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Smart Sync and removing local files

Hello,

I'm attempting to convert my dropbox folder on my desktop to smart sync, so that I'm not storing any local files on my harddrive in order to save space. Currently, my folder has some local folders.

I would like to

1. Convert local folders to smart sync. I've initiated this process and the files are currently displaying the blue sync logo and the other files are showing (i think) that they are already exclusively in cloud storage and not local. The ones that I've smart sync'd have had the sync logo for a while, and I can't tell if there is any progress with the sync'ing. How do I confirm that they are fully sync'd?

2. Once the smart sync is complete, I would like to get rid of the local storage of these files on my harddrive. My hesitation is that deleting the files directly would instruct dropbox to remove them from the smart sync'd ones in cloud storage. How do I proceed with removing local files while keeping them in cloud storage?

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atccodex

Hi @Grant W.1

So first and foremost, Dropbox is a sync solution, not a backup. When sync is turned on, it sync the local file to the cloud. If you delete the local file, it will also destroy the cloud copy. You can directly upload your files for storage using the web client https://www.dropbox.com/home and then that will be stored independently of your local files.

As for the status, if you click on the little dropbox logo in the system tray, it should give you the current sync status of your files.

All comments

atccodex

Hi @Grant W.1

As for the status, if you click on the little dropbox logo in the system tray, it should give you the current sync status of your files.

clbchase4

So if sync is turned on and I have not uploaded my local dropbox contents for backup and if I restore from backup all folders/directories/files except my local Dropbox folder (files) - then all my local dropbox files are forever gone, unless I still have them on a external backup drive for restore. Correct?

tne204

You didn't actually answer the OP's question.

The question, again is: after enabling smartsync where the selected folder is cloud only (meaning, it will not sync between cloud & local), how does one delete those files from local without it rolling back to cloud.

It's a pretty poorly designed feature, because once smartsync is enabled on a folder to be cloud only, deleting that folder SHOULD NOT roll back to the cloud, per the setting. Yet it does roll back, and prompts you that it will do this when deleting or moving the local folder/file. So you end up with no clear way to remove those local files.

I suppose you could delete the local folder, then restore it in cloud Dropbox and it shouldn't re-sync locally. But if you're dealing with a folder that has TONS of files, it's really not an attractive proposition with the unknown of what it will take to restore the underlying files on Dropbox.com. Can you restore an entire folder at once? Or do you need to restore file by file.

Huge design flaw imo. Let me know if anyone can properly answer this question on how to manage.

Daphne

Hey there @tne204,

When you use smart sync to make a file "online only", it reduces the space the file takes on your hard drive to a negligible amount. Smart sync is useful for those who don't want the files to take space on their hard drive, but still see their entire folder structure and easily access files on their desktop.

If you don't want to see certain folders at all after uploading them to your Dropbox account then you can use selective sync instead. The files can be accessed online and won't sync to the desktop at all. Please just make sure the files are fully synced before removing them on your computer with selective sync, which you can do by checking the sync status is "Up to date".

I hope this helps to clarify the matter - Thanks!

MikeTyrrell

I agree, smart sync is dumb. The answer is not an answer. I expected it to work like this:

1) turn smart sync on for a folder

2) delete the local folder to save space on your local system

Instead you turn on smart sync and it seems like nothing changed. You try and delete your local folder and it wants to delete your online folder - dumb.

Also, dropbox isn't a backup solution?? It's a sync solution?

THAT makes me nervous as hell - so really we shouldn't count on our files being safe in dropbox because it's not really a backup solution.

Hmmmm, I guess I should start hunting for an alternative service. :-(

Rich

@MikeTyrrell wrote:
Instead you turn on smart sync and it seems like nothing changed. You try and delete your local folder and it wants to delete your online folder - dumb.

You set a file or folder as Online-only, and you're done. There's no need to delete the local files because the files are already removed from your local drive by Dropbox, and a marker is left behind. It APPEARS as though the files are there, so you can easily open them, but they are online-only and not taking up disk space (aside from a few bytes for the marker).

