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aprilafternoon's avatar
aprilafternoon
Helpful | Level 5
6 years ago

Share links don't work on Android

For a while now, I've been sharing Dropbox documents in PDF format via email. Once in a while people tell me they "can't open the links." I always just assumed they didn't know what they were doing, ...
Error Messages
Mobile
Share
Shared Links
  • Lusil's avatar
    Lusil
    6 years ago
    Hi virtue, in general, this error message seems to be a generic error message related to a third party app. 
     
    For this reason, I’d recommend attempting to opening the link with a mobile browser and, if you’re still having issues, you can always contact our Support team for a more in-depth look on the matter using our internal tools. 
     
    Thanks in advance!
     
     
    This thread is closed due to inactivity. Please feel free to create a new topic here. 
aprilafternoon's avatar
aprilafternoon
Helpful | Level 5

Absolutely! Here you go.

Lusil's avatar
Lusil
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
6 years ago

Thanks for the screenshot, aprilafternoon!

Hmm. :thinking: The first thought that comes to mind is that the device doesn't have the relevant third party app to support the file in question so as to preview. 

However, I just wanted to ask, if you change the shared link's dl=0 into dl=1 (so as to force the file to download), are you then able to preview the file directly from your mobile phone by any chance? 

Let me know what you find!

  • aprilafternoon's avatar
    aprilafternoon
    Helpful | Level 5
    6 years ago

    I actually did try the dl=1 argument before I wrote this post! It makes no difference. Shouldn't the links open in the browser instead of trying to download the file?

    • Lusil's avatar
      Lusil
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
      6 years ago
      Thanks for trying this out for me, aprilafternoon. 
       
      Could you please try manually copy-pasting the shared link you have into a browser and see if that does the trick?
       
      Let me know of any updates! 
      • aprilafternoon's avatar
        aprilafternoon
        Helpful | Level 5
        6 years ago

        Lusil,

        Surprisingly, even that doesn't work! If I use the dl=0 option, nothing happens, and if I use dl=1, the file downloads but won't open (other PDF files on the device do open).

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