relative reference external spreadsheets

[Will_122]

I'm currently using Excel 2013, but will need this to work in earlier versions as well.

I have a series of spreadsheets in Dropbox (for those who don't know, Dropbox keeps a cached folder c:\users\myuser\Dropbox). One spreadsheet is a 'master' spreadsheet that tracks some values on all of the other spreadsheets. They'll be in subfolders:

Excel\Master.xlsx
Excel\GroupA\UnitAA.xlsx
Excel\GroupA\UnitAB.xlsx
Excel\GroupB\UnitBA.xlsx
Excel\GroupB\UnitBB.xlsx

Whenever I try it either in Dropbox, or just form my desktop, the formula puts the entire path reference in:

Either:
c:\users\myuser\desktop\Excel\GroupA\[UnitAA.xlsx]MyWorksheet'!$F$15
or
c:\users\myuser\Dropbox\Excel\GroupA\[UnitAA.xlsx]MyWorksheet'!$F$15

So, if I move the spreadsheets from my desktop, or one of my other Dropbox users pulls it, it doesn't maintain the proper formula reference and the master doesn't work.

I've read Microsoft's support website that says that it retains relative referencing but my experience indicates that's not the case.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/328440

Help?