We are aware of the issue with the badge emails resending to everyone, we apologise for the inconvenience - learn more here.

Forum Discussion

bwhight's avatar
bwhight
Helpful | Level 5
8 years ago

Smart Sync - Windows Explorer Search Not Working

I am testing Smart Sync for our team.  All fine but when files are 'Online Only', Windows Explorer search can't fined them.  I have tried a few PCs in our team and all have the same problem, so I don...
Desktop
Setting up the apps
  • Lucio's avatar
    Lucio
    7 years ago

    The Windows search functionality, that allows finding files set to online-only through the Smart Sync feature, is now available on computers with versions of Windows 8 and above, starting with the beta version 60.3 of the Dropbox desktop application that you can find here.

    When this is available in the stable version 60.4 next week, your computer should automatically update and receive the fix.

    Thanks to all that reported this and we appreciate your patience on this matter.

    Happy syncing!

grahamaikman's avatar
grahamaikman
New member | Level 2

Youve probably got indexing switched off, "control panel" search for indexing "then rebuild index" or tick "index this drive" where your dropbox is located

brianchris's avatar
brianchris
Helpful | Level 6
7 years ago

grahamaikman, I appreciate your desire to help, but it seems as though DropBox representatives have confirmed this problem to be a "known issue" earlier in this very thread.  Its seemingly just taking them a very long time (many months, or longer) to solve this problem.  As those DropBox representatives probably alreay know, the inability to search offline files in Windows makes the (otherwise incredible) "SmartSync" feature pretty worthless.  That is because, if most are your files are offline files, then the only way to find them is to manually plow through all your DropBox files and folders.  Without paying extra for the "SmartSync" feature (as we do), we would have had full search of all of our DropBox files and folders for these past many months.  Hopefully DropBox will solve this problem soon.

  • anjaporter's avatar
    anjaporter
    Explorer | Level 4
    7 years ago

    I imagine we can still use the search function on the web version which might at least indicate where a file is stored for easier way of navigating to it in File Explorer... not ideal but a workaround in the meantime.

    • ooninay's avatar
      ooninay
      Explorer | Level 4
      7 years ago

      True, and thank goodness dropbox search online works as well as it does, but realistically I'd probably only do this as a last resort... it means switching to my browser, going to the Dropbox website and logging in if not logged in already, doing the search, then manually navigating to the file folder in Windows where the file I need is.  So not something I'd ever do unless I was desperate.  This is actually such a big issue for me because of the way that I work that it means I'm not using Dropbox at all until it gets resolved.  Back to OneDrive (which I notice continues to improve and also has the equivalent of Smart Sync, but without the additional fee and searching works.)

      • Frank G.13's avatar
        Frank G.13
        New member | Level 2
        7 years ago

        Long time user of Dropbox;

        Here's the solution;

        *Onedrive*

About Apps and Installations

Have a question about a Dropbox app or installation? Reach out to the Dropbox Community and get solutions, help, and advice from members.

Need more support

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!