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How to Troubleshoot and FIX Dropbox Syncing Problems

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In today's video we're going to talk about Dropbox syncing issues and how you can resolve them.

If you are outsourcing the post production editing of your podcast you're probably sharing your files with a file syncing provider like Dropbox. And if you ever had any issue with files not syncing on your editor's end, chances are they're probably a Windows computer.

So today, we're going to make sure we resolve the Dropbox sync issues and at the same time keep in mind what not to do again in the future so the sync will go on smoothly on both ends.

To get started, first thing that you'll need to do is to login to your Dropbox account.
Viewing it from the Files view doesn't really reveal much whether our files are sync correctly or not. So what you'll do is go to this link: https://www.dropbox.com/bad_files_check
This will help you check out which files and folders have sync issues.

You will notice that this a very powerful tool and something that I would highly recommend for you to visit every now and then just to make sure that you're not missing any important files.

Now let's examine the results:

There are two columns in the result that shows us the file affected and the reason why this file is not syncing.
And from a quick look, I can say that those question marks, asterisks and colons are the culprits.

So why did this happen?
If you click on the link just above the list of results you will find out why.
So the main issue is really more on the difference of operating systems used. The client I'm working with are using a Mac computer while I am on a Windows computer. And since there are certain restrictions in Windows that is not restricted in Mac, hence, the result is a conflict when those files reach my end.

Windows users

* _ (less than)
* _ (greater than)
* : (colon)
* ” (double quote)
*

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* ? (question mark)
* * (asterisk)
* . (period) or a space at the end of a file or folder name

Mac Users
Files or folders that begin with a period

Links mentioned in this tutorial: http://dropbox.com/help/145

http://dropbox.com/bad_files_check

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(51) Comments

  1. Loren Strand

    Great tutorial Florante! Like you, I encourage customers to be aware or how
    they name files when uploading to Dropbox, Google Drive and other cloud
    sharing platforms. A quick edit of the filename may save time and effort
    waiting on failed syncing — and coordinating with teammates. After all,
    it’s about the ease of a podcast creator to share files with an audio
    engineer. An observation I made is that when you go to the Dropbox
    bad_files_check link, if you have a lot of files (thousands) then the check
    takes a while so be patient. Cheers!

    • All About Podcast

      Sorry to hear that Vince, but just like any medicine, it doesn’t cure every
      sickness. The tutorial isn’t a panacea to all your syncing problems. Try to
      do a bit more research, and if you find a solution to it, you can freely
      share it with us. Happy New year 🙂

  2. Loren Strand

    Great tutorial Florante! Like you, I encourage customers to be aware or how they name files when uploading to Dropbox, Google Drive and other cloud sharing platforms. A quick edit of the filename may save time and effort waiting on failed syncing — and coordinating with teammates. After all, it’s about the ease of a podcast creator to share files with an audio engineer. An observation I made is that when you go to the Dropbox bad_files_check link, if you have a lot of files (thousands) then the check takes a while so be patient. Cheers!

    • All About Podcast

      +Loren Strand Thank you for watching. I totally agree that the best way to avoid these issues is to be mindful of how we name our files. And if you’re using Dropbox bad files check for a large number of files, your patience will all be worth it.

  3. Loren Strand

    Great tutorial Florante! Like you, I encourage customers to be aware or how they name files when uploading to Dropbox, Google Drive and other cloud sharing platforms. A quick edit of the filename may save time and effort waiting on failed syncing — and coordinating with teammates. After all, it’s about the ease of a podcast creator to share files with an audio engineer. An observation I made is that when you go to the Dropbox bad_files_check link, if you have a lot of files (thousands) then the check takes a while so be patient. Cheers!

    • All About Podcast

      +Loren Strand Thank you for watching. I totally agree that the best way to avoid these issues is to be mindful of how we name our files. And if you’re using Dropbox bad files check for a large number of files, your patience will all be worth it.

    • All About Podcast

      Sorry to hear that Vince, but just like any medicine, it doesn’t cure every
      sickness. The tutorial isn’t a panacea to all your syncing problems. Try to
      do a bit more research, and if you find a solution to it, you can freely
      share it with us. Happy New year 🙂

    • All About Podcast

      Sorry to hear that Vince, but just like any medicine, it doesn’t cure every sickness. The tutorial isn’t a panacea to all your syncing problems. Try to do a bit more research, and if you find a solution to it, you can freely share it with us. Happy New year 🙂

    • All About Podcast

      Sorry to hear that Vince, but just like any medicine, it doesn’t cure every sickness. The tutorial isn’t a panacea to all your syncing problems. Try to do a bit more research, and if you find a solution to it, you can freely share it with us. Happy New year 🙂

  4. Erin Healy

    So if I change the names of files & folders to remove problem characters within the folder on my mac that syncs with dropbox (and another folder on a windows machine ) will that resolve its problems synching ? Should i pause sychibg before making changes then turn it back on?

