How can I completely disable Smart Sync?

https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/filesystem-integration#optout

Hey there @Whatever2018 - how are you today?

I'm sorry to hear you would like to opt out of Smart Sync. Depending on the account you're on now you can do it following the steps mentioned below:

Individuals that no longer wish to use Smart Sync can do so with the steps found in the following Help Center article:

https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/filesystem-integration#optout

If you're the Admin of a Dropbox for Business team and you'd like to opt all members of your Dropbox Business team out of Smart Sync, I'd also suggest to see the following Help Center article specifically under the section "Dropbox Business team admins: how to opt out your whole team from the system extension":

Also note that some of your team members may have connected a work and personal account. If you opt out your team from the system extension, team members won't be able to use Smart Sync on any personal devices (or personal accounts) where they're also signed in to their Business account.

I hope this information helps and please keep me posted on your progress!

All comments

https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/filesystem-integration#optout

Hey there @Whatever2018 - how are you today?

I'm sorry to hear you would like to opt out of Smart Sync. Depending on the account you're on now you can do it following the steps mentioned below:

Individuals that no longer wish to use Smart Sync can do so with the steps found in the following Help Center article:

https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/filesystem-integration#optout

I hope this information helps and please keep me posted on your progress!

Seager1

None of this works at all. Users really ought to have the choice to switch smart sync on or off but this seems impossible. I have "normal" dropbox on other devices but when I upgraded the SDD on this Macbook Air I am on, suddenly the nonsense Smartsync was on and I cannot find a way to switch it off. Time to move to OneDrive, amazing how a startup like Dropbox can drive its customers away. Clowns!

https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/smart-sync

Sorry to hear you feel this way @Seager1.

If you would prefer not to use Smart Sync, then you can do so by setting your default sync preferences for new content to "local" and by recalling any files that are currently "online only".

For instructions on syncing online-only content and choosing the default setting for new content, please see the following Help Center article:

If there are any issues with this process please don’t hesitate to reach back out with screenshots depicting the problem at hand and I'll be more than happy to follow up.

PT4

I feel that way too. This change sucks for existing users. I have to now figure out how to get thousands of files to download to my PC as I expected they would. Terrible way to treat existing users. I'll be looking for alternate services.

trosny

I don't think anyone is having trouble specifying "local" such that new files and folders are stored both locally and within the cloud. The difficulty is getting the old files to change from "online only" to "local".

You mention in your post .... recalling any files that are currently "online only"

Is there a way to recall currently "online only" files such that they become "local"? @Walter, this is not explained in your provided link.

While the most straight-forward way to achieve the mentioned recall would be to right click on the said folders/files and set them to 'Local', there's also a number of applications that can cause Smart Sync files to be recalled.

The most common of them include anti-virus applications and programs such as Microsoft Word and Adobe Photoshop which have "recents" menus, because, in order to fulfill these requests from these processes, Dropbox syncs the files locally to your device.

Some examples are:

Backup services
Antivirus
Recently used file lists
Third party applications that monitor files in general

If a file has been set to 'Online Only' that you would prefer to have locally available, simply right click on it and select 'Local' from the Smart Sync menu.

I hope this helped @trosny!

trosny

Yes. Thanks for the answer.

On Windows 10, right-clicking a high-level directory and selecting 'Smart Sync' and then 'local' did the trick. All the subfiles and subfolders were subsequently switched from "online only" to "local", i.e. the files were downloaded to my local machine.

It seems strange that such a simply solution was so difficult to find. Moreover, it would be nice if such an option were availalbe under the "sync" tab within the "preferences" of Dropbox. This is where I (and it appears many other users) were looking for a solution.

Glad I could help @trosny-all's well that ends well - right?

On a side note, I've also forwarded your suggestion to the team for future consideration -thank you for your feedback on this one!

Enjoy the rest of your day and feel free to reach out should you come up with a Dropbox question; we're always happy to assist

Seager1

Hi all, in fact the solution I eventually got Dropbox to tell me was the following:

1. Open Dropbox.com.

2. click on your i.d.

3. click on "settings" and then scroll down for ages till you get to "Dropbox System Extension" and click that to "off".

It is clear Dropbox no longer want users to store stuff on their own computer, so they make it v hard to find this solution, I had to hassle them to admit it. Weird!! Ashley S

OK - this is great - BUT WHEN WILL ALL THESE Smart-sync files start downloading back as "LOCAL".

I made the change and don't see thousands of potiential files comming down.

Guess it makes too much for DB to have allowed each user to decide if they wanted the "feature" As you said I didn't want it either - I control it with Selective sync myself!

this change OK now after I made this change - 3 of my 4 PCs now are "Waiting to be linked to an account"

All worked fine before I made the "turn off smart sync"!!!!!!!!!

Any help out there - wish there was aphone number for us PRO members!

Hey @JB M.2,

If you haven't already, can you restart your computers to refresh the app and your File Explorer to see if that resolves the issue with the message you see there.

If not, are you able to see the option to "Sign in" when you click on the Dropbox icon in your system tray? If you still see the "Waiting to be linked to an account" message on your desktop app, can you check your Security page here and let me know if the computers are still showing as linked.

Let me know what you find - Thanks!

Thank you Yes I booted and entered my sigin & psw - now thousands of files are indexing & uploading - not sure WHY there are so many uploading - expected thousands would be downloading. Going to gice it a couple of days and then do the signin on the 3rd PC and see what happens.

Enhancement - just more work & frustration for users.

Could have been bypassed with just some communication with users asking if we wanted this option! I do a lot of work ooff-line so I need the local copies that I CONTROLLED.

