Dropbox Allows Users to Preview Over 200 Different File Formats!
That’s right—Dropbox is like the Swiss Army knife of file previews, letting you check out everything from text documents to audio files. This means you can easily preview, comment, and interact with your files on your computer or phone without wasting time downloading them. Talk about efficiency!
Below is a detailed table of the file formats that users can preview directly on Dropbox. Just a friendly reminder: make sure your file size doesn’t exceed the limits below to enjoy the preview feature.
- Presentation File Formats
| Format | Maximum Size |
| .key* | 288MB |
| .kth* | 288MB |
| .odp | 288MB |
| .ppt | 288MB |
| .pps | 288MB |
| .ppsm | 288MB |
| .ppsx | 288MB |
| .pptm | 288MB |
| .pptx | 288MB |
| .xd | 1GB |
2. Photo files
| Format | Maximum Size |
| .3fr | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .ai | 256 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .arw | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .bmp | 100 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .cr2 | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .crw | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .dcr | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .dcs | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .dng | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .dwg (Dropbox Professional, Advanced, Enterprise, and Education accounts only) | 100MB |
| .erf | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .gif | 100 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .heic | 100 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .jpeg | 100 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .jpg | 100 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .kdc | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .mef | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .mos | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .mrw | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .nef | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .nrw | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .orf | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .pef | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .png | 100 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .ppm | 100 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .psd | 1024 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .r3d | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .raf | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .rw2 | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .rwl | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .sr2 | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .svg | 48 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .svgz | 48 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .tif | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .tiff | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .wbmp | 100 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .webp | 100 MB or 50 megapixels |
| .x3f | 200 MB or 50 megapixels |
3. Video
Maximum File Size: Under 100GB
Users can check out Dropbox Replay to increase the maximum preview capacity for video files and easily gather feedback from clients. (You can learn more about Dropbox Replay here.)
| .3gp | .3gpp | .3gpp2 | .asf | .avi | .dv |
| .m2t | .m4v | .mkv | .mov | .mp4 | .mpeg |
| .mpg | .mts | .mxf† | .ogv | .rm | .ts |
| .vob | .webm | .wmv |
4. Compressed File
When previewing compressed files, users can view the contents within the compressed file or extract them.
Maximum File Size: Under 512MB
| .7z | .bz | .bz2 | .cpio | .gz | .iso |
| .lha | .lz | .lzh | .lzma | .rar | .tar |
| .taz | .tbz | .tbz2 | .tgz | .tlz | .txz |
| .tz | .xar | .xz | . Z | .zip |
5. Audio
Audio files, when previewed, will feature a waveform interface.
Maximum File Size: 1GB
| .aac | .aif/.aiff | .m4a | .m4r | .mp3 | .oga |
| .ogg | .wav | .wma |
6. Text
Files in this format will be displayed as text when previewed.
Maximum File Size: 8MB
| .as | .as3 | .asm | .aspx | .bat | .c |
| .cc | .cmake | .coffee | .cpp | .cs | .css |
| .cxx | .diff | .erb | .erl | .groovy | .gvy |
| .h | .haml | .hh | .hpp | .hxx | .java |
| .js | .json | .jsx | .less | .lst | .m |
| .make | .markdown | .md | .mdown | .mkdn | .ml |
| .mm | .out | .patch | .php | .pl | .plist |
| .properties | .py | .rb | .sass | .scala | .scm |
| .script | .scss | .sh | .sml | .sql | .swift |
| .txt | .vb | .vi | .vim | .xhtml | .xml |
| .xsd | .xsl | .yaml | .yml |
7. Other files
The formats below will be previewed in text interface.
| File Format | Size Limit |
| .csv | 40MB |
| .doc | 160MB |
| .docx | 160MB |
| .docm | 160MB |
| .eps | 256MB |
| .hwp | 40MB |
| .numbers* | 40MB |
| .ods | 40MB |
| .odt | 40MB |
| .otf | 32MB |
| .pages* | 40MB |
| 500MB | |
| .ps | 256MB |
| .rtf | 160MB |
| .sketch | 1GB |
| .ttf | 32MB |
| .wpd | 160MB |
| .xd | 1GB |
| .xls | 40MB |
| .xlsm | 40MB |
| .xlsx | 40MB |
8. Website Shortcut
The formats below will be saved as shortcuts and previewed as websites (only the first page of the website can be previewed).
Maximum File Size: 10MB
| .url | .webloc | .website |
Why I cannot preview files on Dropbox?
If you encounter issues when previewing a file, it may be that the file format is not supported by Dropbox or is too large to preview. In Dropbox, files with one of the following extensions will appear as presentations in the preview:
You can also check this article for common error messages and solutions.
