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"Smart" sync keeps downloading online-only files

I am growing increasingly frustrated with this so called "smart sync" feature Dropbox has recently introduced (or rather forced upon me).

I have a number of files I've brought over to Dropbox using the finder on my Mac, that I have then marked as online only, in hopes that it would upload the files and then remove them from my local storage, which is limited. However Dropbox keeps randomly re-downloading the files to my system even after telling it that I want the files to be online only.

This feature is supposed to "save hard disk space", which it does seem to do temporarily before it just starts downoading things again. It seems as though the only safe way to keep files from my drive is the old fashioned selective sync from preferences, but this is a backward way of working, especially when I want to have the folder show up on my local drive so I can bring files into it, but I may want those files to only live online.

Has anyone found a solution to this abnormal behaviour (that, once again I might add, was forced on us as justification to increase the price of the paid service)?

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Fiona

Hi @adamschoales. Thanks for posting about this issue.

I'd be glad to fix this for you if there is a technical issue there. :tools:

Note :pushpin: Smart Sync downloads files locally, when you open them to preview or edit. If you have third party apps syncing/using your Dropbox files. Smart Sync would recall the files locally for the third party app to use them.

Having said that, are you accessing the files locally when Smart Sync reports downloading? Is there a third party system accessing these files?

What version of the application do you have installed on your desktop?

Are all your files downloading or is this something you see with specific folders?

Looking forward to the additional information to help you!

Thanks.

adamschoales

No third party files are accessing these. These are all files that I recently moved/copied to Dropbox from other locations, and set to "online only". Never even opened once moved to dropbox. And yet they still kept re-syncing.

This is especially problematic for the files that are quite large in size. I have home movies that are several gigabytes that I simply want to store on Dropbox as an offsite backup, but when they keep downloading back to my machine not only are they taking up several gigabytes on my machine but wasting several gigabytes of bandwidth to constantly re-download.

The Dropbox app is vr. 86.4.146 and I'm runnning Mac OS 10.14.6.

Fiona

Please add a screenshot showing the space the Dropbox files take up from your computer at the time.

As for your syncing, I located a ticket you have with our support and took over to take a look at device specific details. You already have my response there @adamschoales.

Feel free to get back to this thread and post the explanation I provided you there.

Thank you!

adamschoales

As mentioned in my email:

You flagged that you saw that the default Smart Sync setting you have for this device is "Local". Not sure where you’re seeing the default sync is “local” because here’s a screenshot from the app on my end where it clearly says online only. If you’re seeing something saying it’s set to Local that is perhaps part of the issue - somewhere in the system Dropbox thinks that’s what I want even though on my end I’m telling it otherwise.

Also, as mentioned, third party apps are not accessing the files. I don’t have any anti-virus software running, and while I do have some backup apps, they all have the Dropbox folder excluded from the backup.

So really not sure what’s going on here. Like I mentioned, the only way to get things to work properly seems to use the old “Selective sync” method, which completely defeats the purpose of Smart Sync to begin with.

Fiona

Thank you for updating the thread with additional information.

I would like us to continue responding to the email, if this is OK with you, so I can have all your responses there, in case I need to escalate.

You are of course welcome to post back here, when we get this resolved for you.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

busboys45

I am having the exact same issue. Almost every day I turn on my laptop to discover files I have sent online are now local again. What is the solution?

onnovanvelzen

sam happening to me. very annoying as i keep running out of space.

any solutions?

Lusil

Hey @busboys45 and @onnovanvelzen, thanks for nudging us on this thread.

In general, due to some processes on your computer that may look at files that you may not have manually opened, in order to fulfill those requests, Dropbox syncs the files. Examples of such include backup services, antivirus, recently used file lists or third-party applications that monitor files in general.

Although you can turn local files into online-only by simply right-clicking on them and selecting the Smart Sync option, if there are apps that constantly/persistently look at your files, they may come back as local, just as you described in your posts.

For this reason, try temporarily quitting or disabling apps systematically, until you see that the issue is resolved. The last app that you closed when the behavior in question no longer occurred may be the one performing this action.

Let me know how you get on with this and I'll make sure to get back to you as soon as possible. Cheers!

