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Andrew-RFLB's avatar
Andrew-RFLB
Helpful | Level 5
8 years ago

Smart Sync and Quick Preview on Mac

Smart Sync causes my quick preview function (spacebar) to not function properly on my Mac. I can't preview thumbnails, or quick preview any videos or photos. Any ideas why this happens?
Desktop
Mac
Setting up the apps
  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    8 years ago

    Likely because you're trying to preview a file that doesn't exist on your computer.

     

    When you set a file to Online Only, the only thing that's left of that file on your computer is the necessary information to make it appear in the folder. Since there's no content in the file, your OS (nor any other program) is able to preview it.

     

    Remember, when you set a file to Online Only, the file is removed from the computer leaving behind only a marker file. In order to access that file, whether it be to open and edit it or simply preview it, the file needs to be on the computer (Smart Sync doesn't allow you to open files directly from the Dropbox servers). When you open a file, it's synced back to your local drive and then opened as normal. When you're done with the file, if you want it to be online-only again, you need to mark it as such.

CNowell's avatar
CNowell
Helpful | Level 6

Ckrupinsky No workaround that was shared with me in my last round of support emails, but spoke with Tony at support and this was the response I received (I've condensed this for the sake of brevity): 

 

"The team was already aware that the problem was with Smart Sync, and they understood what you meant. I can assure you they are looking into the issue, but there's not much more you and I can do at the moment."

 

So I guess my question is, why hasn't this been addressed as a "Known Bug" on the Support home (this thread's been open for months...)? Hopefully we hear something soon.

 

While I would love to keep updating this thread, I have a funny feeling it's being ignored due to it being labeled as "solved?" Probably best for everyone here to start a new thread specifically detailing their problem in hopes that enough commotion will kick start a fix. Even better— create that new forum thread and post a link to that new thread here to further connect the problem.

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