLY. Again, these are not new files. These are old file that have been in my folders for years and years. It just started last week and is starting to get frustrating. I'm thinking about cancelling to be honest. We work with hundreds of files a week.
-Giancarlo
DROPBOX THIS IS A CLEAR REGRESSION BUG THAT IS YOUR PROBLEM AND NEEDS TO BE FIXED, in my case there are no illegal characters in my filenames, Dropbox the software is wrong and bugged, FIX IT!!!
Dropbox is on a downward spiral and getting worse and worse. Time to evaluate alternatives that work better.
Yep, It's been years and suddenly the bug is back. Same bug. FIX IT DROPBOX!
Got the same problem for the first time on dec 21, 2023. Never had this issue before although i use db for over 8 years now. All files with issues are old and have been synchronized for weeks/months/years without problems. 32 issues, mostly with ":" in file name. db, pls fix!
I've been using Dropbox for 10 years and have had an occasional issue but never this one. And I feel compelled to join this long-running thread to report that it just started happening yesterday. The filenames look normal, and like many others report, these are old, old untouched files. E.g. these ones are from a Headfirst Java course. I've deleted some of the files on the machine where I'm getting the error, but as you can see in the screenshot the complaint is about downloading them, so maybe it's from another machine. This machine is a Mac, which I believe should be able to handle files starting with a dot or ending with a tilde. Seems like a serious Dropbox bug.
Same issue here! 654 files with syncing errors due to incompatible characters that had been in Dropbox previously. No way to rename en masse (a feature that OneDrive has). Not interested in going to each file individually to remove the character. The character in question is a ":" in the name that was not there previously. Dropbox needs to add a feature where it asks you if you wish the rename the files and replacing the offending character with an underscore or something.
@LTarbutton: there's no way to rename en masse, but also you shouldn't have to rename these.
@Dropbox: I'm having the same issue as others (see screenshot below). These are files that have been sync'd just fine for years. The error message seems to imply that (in addition to asterisk, colon, and quotation mark) a period character is "incompatible", which is clearly unreasonable. This issue started for me in the last day or so. Any thoughts on why?
- Megan
Dropbox Staff
Hi Gabrielle Neal, welcome to our Dropbox Community!
Keep in mind that the syncing issue you described is most likely due to the OS on your device.
It's not coming directly from Dropbox, but some operating systems have certain characters that they don't accept.
You'd need to rename these files via the website, and they'd then sync without any problems.
You can see more about this right here.
I hope this clarifies things.Thanks Megan,
I have done as suggested.
My question is HOW did this happen to files that have previously synced fine.
These are HISTORIC files, not something loaded in the last week, and they were fine when they loaded.
I actually don't know how they were ever created on any computer with invalid characters.
Majority of them had a : in the file name.
I have worked with computer a long time and this character has never been allowed by PC or Mac.
The only thing done differently this last fortnight is I upgraded to Windows 11 and then changed my mind when things stopped working. I have since gone back to Windows 10.
Next idea please.
Same here, some of these files go back 10+ years and all of a sudden it's an issue? I know Dropbox hires some of the most talented programmers on the planet. The interface that is presented to us is clumsy to even begin attempting to change hundreds of files. "Go to file" for each and every file is extremely unrealistic. It actually opens each file in a new browser window ... yes we're inside the file. We don't need to be inside the file in order to rename the file. Who designed that interface should spend a week using his/her creation and see how painful it is to use. DropBox should present an interface of all offending files like in an explorer/finder window that would allow us to multi-select and run a REGEX-based script to remove the offending characters. /\."<>:|?* C'mon DropBox, you can do better than this!
We cannot rename or delete hundreds upon hundreds of files! That is ridiculous.
The files that cannot sync are all files that DROPBOX created, because they end in .dropbox.attributes. So at some point dropbox created these files - from image files - and now it decides they have incompatible characters and will not sync them.
Our image files have a half dozen or so users across multiple families and locations, and there is NO WAY for us to clean up the mess that these attribute files have created.
Come on Dropbox, FIX the mess you made!
Sorry Megan, but no this link you supplied didn't clarify anything.
These files have appeared out of nowhere with a full colon inserted.
This is not our practice to create files in this manner.
Please, can someone please give us a better solution than "you will have to rename them yourself" or it is our "OS on our device".
I am sorry, but both of these sound like a cop out.
So I uninstalled and reinstalled Dropbox and it seems to have worked.....I still have no idea why that was happening.
To clarify, the old files in question are still not syncing.....but the good news is it's not preventing new files from syncing properly. Which was the main issue.
-Giancarlo