TOO BAD THEY THINK THEY KNOW MORE THAN A USER,

Hey @JB M.2,

I'm glad to hear that it's sorted out for you now!

If you have any other questions about this then please feel free to drop us a message here.

Cheers!

Max M.18

Yay! Finally! Was struggling with this problem for a while!
Weirdly both Google Drive and Dropbox started to rotten - the developers make stupid choices and the formerly solid product becomes a joke. I guess the original developers from MIT are long gone and the decisions are made by sales people.

cmcfau

Thanks Ashley! I found this in the settings and if you click on the info icon next to it, it does tell you that this is what it does.

But you're right, its extremely weird that A. it's so hard to find / unintuitive and B. the Dropbox moderators either don't know or won't reveal this simple answer to that exact question from so many users.

You know, I get that tech companies sometimes find that features which used to be their core value proposition turn out, years later after massive growth, to be expensive &/or a pain point for them to manage.

But what I can't stand is when they try to game their loyal customers by deceiving us and pretending they're doing it "because we want to improve your experience". Try treating us with honesty and openess instead of elitist contempt. Who knows, you might be suprised.

Baboo85

The problem is not really solved.

Dropbox was always easy to use, fast and reliable. Recently became a shame and its price rised up too.

Why with OneDrive you can ACTUALLY DISABLE the "smart sync" on the client so it can function like the "old" OneDrive without the option on (no option in the right click menu, no problem at all, all the files you already set to syncing are really full downloaded), but Dropbox even if you turn it off and set the new files to "local" it won't change anything, the option with the right click persist and it mess up randomly with the "local" / "cloud only"? In particular there are some files that it just won't set to local. You click on it and it ignore the command.

If I add the fact that you raised the price and the space forcing users to have it and not adding another separate plan option, I'm wondering why I still have to be a paying customer...

To have problems? I'm already paying other cloud services to have those same problems already resolved months ago...

Hey there @Baboo85,

From what I understand, you're having some trouble with setting files in your Dropbox folder to be local, right?

So if you've changed the setting within the app preferences to sync new files as local, this will only apply to new files that sync to your account. As you mentioned, any files that are currently "online only" within the Dropbox folder will need to be changed by selecting them, right clicking and choosing "Smart sync - local" from the menu.

Is this the action that you're referring to that seems to be "ignored"?

Let me know and I'll be more than happy to help troubleshoot with you - thanks!

Max M.18

A solution worked - to right-click on the top folder, smart sync - local.

Hi:

I'm using a Windows 10 PC and finall found that going to my dropbox.com/account - then clicking my initials - general - then turning off Dropbox system extension "disables features like Smart Sync"

I NEVER NEVER want Smart Sync activated. I control what files are on what PC with "Selective Sync".

Max M.18

I agree: Dropbox deteriorates with time. It was perfect in the early days, now they messed up the web interface so it became unusable. I moved to Google Drive which also is deteriorating just a bit slower with years.

That's a shame. Good products are messed up by those who inherited them.

rtoledocrow

Glad to see that I'm not alone in this Dropbox disappointment. What ever happened to this great product? Keep it simple, guys!

iamyila

I have this problem on Mac osx High Sierra Now Smart Sync is always on, even though it is turned off in the defaults, it's really time consuming as I have to manually go through and right click and set to local for every single folder I want to sync, before I had to computers, all synced up manually without thinking about it.. why doesn't this basic function work?

Also I have notifciations turned off but after turning on local every file is being notified, also very annoying.

Hi there @iamyila, thanks for joining the discussion!

Do you possibly not want to use smart sync at all on your files (at least for the moment)? If that's the case, then I can suggest disabling the system extension to disable Smart sync on your account.

Before doing so, I'd recommend ensuring that all files are local by right clicking the Dropbox folder from your file browser and setting the "Smart sync - local" option for all files.

Regarding the notifications you mentioned, would you mind sending a screenshot of this so I can have a better understanding of exactly what you're seeing there?

Let me know if this helps at all!

Rode1

The system was working find and then Dropbox kept asking me to use smart sync. Now I am sync for days and totally confused. Bye bye dropbox. Don't fix something that is not broken!

Bill S.7

Your help is not helpful. I read that whole page twice and there's not a bit of info on how to keep dropbox's sync enabled while completely disabling the troublesome "smart sync" feature as the OP requested.

I have smart sync turned off in my local prefs, but apparently that doesn't mean anything as I've gone to access files while not connected to the internet and they are inaccessible! All I get is a ridiculous cloud icon. Forcing smart sync on us has me considering, for the first time in ten years, looking for a different platform for web backups and file sharing.

Bill S.7

Just in case anyone is having the problems I had with Smart Sync, here's a quick description and the quicker solution:

• Even after making sure Smart Sync was disabled, Dropbox was mysteriously removing local versions of my files. I'd see folders here and there with the new cloud symbol on them (using Power Book 2017 running Mojave). Seemed random, but there may be a pattern or reason I'm not figuring out yet.

• What I did that seemed to fix it: Toggled Smart Sync on-off, out of superstition mostly. Checked that other Db settings were what I needed and then in every individual dropbox on my account that stores files locally, I right-clicked and selected Smart Sync in the Finder/Dropbox menu pop-up. Then I selected "Local" to force all files to be stored locally by default. The cloud-only files began to sync again and are now stored on my drive. Simple, I know, but didn't think I needed to do that when I've had Smart Sync disabled from the beginning.

Jbarber

I just want it to go away. I want files to be on the cloud ONLY. Every time I go to download a file it gets jammed up behind endless downloads. I'm ready to dump the whole platform over this.