Also, dropbox isn't a backup solution?? It's a sync solution?

Correct. It is a file synchronization server that has some backup-like functionality. If all your after is a file backup service, use Backblaze, Carbonite, etc., as they're designed for backups. Dropbox is not.

so really we shouldn't count on our files being safe in dropbox because it's not really a backup solution.

Your files are perfectly safe in Dropbox. Just because Dropbox isn't a service dedicated to file backups, that does not mean your files aren't safe.

MikeTyrrell

This is a more helpful answer than the previous one. Thanks for the clarification on the fact that it takes some time for the local files to be removed and this is done automtically. It's not clear in the explanation users receive or the answer provided in this post (until now).

Thanks!

Grambles12

I'm experiencing the same problem with Smart Sync. I switched over select folders to Online Only over 10 days ago and the local versions of the files are not automatically freeing up disk space. For example, A 10GB video file in the Online Only folder is still showing up on my hard drive locally as taking up 10GB of space. Thank you.

Daphne

Hey there @Grambles12,

Can you just confirm for me that the folder you're referring to is correctly showing the online only sync icon (grey cloud) and your desktop app sync status is "up to date"?

Also, can you please confirm which version of the desktop app you're running and the OS of the computer that is having this issue?

Should you be using a Mac computer and you're not seeing the space reduced after applying smart sync to your files, I'd recommend checking out this post here.

Let me know what you find and we'll go from there!

Grambles12

Thank you @daphne, yes, I can confirm that the folder is showing as a grey cloud, and that my desktop app sync is showing "Up to Date".

I'm using Desktop App v80.4.126.

Daphne

Hey @Grambles12,

In that case, would you mind if I reached out to your email address associated with your Community profile so that we can look into this a but further through our Support channel? This will allow us to look into more account specific info.

Let me know - thanks!

Grambles12

No problem @daphne, thank you.

Daphne

I've reached out to your email address @Grambles12, please just check your inbox when you have a moment and we'll go from there.

Thanks!

Uli_D

Ok. I have one more question. How about later copied files? I copied some folders to my online folder and after sync they have green icon. I suppose the smart sync should sync them and then "delete" or "minimize" them and then they should have grey icon.

I have to select them manually as online ... shouldn't be this automatic? I put it inside a online folder and I suppose it should be considered as online!

So please, can someone explain to me how this case works? Am I right that after sync to online the files are minimized afterwards? Or how? Thanx?

Lusil

Hi there @Uli_D,

Thanks for checking back in with us! I'd be more than happy to help.

When you move/paste a new file into your Dropbox folder, since all relevant info is already stored on your computer, the file stays local and the desktop app syncs it. Once it's completely synced, you can manually select it to be online-only.

From there, the file will automatically be online-only in any other device that you've chosen for new files to be Smart Synced as such.

Finally, if you want to set content in a folder as online-only in one go, you can simply right-click on the folder itself and select the relevant option.

I hope this helps, but let me know if you have any other questions!

mcgoody

Hello. I changed to Smart Sync yesterday, but am unable to switch any of the folders manually from Local to Online Only.

My hard drive is full, do I just need to give it more time?

mcgoody

I changed to Smart Sync but all files are still shown as Local, and I can't manually change.

Changed to Smart Sync: online in Admin and my User and on desktop yesterday

Do I just need to give it more time for the local files to be removed?

Or do I need to take more steps to clear my (nearly full) hard drive?

Thank you!

tracymcgravy

Spoiler

This isn't true at all. It is not a neglible amount, I still have "smart sync" files that take of GB of space. It's extremely frustrating.

Lusil

Hey @tracymcgravy, thanks for nudging us on this thread.

I just wanted to ask if you could send us a screenshot (without any personal info) that shows the space discrepancy you mention?

Looking forward to hearing back from you!

FeeBeeJub

I'm having a similar issue to others in this thread: I am smart syncing files to 'online only' but a large amount of my hard drive space is still occupied. When looking further into it, my computer still registers as is those synced files are fully downloaded on my computer and taking up 100's of MBs or GBs on my hard disk. Any fix for this?

