Troubleshooting
Fixes for the problems administrators hit most, matched to the messages Groundwork shows.
“No .qgs file found in the shared folder”
The link points at a folder with no QGIS project file in it. Check you shared the project folder itself (not its parent, and not the .qgs file alone), and that the project was saved as .qgs — a .qgz file won’t be recognised.
“Expected one .qgs file in the folder but found 2…”
The folder contains more than one project file — perhaps an old copy or a backup. Groundwork can’t tell which one to open. Move each project into its own folder and share that folder.
“This URL isn’t a supported cloud provider yet”
The pasted link isn’t a Dropbox (or OneDrive/SharePoint) folder link. Common causes: a link to a single file rather than a folder, or a link from an unsupported service such as Google Drive.
A layer is missing, with a warning that its file “wasn’t found in the shared folder”
The project references a data file that isn’t in the folder — often a layer whose source still points somewhere on your local machine. Open the project in QGIS, check that layer’s source path, export or move the GeoJSON into the shared folder, and re-save the project. The rest of the map still loads while this is broken; only the affected layer is skipped.
“Failed to parse the QGIS project file”
The .qgs file itself couldn’t be read — it may be corrupted or not actually a QGIS project. Re-save it from QGIS Desktop and let Dropbox finish syncing before testing again.
The map loads but looks different from QGIS
Groundwork supports single-symbol and categorised styles with simple field-based labels. Rule-based styling, expression labels, and data-defined overrides don’t carry across — simplify the styling to a categorised renderer on one field. See Preparing your QGIS project for the full list of what carries across.
A user can’t open a private folder
Check they’ve been invited as a member of the folder (a public link and folder membership are separate things in Dropbox), and that they’re signing in to the Dropbox account the invitation went to. The Switch account button on the Cloud storage card lets them change accounts if they signed in with the wrong one.