Recently I’ve been unable to search an EndNote library that has been shared with me via Dropbox. When I search, the response “No matching references found” is returned even when I search for references I know are in the library. The problem seems to be specific to this particular library as I have no problem searching another library that is also shared via Dropbox or a library that resides on my harddrive.
The problem may have started when the person who shares the library with me upgraded to EndNote X6 from X4. At the time I was still running X4. Since then I’ve upgraded to X6 but the problem has continued, so the timing may have been coinsidental. Both of us are now running X6 on Macs. My collegue does not have a problem searching the database on his end.
Users have reported problems sending EndNote files via Dropbox to the point where Jason (EndNote forum’s moderator) recommended in May 2012 against using Dropbox - see this thread. You might try an alternative cloud or method for transferring files to see if the library can be delivered in working order.
You can :“share” via dropbox, but do not use it in dropbox. Also remember that you need to share the whole of the .DATA folder. If you use the library on dropbox, I am not sure how dropbox updates the files ad folders in the .DATA folder which is where all the critical database files are stored. This seems to cause the database corruption. Remember the .ENL file is just a “pointer”. So one should just drag the whole of the .enl file and .DATA folder out of the drop box before utilizing. We share by just compressing prior to putting in the box, and then uncompressing locally. Dropbox updating can lag behind the .enl library, and I suspect updating the library in the dropbox locally and the copying/updating function can not be kept straight.