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Participating Frequently
July 14, 2025
Answered

Mac will not open jpeg or ARW from Dropbox

  • July 14, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 669 views

Just bought a new Macbook Pro. Photoshop 25 will not open files from Dropbox.

 

JPG gives this message: 

"because a JPEG marker segment length is too short (the file may be truncated or incomplete)."

 

ARW files give this message:

"Could not import the clipboard because Photoshop does not recognize this type of file"

 

What's ging here? In the 2nd case, I did use the Open command. Tere's nothing in the clipboard as far as I know.

 

Correct answer Kevin Stohlmeyer

Totally a Dropbox issue. The files are not accessible while synced in the cloud. Download to local always when working on them, save local, then put back into cloud storage when done. Actively attempting to work via network/cloud storage is a risk for corruption. 

2 replies

Legend
July 14, 2025

You cannot work on files in Dropbox. They MUST be copied to your local drive and then opened.

D Fosse
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 14, 2025

...and that goes for any online storage/cloud, and also network storage. 

 

To be honest, I've seen so much file corruption in online storage services that I wouldn't dream of trusting them for archival purposes. I use dropbox only for making files available to clients.

Kevin Stohlmeyer
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 14, 2025

@gregw822 have you tried transferring the assets out of Dropbox and then opening to confirm its not file corruption rather than a PS issue?

gregw822Author
Participating Frequently
July 14, 2025

Thanks. I can open. both file types if I use "Make available offline" in Dropbox. Plus, the preview images show up after "Make available...", but not for the files that haven't been "made available " . So....PS won't open files stored oline in DB. I suppose that means it's DB issue rather than a PS-25 problem?

 

Kevin Stohlmeyer
Community Expert
Kevin StohlmeyerCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
July 14, 2025

Totally a Dropbox issue. The files are not accessible while synced in the cloud. Download to local always when working on them, save local, then put back into cloud storage when done. Actively attempting to work via network/cloud storage is a risk for corruption.