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How to stop the cache from reappearing? (Mac)

I'm at my wit's end with DropBox.

One of the machines I sync to is a bit older, with only 128 GB on the HD. I have selective sync enabled and have only around 8 GB synced. But the .dropbox.cache folder is bigger than 8 GB and in fact is so big that it causes my HD to be completely full - to the point that things like Mail and iMessage crash from lack of resources.

I know how to delete the .dropbox.cache folder (make it un-hidden and delete!) but the second i click "empty trash" it comes right back within minutes and crashed my programs all over again.

Support seems flummoxed by my question. Surely there is a way to disable this cache from reappearing? Whether by DropBox official support or by brute force.

Has anyone figured this out and stuck around to tell the rest of us?

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Rich

There is no way to prevent the cache from being created or used. It's a required part of Dropbox's operation. As files sync, the cache is used to store the file chunks that are syncing. It also holds a temporary copy of files or folders that are deleted on other devices or the Dropbox website.

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Rich

ihatethecache

So you’re saying that the intended design is that if a user doesn’t have enough room for ~ 9GB of cache (and by the way there isn’t 9 GB of recently deleted files on any of my linked machines so I have no idea what is taking so much space) then the only other option is to not use DropBox? And there’s no workaround?

Rich

I can't speak to the intended design. I just know that the cache is required for Dropbox to operate and if you delete it, Dropbox will just recreate it. Side note: if you do delete the cache, don't delete the folder; only the content within.

If your files are up-to-date and you haven't deleted anything on other devices recently, then the cache shouldn't have much data in it. My 80GB+ Dropbox only has 108MB in the cache.

ihatethecache

My issue seems to be that the cache is exceeding 9 GB despite the total files synced to the machine being less than that. And the cache should be dealing only with recently deleted items of which there are none.

Meanwhile, I had been deleting only the files but then a DropBox support tech told me to delete the entire folder itself (show hidden folders / delete) so I hope they didn’t make the problem even worse ...

coldorange

I have also been having this problem and hope there is a solution that shows up for real.... it's been days and days of deleting the cache only to have 45GB of cache show back up again and lock up my computer.

davidferleger

I don't know where the dropbox cache is (where is it?)

I DO KNOW that in Mac Mail (MacOS Monterey 12.5), EVERY email I've deleted from my inbox (100s of emails) since the Dropbox Beta - keeps reappearing in my inbox.

This is the same cache issue? or ANOTHER cache issue?

Thanks