My laptop keeps showing me that my Dropbox files are taking up space on my hard drive. I am certain they are syncing and on the cloud. How do I resolve this? Thanks.
Thanks for taking the time to post here, @Roni5050.
Just wanted to let you know that the Dropbox desktop app's job is to sync local versions of your files to your computer.
This allows you to access your Dropbox files and work on them, even if you're not connected to the internet and it's our preferred method of uploading/downloading larger files.
You can of course still use the website and if you'd like, you can also use our selective sync feature, which will help you remove entire folders from your Dropbox folder, but keep them on dropbox.com, to free up some of your space.
I hope this helps!
Are you using the free version of Dropbox, or a paid version? It looks like the free version uses hard drive space now, and only paid dropbox uses cloud storage
Free or Paid doesn't matter. By default, the Dropbox folder on your computer is ON your computer and takes up local drive space. The primary purpose of Dropbox is to sync files between your computer and your account online, along with other devices linked to your account. Dropbox is, by default, not a cloud-based folder or drive where your files only exist in the cloud.
Using Selective Sync (available to all accounts) or Smart Sync (available on Professional and Business accounts) you can remove the local copies of folders and files. See Lusil's reply above for links to the appropriate help articles for more information.
I find myself Googling how to do this every few years, why don't they make these things easier to use? I have a very slow pc jammed up with files that I thought were in the cloud. Same for Google Drive. A complete waste of time. All help articles seem out of date and I get lost trying to simply un-sync the friggen folders on my hard drive!
Hey there @ausworkshop,
If your hard drive is running out of space and you want to remove some folders from your Dropbox folder on your computer but not your Dropbox account, you can selectively sync them.
Please bear in mind that this is a space-saving, device-specific feature, which means that whichever folders you choose to selectively sync on one computer will not be removed from another.
I hope this helps, but don't hesitate to get back to me if you have any other questions!
This is what I don't understand about smart sync though - I'm a photographer and have a ton of RAW files and large jpg files from editing in Lightroom and Photoshop. I save all my filed to my Professional Dropbox account because I've had multiple failed external hard drives and computers. I use the smart sync function and it simply doesn't matter. I'm running critically low on computer space every single day. What is the deal with this? It's driving me nuts that I can't figure it out.
@cpie23 wrote: I use the smart sync function and it simply doesn't matter. I'm running critically low on computer space every single day.
I use the smart sync function and it simply doesn't matter. I'm running critically low on computer space every single day.
Are you on a Mac?
Hello,
I'm using Dropbox Pro on Windows 10. In my preferences:
- "online only" is set
- "Selected Sync" is used and zero folder is selected (absolutely nothing)
So in theory, I should have nothing copied to my hard drive by Dropbox.
Note that I can't use the online version as I'm backuping huge files online, and the web version of Dropbox is limited in terms of file size.
I'm pretty much upset because Dropbox keeps on copying files to my hard drive, no matter what I do. What did I miss?
Hi @FredericVT
To upload initially they have to go in to your Dropbox folder locally. Thats the only way to upload via the software. Once they have then uploaded you can use the web interface to move them to a none sync'd folder or turn it to Online Only. However, you HAVE to do the local part first
Oh, that's bad news! I have huge files on external drives. I can't copy them locally first. So I need to change by dropbox directory to each external drive until everything is uploaded for the first time? I wish it was are easy as a FTP client...
I'd not recommend changing drive lots... you risk data loss. All I can suggest is uploading in smaller batches
OR @FredericVT would https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/sync-uploads/external-drive help?
Using smaller batches is not an option for me, my files are huge, hundreds of megs each. I'll try to external drive feature, thanks for pointing it to me. I have several drives and I need to backup a few files per drive, but maybe this is supported.
Why do large files I uploaded to Dropbox from my MacBook to free up storage space still count against my storage capacity?
Hi @Undrbgt, I'd be happy to respond to that!
Do you use the desktop app, when you upload content to your Dropbox account? If so, then keep in mind that since the app uses a local copy of your content, it'd make sense for the files and folders to take up space on the device.
Also, can you clarify if you're referring to the device's storage space or your account's?
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Is there a difference between files that have only "place holders" in Selective Sync and can be downloaded to the computer and files that are On-line only in Smart Sync?
Hi @Photon_wrangler, with selective sync, there are no placeholders, the files literally do no exist on your machine, and will only appear on the site.
Only Smart Sync with online-only files have placeholders on your machine.
I have this problem as well. I have already set everything to online-only through smart sync. It doesn't matter - the laptop that I use which I need to access my dropox with still screams that it's out of space, and that huge files in my dropbox are the problem. I have looked everywhere and found no more options to set, no more menus to pull down... no matter what I do, DB is still claiming local HD space.
Please help.
Hey @gwilcken, sorry to hear you're having issues this.
If you've made sure that the app is 'up to date' and not still syncing in your computer's system tray/menu bar, then, the space might be taken up by the cache folder.
Could that be the case here?
Keep me posted!
Hi,
I have smart synced all of the Dropbox files to Online Only, but still my Dropbox is taking up 250 GB on my hard drive. This is actual disc space, not estimated one. I'm a Mac user, using Dropbox pro. Any recommendations?
Edit: Never mind, the cache file is the problem in my case. Thanks!
It appears the storage on my computer has been almost completly used up by dropbox files. I though the purpose of dropbox was for everything to be saved to a 'cloud' so that it does not use up space on my computer?? What am I doing wrong here?
Matt
@mgsallee wrote: I though the purpose of dropbox was for everything to be saved to a 'cloud' so that it does not use up space on my computer??
I though the purpose of dropbox was for everything to be saved to a 'cloud' so that it does not use up space on my computer??
No, that's not the primary use of Dropbox. First and foremost, Dropbox is a file synchronization service, meant to keep the files stored in your local Dropbox folder synchronized with the copy stored in your account online. The Dropbox folder is not a cloud folder or drive where your files only exist online. The Dropbox folder is a regular folder just like any other, and anything stored in it takes up space on your drive.
Now, there are some features that help you save space. Selective Sync, available on all plans, can be used to remove the local copy of a folder from your Dropbox folder so that it only exists online. Any folders set this way are no longer accessible through Explorer (PC) or Finder (Mac), but can still be accessed through the Dropbox website.
Smart Sync, which is available on all paid plans allows you to mark files and folders as Online-only. A file or folder marked as such a way is removed from your computer and stored only online, but a placeholder is left behind so it appears as though the file or folder is still on your computer. Accessing such any files that are marked as Online-only will cause Dropbox to download them back to your computer so you can use them normally.
Sorry, but I'm not very bright here. I use dropbox and I think the files I store in dropbox are in the cloud, but looking at my Mas they also seem to be copied onto the Mac as well as in the cloud. Have I set up dropbox incorrectly...any help would be gratefully received.
Thank you...Terry
Same Problem here
Hi both 🙂
Thats how Dropbox works. Dropbox is designed, and intended, that files are both online and in the cloud. This means that things work when internet is offline etc.
If you want to have stuff in cloud only use Online Only settings.
HelloI am workung with DropboxOne of my reasons for using dropbook is that my hard disk is smallI thought that the files I save in the cloud will not take space on the hard driveAnd it turns out I was wrongWhy is there double savingWhat are the disadvantages of working in the Dropbox web interface versus working in Dropbox installed on a computer?What should I do in order to transfer files that are now saved in Dropbox installed on the computer to files that will be saved in the web interface? As mentioned, I don't have enough space on my hard diskCan it work on the 2 interfaces together? So some of the files will remain installed on the computer and some on the web interface?
