Dropbox syncing problems due to recent changes in Dropbox?

Scrivener Scrivener for iOS
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Hello! I have everything set up on my MBP to sync with my iPad Pro and my iPhone, via Dropbox, with a few projects that I like to keep on the go. Those projects were added to Dropbox years ago, and they’re syncing right, everything works as it should.

I recently added a new project to my Dropbox folder, but for some reason, I can open it in my Mac, but it won’t open at all on my mobile devices. I can see it is in my iPad, but when I open it, it says it’s not a valid project. I see the message in Spanish, but it says something like this: “Unvalid project. The project can’t be opened because it contains an unvalid binder structural file. Check that you uploaded the project completely from other devices, and then sync with Dropbox again”.

So I deleted the project from Dropbox to make a fresh start. I uploaded the project again, the iPad downloaded the project again, but I’m getting the same message.

So, for the fifth time I make this process again, I upload the file to Dropbox, and this time I go to the Dropbox page and make shure that it’s there. The webpage says something like this: “This type of file cannot be loaded. The file is not compatible”.

I can see from the webpage, that the file is there, uploaded to Dropbox, fully uploaded. The iPad app is fully synced, but the project cannot be opened. It happens the same on the iPad, and the iPhone app.

What I’m I doing wrong? Is there a change that I’m not aware of about the way I’m supposed to upload a project to Dropbox?

I’ve reread the manual, the tutorials, and the forum, and I think I’m doing everything correctly.

If someone knows what’s happening, I’d appreciate the help.

Hardware and system information:

MacBook Pro 12.9, 16 inches, M2 Pro, Sequoia 15.3.2
iPad Pro, M2, iPadOS 18.3.2
iPhone 16 Pro Max, iOS 18.3.2

UPDATE: As a workaround, I created a new project directly from my iPad. Afterwards, I opened the new project from my Mac, I copied all the files that I needed from my older project, and now everything is syncing just fine. Nevertheless, the question stands, because I would like to know why it happened.

SECOND UPDATE: I copied a different project from my Mac to my Dropbox folder, and it opened just fine. I guess there is something wrong with that particular project.

I’ll leave the post here, in case somebody else has a similar problem.

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Take a look at following to see if you can fix it from info provided already by L&L:

https://scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/kb/ios/quick-troubleshooting-for-ios-syncing

1 Like
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@cor_stellae , that’s an exceptionally clear page across possibities which @rms has recommended to you.

Near the end of it is an item directly addressing what you’re seeing. The problem might be something else, but I would try this first. The core of it is to click the download button as it says, on the iPad Dropbox side, and wait until the activity is finished, which should not take long.

Normally this is not at all necessary, but it might be if your internet had gotten interrupted at a critical point when Dropbox was updating.

Scrivener in fact uses the most reliable ability for Dropbox, which avoids changes that yes, have been made fairly recently in Dropbox’s handling, where they try to encourage purchasing an upgrade plan.

But you won’t need that, due to Scrivener’s superior direct access. And that is very reliable, while as we are also aware, in any computer arrangement like this, it’s possible for errors to occur. If they did in this manner, the click-to-download should convince Dropbox to resynchronize fully.

Best fortune on it, and will hope it’s this simple. If not, the other instruction cases should nevertheless get your project properly onto the iPad, where it should be reliable from that point…

p.s. I just noticed your updates, and that you’ve seen the problem cleared. That’s wonderful, and unless you have internet difficulties, I suspect you won’t see such again .

2 Likes
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Did you recently update to Sequoia or change machines? If so, have a look at the problems I had last November.

Problematic changes to Dropbox forced by Apple

My issues came after a reformat and restoring a time-machine backup.

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I had already read that before posting, but thank you.

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I had already followed all recomendations, and I have a paid Dropbox account. Thank you.

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No, I last changed machines a couple of years ago, and I keep my MBP up to date, so I didn’t upgrade recently, but a while ago. All the other files work properly, and even a new file was synced correctly. My guess is that maybe something failed with that particular file.