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xoxoJen's avatar
xoxoJen
New member | Level 2
7 years ago

Folder not loading images on mobile

When I load photos to a shared folder "anyone with link can view" the images are only viewable on desktop machine. Mobile will load the page, but there are empty/blank squares in place of all the images.

This is not only happening to me specific, but four other users and with shared folder links other than mine.

I do not have the dropbox ap installed on my phone but other users do and have same result - empty boxes where images should be.

 

Help?

  • Hey all,

     

    Thank you for your patience while we worked on getting this resolved. A fix for this has been released and shared links to folders should now show image and video thumbnails correctly, and let you interact with the thumbnails to view previews of the files. 

     

    This should work correctly for all users now, however if anyone is still seeing issues with shared links to folders on mobile web browsers, can you let us know in detail what behaviour you are seeing? 

     

    Thanks again to everyone that reported this behaviour and helped us to identify the source of the problem!

     

     

    Best,

    Frank

  • zhp3nn's avatar
    zhp3nn
    Helpful | Level 6

    Not showing images when open Dropbox folder link on iPhone, and tap thumbnails not respond at all,The issue Start from yesterday 

    • Reignman's avatar
      Reignman
      Explorer | Level 4
      I am having this exact same problem. Can't view shared links that contains videos. Can't play them in Safari or Chrome on iPhone. The videos used to have thumbnails and play but now they are just white thumbnails and can't play. I have 5 other people say the same thing when the links are shared with them.
    • Darendeli's avatar
      Darendeli
      Explorer | Level 4
      I am having same issue on my mobile devices as well. Pictures load when I request desktop version in google chrome. Mobile version won’t load it.
  • Maple's avatar
    Maple
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    Hi xoxoJen,

    What is the account emails of the users who have this issue?
    • xoxoJen's avatar
      xoxoJen
      New member | Level 2

      Mine is cutsie@gmail.com

      another person who can load on desktop does not have an account at all

      two users I don't know well enough to ask for their email addresses

      another is brianscribner33@gmail.com

      And I am waiting for a reply for the other account.

       

      The images are stored in the account brianscribner33@gmail.com who is marked as 'Owner' where I (cutsie@gmail.com) am an editor and who loaded the images.

      • xoxoJen's avatar
        xoxoJen
        New member | Level 2
        The other user I was waiting for reply from also does not have an account nor the mobile app, and only tested on mobile.
        Another tidbit of information is that the other links I mentioned as not working, did work yesterday at some point and have stopped. (same empty boxes in place of images result)
  • DonaLuiza's avatar
    DonaLuiza
    New member | Level 2
    Hi,
    I use my Dropbox account to share one folder called Dona Luiza with many people via the folder link. Today I received many complaints from the people without the app or account saying that the pics wouldn’t load for them, I tried logging out on my iphone and opening the link and it didn’t work as well. Is there anything I can do to fix this?
    • 310EI's avatar
      310EI
      Star | Level 17

      DonaLuiza wrote:
      Hi,
      I use my Dropbox account to share one folder called Dona Luiza with many people via the folder link. Today I received many complaints from the people without the app or account saying that the pics wouldn’t load for them, I tried logging out on my iphone and opening the link and it didn’t work as well. Is there anything I can do to fix this?

      Hello...

       

      If you need your participants to have "edit" access to the photos then yes, they need a Dropbox account and ample storage space in their account.

       

      I recommend that you read this Help Center article regarding shared links (then choose which way you're accessing Dropbox for instructions).  You can create a folder filled with you photos and just share-a-link to that folder.  They can view everything without needing a Dropbox account.  In addition, they cannot accidenatlly delete any files as can be done via a Collaborative Folder (unless you set view-only permissions).

       

      I realize that it's hard to know for sure how sharing a link to folders/files will appear to your participants (especially when testing folders/files in your account vs another person's).

       

      For that reason, I make it possible for you to test-drive how sharing a link is viewed by YOUR recipients... please feel free to explore my example folder below.

       

      PLEASE NOTE:  If you want to have the same experience as a non-Dropbox user then you should sign out of your Dropbox account or use a different browser.



      > SHARING A DROPBOX SUB FOLDER LINK EXAMPLE:

       

      The image below shows you the hierarchy of my example for sharing a LINK to a sub folder that only allows the recipient to view the ExampleSubFolder's contents.

       

      Sharing a LINK to a Folder/File in my sub folder example does not give you access to the parent folder (zz.Example2) or its other sub folder (ExampleSubFolder2).

       

      Depending upon how your folders/files are arranged within your Dropbox account:

       

      1. You may have to create a new parent or sub folder.
      2. Then copy/move your files to that folder in order to control what your recipients can view or download.

      If image doesn't load... refresh your browser, F5. Otherwise try again later

       

      Let me know if you have any other questions.

