Dropbox will preview a 3ds Max file...but won't open it

[sarahW3UB2]

I've seen a few posts on this subject whilst looking for a solution myself. 

As of today, I am working with a company as an in-house designer.

I have access to all of the files I need to work on...I just cannot open them.

If I double click the file within Dropbox, it just opens a blank template.

If I navigate to the file whilst in 3ds Max, I see a preview, including all of the materials but I get this error message.

I've uninstalled Dropbox and reinstalled it. Just in case there was a glitch.

But no help!

Can anyone shed any light? Really need this sorting over the weekend so I can hit the ground running on Monday morning.

Thanks

[RobH2]

Is it just the bare .max file on Dropbox or is the file zipped? I've had similar issues and by zipping the .max file in an archive, whatever gets scrambled is prevented. 

[nikATVHF]

I have exactly the same issue.

Does anyone have any idea what the problem is ? It doesn't seem to effect all the files

I work with, but most...

Someone must have an idea ?

I have the same problem opening textures for material from Dropbox too, but if I open them in Photoshop ( no Dropbox problems ) and resave them ( same name, same location ) they work....

Also, if I download a MAX file to my machine and open it form there, they work...

All of this has been happening since I got a new PC..

Any assistance would be appreciated...

[sarahW3UB2]

Hi there,

I found if you right click the file within dropbox, and set it to being a local file (green tick) rather than a cloud based file, it will open. Downside is the amount of files you need to be local to ensure the job works...when I had the issue I had 6gb of memory clogged up working this way!

I hope that helps.

[nikATVHF]

Thanks for the reply...that make no difference to mine I am afraid 😞

Glad yours is sorted out though 🙂

[sarahW3UB2]

The only other thing I found to work is copying it to my desktop, then saving it back to the DropBox.

[nikATVHF]

Yeah. Saving things to my machine makes them openable, but it's not too practical...we have quite large files and lots of Xrefs to other files so I can only do that with smaller files really.

There must be something inherently wrong with MAX's file reading or something ? It would be nice if Autodesk had a look into it...

[Victor_Aguilar_Pierri]

This is crazy, the worst part is that it opens some files and some not. It happens in some of my computers and others not. I can´t find the difference.   Found out it is able to open a file that needs upgrade from 2020 to 2022.  Other than that, no clue.  Hope someone solves this. Dorpbox would be very usefull in my workflow.