You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.
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18 Topics
Why does Dropbox insist on renaming my files?
2020: "Stop renaming my files! (on auto phone upload)" by BoxyBeat https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-installs-integrations/Stop-renaming-my-files-on-auto-phone-upload/td-p/391599 Dropbox response was: "interesting indeed". Then they are like; let us learn what you have uncovered that we still don't know. Like, let's go out there and jump through the hoops together to confirm if the files are named based on when the files are created (recording starts) or when they are last modified (recording stops). What difference does it make? Just stop renaming people's files!? They go on to explain that this is the expected behavior... duh! They never explain why this is, even though the author specifically requested an explanation from Dropbox as to "why" this is. They said they moved the question to the "Share an idea" section. They closed the question for further comments so that anyone who feels the same way about this Dropbox misbehavior can start their own discussion about it, like I'm doing right now, and we can all pretend that no one really wants this "feature", because the discussion activity is low and no one is voting. They even go as far as closing supposedly "shared ideas" for lack of support by other members of the community of users, before it even has a chance to reach the right team at Dropbox, Inc. With so many filters along the way, I would be surprised if any Dropbox features is ever a direct result of user input. Dropbox has its own fixed ideas of how to do things, and that's how it's going to stay. Like it and use it, or don't like it and move on to using something else. This is the example of a shared idea that has been closed due to lack of support. 2021: "Stop renaming files" by Pete3000 https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-ideas/Stop-renaming-files/idi-p/510186 Allow such ideas to stay open for a good while and see what happens. You will never get enough votes if you keep closing ideas and keep closing discussions. You will always blame it on lack of interest by other users, and users will keep creating new topics for the same old discussions, and keep sharing the same old ideas without it ever being forwarded to the right team at Dropbox, Inc. It's so obvious right now that you are genuinely not interested in what we users have to say or what we think of your apps and services. Not when you keep shutting us off, closing our topics of discussion and keep closing our "shared" ideas before they can gather enough votes and traction, and before they ever reach the right team. You're doing this on purpose. And that's OK. It's your product and your service. I just wanted to call you out and let you know that I can see through your charade and I don't agree with your practices. So let us have it... why are you changing the names of our files? And more importantly, why are you not allowing us to decide for ourselves if we want your app to change the name of our files or not? There is a way to set up naming conventions with Dropbox, but it does not apply to the mobile app and camera uploads. It applies only to the web and the desktop app (the option links back to the web for setting it up, there is no interface for it within the desktop app itself). "How to use naming conventions in Dropbox" https://help.dropbox.com/files-folders/sort-preview/naming-conventions Despite this advanced and elaborate way to exactly specify how to name and organize files in Dropbox (as long as you're not using the mobile app), and despite having several preset naming rules to choose from, having no rule at all is not a selectable rule or option. I am very disappointed with Dropbox right now. It feels like with each passing year I have less and less reason to use Dropbox. You have already reduced the number of devices allowed to sync from 5 to 3 (if I remember correctly) on the free plan. I wouldn't actually mind getting a premium plan if you did things a little differently and you got rid of the excess bulk you have invented in recent years like Paper, Transfer, Vault, Spaces, and what not, the list keeps growing. Dropbox has moved well beyond what used to be its core business idea, and it's far from working ideally, and I don't want to be paying for the things I don't intend to use.Solved13KViews13likes21Comments
Rename file and remove the extension on iOS
On iOS, I have a file called "key". I needed to copy the content of this file to the clipboard. Dropbox wouldn't open or preview the file as it was. So I renamed it to "key.txt". Now I was able to open the file and copy its contents. But renaming the file back was a problem. If I renamed it to "key", dropbox added the extension, trying to rename it to "key.txt", which gave an error for duplicate file. How can I rename "key.txt" to "key" on iOS?Solved9.5KViews0likes5Comments
