A common Dropbox bug: Property loss when moving files

Dropbox bug: Property Loss – Folder will copy without its properties.

 

Beware of this Dropbox bug:

“Property Loss:

Are you sure you want to copy this folder without its properties?

The folder has properties that can’t be copied to the new location.”

 

First of all, check if you’re copying or moving your Dropbox files: Your Dropbox folder works just like any other folder on your hard drive (even if you are offline): files move instead of copy when they are dragged and dropped into or from your Dropbox.

 

Secondly, this is a common error not only applying to Dropbox, but any external hard drive: Your internal drive (where your Dropbox folder is located) uses NTFS, while your external drive most likely uses FAT32. The NTFS file system can store additional properties with a file, while FAT32 cannot do that.

 

So thirdly, check what exactly gets lost!

I made a copy of one of those files to test this. And just like it actually says in the error message, it was the “Date created” that changed:

The original date was replaced with the date of today, when I moved that file.

As “Date created” is not a property of your file that can be changed, this will have a permanent effect.

In my case, not cool, as the “Date created” is significant information by which I organise all my photos!

 

Unfortunately it seems Dropbox is not taking accountability for this bug, blaming the operating system.

For me this means I’m simply stuck now with my files in my Dropbox folder until a solution becomes available… In the meantime I can no longer back up my files in my Dropbox folder, as this error does not happen when I copy my files over directly from my internal hard drive. It only occurs when the files were stored in Dropbox.

 

Have you encountered this bug? What have you done about this? And what’s the official take on this from Dropbox?

Kindly let me know if you’ve found a solution: TrulyJuly@web.de 🙂