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Forum Discussion
Files online but not in Windows explorer
I have seen that this was an issue in the past, but the solutions are now out of date, so I am hoping someone can help me with this.
Sometimes files that I know are in Dropbox, and that appear in Dropbox online, do not appear in Windows Explorer. When I download them from Dropbox online to get them back into Explorer, it asks whether I want to replace the file, etc., so I know they are there. They just don't show up when I search. Windows 10. Do I need to change my Sync settings? I also want to make sure both titles and content are searchable. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
- Hannah
Dropbox Staff
Hey jessifishman. thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Can you confirm if the issue is only with searching for the files?
Otherwise, if you try to locate them manually, are you able to see them in your Dropbox folder?
For the files that are online, but not in the Dropbox folder at all, can you check if they contain any incompatible characters?
Let me know what you find.Hi Hannah
Thanks for your response. I'm not sure what you mean by "locate them manually." Do you mean scroll through Windows Explorer to try to find the file? That's not feasible, as we have thousands of files, which is why we need the search function to work. And no, there are no incompatible characters. Thanks!
- JayHi jessifishman, could you clarify what you mean by 'search' for the files? Are you searching in Explorer itself?
How exactly do you download the files from Dropbox? If the files are syncing via the app, you shouldn't get any option to replace the file, since it does so automatically.
I too have Web Dropbox folder with many sub-folders and files ... but none of these folders/files appear in my Desktop Dropbox Folder in Internet Explorer
On Desktop, I've used search function in IE to attempt to find these items ... but search returns nothing
How do I move my Web folder/files to another location in Web Dropbox
- MeganHi jessifishman & Trish S.2, how are you today?
I'd be more than grateful if you could attach some screenshots here in your next reply.
Can you search for an example file on the web and show me the results you get, versus what you see when you search for the same file on the desktop app?
Thank you both for this!Megan -
Screenshots From my Dropbox on Desktop vs. Web. Note on Web there is a Folder named 4-TS Resumes, not found in Desktop IE
I want this Folder but not as 4-
When searching for files using search field in Windows 11 only select amount of files show up in search results. For example, there are 13 files that start with "3099" in Dropbox folder and when searching for "3099" only 3 of them show up. I have installed Everything (search app) and it is able to find all the files when I type "3099" in the search field. This is just a workaround, but needs to be fixed.
Indexing is enabled for Dropbox folder and it has been rebuilt several times. The issue persists only on Windows 11, Windows 10 didn't have such issue. There is no was to switch back to Windows 11.
- Megan
Hey InfoTOM, let's jump right into this!
Are you able to see the files, when searching for the on the website, instead of the app?
Also, I would like for you to locate your Dropbox icon, next to your WiFi icon and hover your mouse there. That should give you the version of the app, so we can check if you're using the stable and not the beta.
Keep me posted, and we'll take it from there.
Hello,
Dropbox is up to date and selective sync is set up correctly to show up all the folders in Dropbox app. Still unable to locate the files by using Windows File Explorer when typing in the name in Search field. I can manually navigate to the file through the directory tree.
Hi!
The files shown online (Dropbox.com), and what my colleagues see, is different from what I see from my Dropbox Folder.
It's not synced.
Please help!
Thank you,
Christian
- Megan
Hi ChrisB4, welcome to our Community!
Is your desktop app up-to-date and running as it should? You can check its syncing status, and let me know.
Keep me posted, and we'll take it from there.
Hi Megan,
Thank you for your reply!
It is working fine now, after I re-installed twice. But I shouldn't go through all that hassle.
Currently though, there is one file that dropbox says it's corrupted. I already deleted it in Dropbox.com, but it's still showing as syncing on my Dropbox Folder.
I can't delete it or make it "Online-Only".
I think this is the culprit.
Do you have any idea how to deal with this? My CPU keeps on running because of this syncing.
Thank you,
Christian