       

      I listed a few Help Center articles below for your convenience.



      HELP CENTER ARTICLES:

    • Rich's avatar
      Rich
      Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II

      DonaLuiza wrote:
      Today I received many complaints from the people without the app or account saying that the pics wouldn’t load for them

      If memory serves, this is a known issue that Dropbox was looking into. It started happening sometime in December.

  • Aliciahomestage's avatar
    Aliciahomestage
    Explorer | Level 3

    Hi!  Yesterday I was sharing links to some files containing photos via text message on my iphone, and everything was going fine.  Everyone could open them, even those without the Dropbox app.  Then suddenly something went wrong.   No one can open them anymore, and I was even having trouble sending them, getting a failure to send message.    I tried attaching a new link to the files, and still no one could open them.  I tried creating a new file and trying to send the link to that to see if there was something wrong with my old files, and they can't open new ones either.  I even deleted and re-launched my Dropbox app on myphone, and that didn't work.

    I treid sending a link on my computer via email, and that didn't work.  No one can open any links to files I send out...I am sendng them out with the "anyone with this link can view".  My husband just gets blank sqaures when he tries to openthe ink, but a friend of my get a notice saying that this address no longer exists.  What happened, and how do I fix this?

    • Mark's avatar
      Mark
      Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
      Can you send us some actual error messages?
      Screenshots etc.?
      • Aliciahomestage's avatar
        Aliciahomestage
        Explorer | Level 3
        Hi Mark superuser II. Are you took me so long to get this to you, but I emailed it to you a couple of days ago, and just now got the notice that that’s not the way to reply to you. Sorry, I am very new at all of this. Here is what my girlfriend gets when she tries to open my links from Dropbox. image2.jpeg. This is what my husband gets. image1.jpeg
        I was on dropbox on my computer trying to figure this out, and when I try to attach a preference to my links, it tells me that I have to upgrade to a professional dropbox plan in order to attach a preference to a link. My preference being that anyone with the link can view it. That be a problem, that I have to upgrade my dropbox?
        Thank you for trying to help me, as I really want to resolve this issue. I look forward to hearing from you very soon! Thanks!



  • PaolaRB's avatar
    PaolaRB
    New member | Level 2
    The shared links on mobile phones ask to install the app to see them
    • Reignman's avatar
      Reignman
      Explorer | Level 4

      Is anybody from DropBox actively looking into this?? This is hindering our projects greatly. Thx.

      • Frank_S's avatar
        Frank_S
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

        Hi all,

         

        My name is Frank and I’m a member of the Dropbox website specialist team.

         

        First, I'd like to thank you all for reporting this problem with shared links. We're still investigating this at the moment, but it appears to be limited to shared links for folders; shared links directly to a file should still preview and function as expected. The issue also appears to be limited to web browsers on mobile devices. Desktop web browsers and the Dropbox mobile application are not experiencing this problem.

         

        This has been reported to our engineering team who are investigating further, once I have more information on this I'll loop back here. 

         

        Thanks,

        Frank

         

  • kikio13's avatar
    kikio13
    New member | Level 2

    Has anyone found a solution? Images cant be seen on a mobile through the "shared link"

  • trassuchine's avatar
    trassuchine
    Explorer | Level 4

    Same problem here. Too many of my clients view images on their mobile phones without the dropbox app. Hopefully this can be fixed soon!!!

    • Aliciahomestage's avatar
      Aliciahomestage
      Explorer | Level 3
      Yes! I have the same issue! Most of my clients do not have a Dropbox app, and almost always view photos I send them on their cell phones. Really hoping that dropbox gets this resolved quickly! I also hope that when they do, they will notify all of us that we’re back up and running again!
  • muresanozana1's avatar
    muresanozana1
    Explorer | Level 3

    Hello, everybody!

    I am photographer and I am using Dropbox to send the photos to my clients... so I send to them the link and they are saying that they cant see its. This problems exists for mobile and tablet devices. 

    Thank you!

     

     

     

     

    • Anastasios's avatar
      Anastasios
      Collaborator | Level 9

      It would be useful to give the community some extra info about your clients specs , i.e. what platform, device , os version are they using to view the pictures ... do they all have the same problem are they all using the same device or app ? 

      • muresanozana1's avatar
        muresanozana1
        Explorer | Level 3

        Most users have Android mobile phones, but they are some with Iphone too.  The shared folder link, once opened, doesn't load any previews for the photos nor a larger view if one clicks the gray squares that should hold the preview photo.

        I have checked with the latest version of Chrome, Opera and Ghostery android browsers and they all behave the same (attached photo taken in Chrome on Android 7.1).

        The link works as intended on Windows desktop browsers, but some of my clients do not own a desktop or a laptop pc

         

         

         

        .

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