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

Unable to open files synced to computer

Hi -  I've been using dropbox for a few  months now and it has been aweseome -  I've got a distributed team of 10 people working across the country - and we've been sharing files on Dropbox witho...
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  • Norah's avatar
    Norah
    7 years ago
     
    Hi Clangdon, I’m sorry to hear you are still experiencing this issue and thank you for the additional information.
     
    Try quitting the Dropbox application by using the steps below:
     
    • Click the Dropbox icon in your system tray (Windows) or menu bar (Mac/Linux)
    • Click on the gear icon in the Notifications panel and select "Quit Dropbox"
     
    You may want to check other applications or components of your Operating System that could be causing this. If the issue persists when Dropbox is completely closed, this suggests that the cause is related to something outside of the Dropbox application.
     
    Let me know how it goes!
Walter's avatar
Walter
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

Hello kajakiem - welcome to the Dropbox Community!

As you can see, I moved your post under the thread you had quoted in your second post; merely to keep things neat around our Community.

As per the matter at hand now, kindly note that the issue you're seeing is a Mac issue that occurs when copying files with extended attributes metadata into a file system that doesn't support them. Depending on the information stored in the metadata, you may or may not need these files.

These files are called AppleDouble files and more information on how to handle them can be found by searching for:  "apple double files"

To avoid this issue if you have your Dropbox folder on an external drive, we usually recommend ensuring that the drive is formatted in the default file system format for the Operating System that is installed.

Formatting drives may cause data to be deleted. Please consult resources from your Operating System's manufacturer for steps and recommendations on formatting drives to a different file system. The most common default file systems are NTFS (Windows), HFS (Mac OS X) or ext4 (Linux).

I hope this information helps you find the culprit and please keep us posted on your progress!

kajakiem's avatar
kajakiem
Explorer | Level 3
6 years ago

Hello, I still have same problem, I can not open files that are syncronized. When I download them they are fine, I can open them. 

AI files are having problems with Text Import. 

PDF files are just not to open.

Indd files can not open.

etc...Screen Shot 2019-11-12 at 13.15.40.pngScreen Shot 2019-11-12 at 13.16.20.pngScreen Shot 2019-11-12 at 13.17.34.png

  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    6 years ago

    Sorry to hear this persists kajakiem. Let's have a look now!

    Could you let me know if those files are synced locally to your device or if they happen to be set to 'Online Only' via your desktop app's Smart Sync settings? You can verify this by checking your files' syncing status icons if needed. 

    Also, is your desktop app showing 'Up to date' when performing those actions?

    Let me know what you find and we'll take it from there. 

    • kajakiem's avatar
      kajakiem
      Explorer | Level 3
      6 years ago

      Hello Walter 

       thank you for quick response,

      yes, problem concerns only-online files. How do I switch them to files that I can use?

      Bests,

      • kajakiem's avatar
        kajakiem
        Explorer | Level 3
        6 years ago

        I am looking for information on only-online files, because I can not open them in any program, I need to download them to my computer first. I was wondering how do I turn "only-online" files into normal dropbox files that I can edit from my computer.

        My desktop app is showing 'Up to date' when performing those actions.

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