File not saved after multiple saves in Dropbox using InDesign 2020 on Windows 10

Report · Sep 11, 2020

InDesign cc with Windows 10 on DropBox on a quite full hard drive.

Okay, I worked all last night until 1:30 am or so and saved my document when I went to bed but left the file open. I got up at 7 am and all seemed fine and I worked for five hours steadily, saving every few minutes using the menu across the top of the screen (File>Save).

However, I had a little test document also up and closed that without saving, answering no that I didn't want to save - except I closed my big document by mistake instead!!

I thought I should be okay having saved so many times, but instead, I am sunk. The file looks to be the same as it was at 1:30 am and so I have lost all that work. (1:30 is the Dropbox date/time also of the "current" version of the file.)

Any idea why all those twenty-some times doing File>Save did not save my work??

Report · Sep 11, 2020

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about this. I'd recommend turning off Smart Sync feature while working with Dropbox. Many users have reported the issues with the Dropbox sync feature.
You may also save the file to local drive first and then move it to Dropbox.

Hope it helps.

Regards,

Ashutosh

Report · Sep 11, 2020

Thanks so much for your reply.

I have not used smart sync (as far as I know!) and just went in and looked at a tutorial. On my Dropbox folder in question, the "smart sync" option does not appear. I see that in the tutorial it is below "star" but on my pc, I do not see it anywhere.

But perhaps DropBox is somehow creating my problem. I am now thinking to "package" the entire thing (photos, indd) as though I were sending it off to someone else and then working on it from my drive D. Or does InDesign work okay on something other than Drive C?

Report · Sep 12, 2020

Quite full harddrive? What does that mean?

That is usually a recipe for disaster.

Report · Sep 12, 2020

Did you check your Deleted Files folder on dropbox.com? I had a very odd experience with dropbox yesterday. Mid-morning, as I was taking screen shots for this forum, the files would briefly appear in my designated folder, and then would disappear. They were all sitting in the Deleted Files folder on dropbox.com and I was able to recover them. I posted this on the dropbox forum, but no answer yet. It is still happening this morning.

~Barb