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LisaMac's avatar
LisaMac
Explorer | Level 3
10 months ago

problem opening documents in dropbox app on laptop "word unable to read this document"

Hi there I have one dropbox account for work purposes.  After working perfectly, I'm now having issues with the dropbox app on windows laptop.  Error message: "word is unable to read this document....
Desktop
Edit
Error Messages
Microsoft Office
Nancy's avatar
Nancy
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

Welcome aboard the forum, LisaMac! Let’s take a look. 

 

If you open your web Dropbox account and download a file to another location on your computer (outside of Dropbox), can you open it normally then? 

 

Can you provide a screenshot of the error you’re receiving, as well as one more showing the syncing icons next to the files you can’t open on the desktop app?

 

Keep me posted for any updates.

SigurdurBjornsson's avatar
SigurdurBjornsson
Explorer | Level 3
8 months ago

Hi Nancy, 

 

I'm having a similar problem. I just got a new computer and installed the Dropbox app and added my dropbox folders to the folder system on my pc. Everything was working perfectly on my old one, but now I get this error message for every Word document: 

I can't open any documents actually. I can download documents from Dropbox web and open them though. Then there are these sync signs on every document: 

Everything seems to be working normally on my old pc. 

I am paying for additional storage space.

I would very much appreciate help on this. 

 

All the best, Sigurdur

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    8 months ago

    Hi SigurdurBjornsson, this looks like an orange box icon, which could indicate a conflict with OneDrive on your machine, is it currently running?

     

    Could you try marking those files as available offline to see if this helps with opening them?

    • SigurdurBjornsson's avatar
      SigurdurBjornsson
      Explorer | Level 3
      8 months ago

      Hi Jay, thanks for the reply

       

      I'm not logged into OneDrive. 

      It's so strange, most of my files have this orange box on them and I can't access it. Three times this has happened but after a while and/or restarting my PC everything is back to normal.

      It's very inconvenient not being able to access my files, I use Dropbox every single day for all my work files. Do you know if there is any way to prevent this from happening?

       

      All the best, Sigurður 

      • Jay's avatar
        Jay
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
        8 months ago

        This error usually occurs when there is another cloud provider on your machine, which is affecting the sync icons on Windows.

         

        Generally, marking the files as available offline would help, since the files are then stored on your machine and you shouldn't get another issue like this.

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