Sequential ordering of photos within an Album
Is it possible to rearrange the ordering or listing of the photos in an Album such that they will be viewed in the Dropbox Photo Viewer in a specific sequence? (This may be important for the development of an idea, the life-cycle of a pet, progressive schooling of a child, or the time-sequenced construction of a house, etc.) Seems that when I create the Album and add photos to it, the order in which they appear in the Photo Viewer is random. Can this display sequence be altered by means of title, date captured,, date added to Album, etc.? With thanks, Richard R.5.7KViews0likes18CommentsDeleting a tag from a list of multiple tags
I have been experimenting with adding tags to files including by creating a folder and automatically have Dropbox assign tags to files added to that folder, which is very helpful. However, even following the Help instructions athttps://help.dropbox.com/files-folders/sort-preview/dropbox-tagsI can find no way to remove a tag if it is not among the first tags listed for that file. In other words, there is no x to the right of tag to delete the tag if it is, for example, the sixth tag assigned. Is there another way? Thanks.Solved2.3KViews1like5Comments
MacOS bug on client - Moving online files causes files to move as 0 byte files but still deletes
Ran into this yesterday on MacOS M1 in Ventura. I had a file that was online only. It showed up in Finder as 0 bytes. If I made the file offline, then it would download the file and show the proper size also. BUT if I moved the file while it was online only, it would move the 0 byte file from the Dropbox folder and delete the file from Dropbox. To sum up: I wanted to move a video file on my account from Dropbox and move it to a local folder since I was trying to copy a file from one PC to my Mac then to replace the file in the Dropbox account with a corrected one. But when I went to move the file from the Dropbox folder (with the online only file), it didn't download that file first before it moved it. So the only thing I got was that 0 byte pointer file and Dropbox still deleted it from my account. Fortunately, I had 30 days recovery on my files and could get it back, but imagine if I moved a folder and had a handful of files in those folders as online only. They'd be gone and I probably wouldn't have noticed in that 30 day window. That seems like a huge bug. Not sure if this is a Mac issue or a Dropbox one, but I'd hope that Dropbox could prevent the file from being moved without retrieving it first.1.4KViews0likes4CommentsSomething weird happens when I rename files
So, every time I try to rename a file after uploading it, Dropbox automatically changes the type of file it is (or encrypts it?). I'm not sure what happens precisely but the file becomes unreadable. I can't open it with any app and it becomes useless and I lose essential data in the process. How can I prevent this? I want to be able to rename my files without issues after uploading them to Dropbox.Solved1.4KViews0likes3Comments
Moving a video from Dropbox to an iPhone photo album
The instruction for moving a video to the iPhone camera roll work,s but it only moves the file itself. it is then represented in the Camera roll or iPhone album as a black square (with the length in minutes) and no thumbnail or filename. How can it be moved in such a way that the thumbnail and file name go with the video?Solved1.3KViews0likes6Comments
Shortcut to files and folders
Hi, I would love to see this feature come to Dropbox as already this is possible with local file systems and Google Drive. Create a folder shortcut inside another folder to provide easy navigation and save space, not having to duplicate that folder into new folders. Example I create a different folder for different projects and have different people shared with each folder. Inside each project folder, I have similar template files for our teams to use. Right now, I have to duplicate it in each folder if I want my team to have access to that. Instead, it would be great just to create a shortcut to my template folder inside all my project folders.916Views0likes2CommentsRecents no longer showing online
Previously, there is a "Recents" option above the "SIgnatures" option online on the left hand side. Refreshed online several times, logged off then logged in back again but the "Recents" are still not showing. I need that option to counter-check the most recent files uploaded (if they synced or not).Solved765Views0likes3Comments
What's the point of stars in Dropbox?
What is the point of stars if you cannot group or organize them into a folder? How do I go through a huge body of photos and choose the ones I will then work on to edit? I starred them but now have zero way to group them. I mean this is a feature in yahoo mail for god's sake, why not in dropbox???HALP!!Solved639Views2likes1Comment