    • All About Podcast

      Hi Erin,
      Yes, that’s correct. Just rename it and remove any conflicting characters and it should be good to go.

  5. Erin Healy

    So if I change the names of files & folders to remove problem characters within the folder on my mac that syncs with dropbox (and another folder on a windows machine ) will that resolve its problems synching ? Should i pause sychibg before making changes then turn it back on?

    • All About Podcast

      Hi Erin,
      Yes, that’s correct. Just rename it and remove any conflicting characters and it should be good to go.

  6. I Don't Sign Out

    I am having issues files not syncing both of them are Windows version. I have two computers, one at home and the other one at work. I noticed the files are not syncing. Does it have to do the file location? If so, how can I get them to sync to the same location? Please help

    • All About Podcast

      Check if you have selective sync turned on on the computer where your file is not syncing.

    • All About Podcast

      On the lower right of your computer, you’ll see the dropbox icon, click on it. A popup window/dialog box will open. On the top right of that dialog box, click on the cog wheel icon then choose preferences. Once the preference window is open, go to the account tab. you should be able to see Selective sync from the list. Click on Selective sync and check which folders are ticked. if a folder is not ticked, it means it’s not going to sync.

    • I Don't Sign Out

      The home location is set to my C:\user drive. The one at the office is sent to my email address.

  7. Angela Mercadel

    I am having issues files not syncing both of them are Windows version. I have two computers, one at home and the other one at work. I noticed the files are not syncing. Does it have to do the file location? If so, how can I get them to sync to the same location? Please help

    • All About Podcast

      Check if you have selective sync turned on on the computer where your file is not syncing.

    • All About Podcast

      On the lower right of your computer, you’ll see the dropbox icon, click on it. A popup window/dialog box will open. On the top right of that dialog box, click on the cog wheel icon then choose preferences. Once the preference window is open, go to the account tab. you should be able to see Selective sync from the list. Click on Selective sync and check which folders are ticked. if a folder is not ticked, it means it’s not going to sync.

    • Angela Mercadel

      The home location is set to my C:\user drive. The one at the office is sent to my email address.

    • Angela Mercadel

      They are both set for the Selective Sync, home and office . I now at my office, under the Account tab both the location read C:\users\…..\dropbox. Account Linking have the same email address. I really don’t understand why it is not linking.

  8. Billy Gowdy

    This worked for me. Thank you. Also add “/” to your list of character’s not to use from a mac to windows…

  9. kyle jones

    I have some files on My Mac that used to be in my Dropbox and I got a Google cloud service and uploaded it there and kept my Dropbox. But I got rid of the Google cloud service. And I tried to sync all those files back to Dropbox and now it just takes forever to sync. So I want to cancel the syncing process and then manually do the sync by each folder one by one.

    How can I cancel the sync process? Cause each time I start it it just lags….so I have to pause it.

    • All About Podcast

      Hi Kyle, you can try going to the Dropbox preferences and under sync choose selective sync so you can choose which folders to sync first and just stop those folders that you don’t necessarily need right away.

    • All About Podcast

      Hey Chris, not sure what I’m missing why you’d say it’s misleading. I’ve discussed exactly what’s in the title – Troubleshoot and Fix. If it didn’t work for you, that’s another topic.

    • Chris Hurst

      One of the first lines you say is about “out sourcing post production of your podcast”. Then you talk about validating file names, in a shared folder, and operating systems. This video has nothing to do with what people are looking for when they search for “How to Troubleshoot and FIX Dropbox Syncing Problems”. People want to know why Dropbox is always syncing on their computer and slowing it down. Perhaps the video should be called “Validating file names in a Dropbox shared folder to fix syncing problems”.

    • All About Podcast

      Thank you for elaborating. I was presenting the syncing problem from the context of an editor-podcaster collaboration which from my experience happens when one party uses a Mac and the other is on a Windows PC.

  10. xGabbyGachax x

    I have an issue with Dropbox i cant even connect to the internet to even search it up

  11. erhard schreck

    when i go to that link NOTHING shows up on the WIn PC and the browser tab is just circling. so if I’ld say that helped it would be a lie.