Another issue I'm having is that, every time I open PowerPoint, all .ppt files that are 'online only' get downloaded onto my computer. I changed my Dropbox settings so that PowerPoint is not one of my Connected Apps but the problem continues to occur.

Daphne

Hey there @FeeBeeJub, thanks for joining the topic!

Just to clarify, if you make these files "online only" now that they're local do they appear to randomly become local again without you opening the files? If another app on your computer is monitoring or trying to access the files, this can cause them to be downloaded locally.

When you notice the issue with PowerPoint, do the files get downloaded when you simply open the app or when you access the "Open" menu and start browsing your local files?

If you notice this occurring randomly, I can suggest closing third party apps on your computer one by one until you no longer notice the behaviour.

Sometimes this can be caused by antivirus or security software as these constantly monitor your files, so those apps would be a good place to start.

Let me know what you find!

FeeBeeJub

Hi Daphne,

Thanks for following up. To answer your first question about the "online only" files, they appear as "online only" always. However, my MacBook still indicates that these files are taking up a large amount of my hard drive space. My MacBook will suggest that I remove large files, and all of these files are ones that I clearly have saved on Dropbox and have specifically made "online only". I would be happy to follow-up with screen shots in a direct message.

I notice the PowerPoint issue every time I open the app. When I click on the PowerPoint application, Dropbox begins downloading all .ppt files from "online only" storage onto my local hard drive.

Daphne

Thank for clarifying that @FeeBeeJub!

If you could provide me a few screenshots of the space usage that you see on your Mac for these online only files, that would be very helpful indeed. However, if you'd like to send them privately instead of here on the Community, I'd suggest submitting a ticket with our Support team.

The screenshots that we would need (either here or through a ticket) would be of the space usage that you see from your Dropbox files from the "Documents" section of the storage management window.

Also, for an online only file/folder, please right click and choose "Get info" and send along a screenshot of the size the file is taking on your disk.

Should you choose to submit a ticket for this, you can let me know the ticket number (eg. #1234567) and I can follow up with you there.

For the issue with PowerPoint, it seems that the app is trying to access the files which causes them to be downloaded. The most common cause for this is when the app has a "recents" list and preemptively tries to access the files.

Keep me posted!

FeeBeeJub

Hi Daphne,

Thanks for your help. I decided to submit an email ticket (#11153888). I'm looking forward to hearing back from you!

Daphne

Thanks for the update @FeeBeeJub!

I was able to locate your ticket in our Support system and I saw that my colleague replied back to you, did you receive their reply?

Let me know - cheers!

GAKloncz

I would assume turning on 'online only' would remove the files, but it doesn't. I can clearly see them and have used a size explorer utility which says all my data is there and my disk is almost full. I may have to uninstall Dropbox, delete all the files (as they're stored in the cloud), then install dropbox fresh with online only selected right off the bat. Sheesh.

Lusil

Hello @GAKloncz, thanks for joining us on this thread.

When you make files online-only, they will still appear on your computer, but they should take as little space as possible. If you don't want whole folders to appear at all locally, you can selectively sync them.

However, since you mention that online-only files still take up space on your hard drive, could you send us a screenshot (without any personal info) of the storage discrepancy so that we can have a better visual of what you're seeing?

Looking forward to hearing back from you!

tiddybabby33

Hi,

If anyone still needs a quick solution, I simply uninstalled dropbox app on my Windows 10. This completely breaks the link, so you can delete the local files no problem, then go back and re-download the app if you'd like and be a little more selective with your selective sync ha!

rivaben

Hey guys,

I am facing the exact same issue: I marked a folder to use smart sync online only mode but it seems the files are still there occupying a lot of space on my HD. Just to be clear: it's not only the file name, the full files are still there.

How can I solve this?

Hannah

Hey @rivaben, thanks for joining the conversation here.

Can you try the steps outlined in this thread, to see if they help?

Let me know how you do!