MBVIP

I am also having this same issue and it's very problematic. I have no anti-virus software, no third party apps, nothing. Please help

busboys45

Hello Lusil,

This was exactly it, I finally was able to decipher the pattern. In my case it was "recently used file lists" in QuickTime/Word/Excel/PowerPoint. Each time I would use those apps/programs the files in the recent tab would "localize" and download from Dropbox, which was especially problematic when it came to QuickTime and larger video files. I cleared up all my recent files lists within those apps/programs and I am good to go!

Lusil

Glad to hear that you were able to resolve this in the end, @busboys45.

If anything else comes up or you have any other questions, just give us a shout. Cheers!

Hvd2Pilot

Wait a minute Lucil, this is not a "fix", clearing out recent items is a bandaid solution. In fact, Quicktime recents don't get cleared. To clear the files, go into Quicktime | File | Open Recent, wait for the files to download!!!, then select Clear Menu. Does, or will, Dropbox have a permanent solution for this? Any plans in the works?

Respectfully,

bigc200

Same happening to me. I'm going to run out of disk space at this rate. I feel like I'm fighting the machine downloading against my will.

Please help.

Chris

WDPandP

I am having the same issue.

I want to be able to open files (online only files) visible in File Explorer, alter them, then save them and they just stay online. Rather than downloading locally every time.

*Edit* - Thank you Jay (Dropbox Staff below comment). All you have to do is edit the file in File Explorer (this downloads it to your computer automatically). Once you are done editing, you can simply right click the file or folder in File Explorer and chose 'Make online-only'.

Jay

Hi @WDPandP, what you're describing is different to what other users are experiencing.

When you attempt to edit an online-only file, the Dropbox desktop application needs to make the file local first, to then open it in the appropriate app to edit it. Otherwise, it wouldn't be possible to edit a file that wasn't on your computer.

When the file is saved, it doesn't automatically return to being online-only, so you'll need to change it manually in Explorer each time.

Hope this helps to clarify matters!

bigc200

Apologies Jay, but what is your answer to the question at the top of this thread? I am also experiencing files wanting to download when they haven't been asked to. Not even if the files are in recent items, or links within a document. I'm experiencing Dropbox wanting to

download every Keynote presentation I have in Dropbox. Why would this be the case?

I do suggest you take this seriously because it's real and I'm technically profficient to know how Dropbox works with linked files. This isn't that.

Chris

Jay

Hi @bigc200, are you opening the Keynote file directly from the Dropbox folder, or are you opening it via Keynote itself and navigating to the file in the folder within the app?

bigc200

I figured out the source of my problem. I’m using MacPaw’s CleanMyMac which the developer has admitted has a bug with Dropbox.
I found their admittance on Dropbox’s own knowledge base from 2017 and asked MacPaw if it had been solved or was still a problem. They told me it had been fixed but has since resurfaced.
Since this exists on your own knowledge base, and is a known bug, you should probably suspect something like this for the future when people are telling you Dropbox is automatically downloading files without being asked.
I believe it’s something to do with the software re-indexing the drive and pulling down Apple’s productivity files (Keynote, Pages, etc).
Hope that helps someone else.

Jay

Could you link the URL for the help center article this is referring to, or is it a post on the community? This way we can keep it in this thread to help other users who might be experiencing this behavior.

WDPandP

Thank you for your help.

That makes sense now

I hope everyone else sorts the thread issue.

Regards,

Will

bigc200

Here is the original thread where MacPaw admits there is a bug with CleanMyMac and Dropbox Smart Sync:

https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-files-folders/Clean-My-Mac-update-caused-TOTAL-FILE-RESYNC/m-p/233206

I have contacted their support to see if this has been fixed yet (since 2017) and they tell me it has resurfaced and they are working on it. In the meantime, turn off or quite the CleanMyMac menu (from the Mac toolbar) restart your Mac and it should stop Dropbox downloading all your Keynote files. Until MacPaw fix this, you can't really use the menu bar. Not sure about the main app though.

Hope tht helps.

mchamoun12

Hi,

My Dropbox is doing the same thing - i.e. filling itself even after I designate files as "online-only".

You said that Dropbox will automatically start re-downloading when you, or a third-party app, accesses the files, correct? If my collaborators that have shared access to these files attempt to access them, would that explain why they download locally to my computer again?

I'm just trying to make sense of this because my hard drive fills itself every day and my computer starts burning up and it is driving me crazy. Even after I re-designate the files as "online-only", they don't disappear from my storage for a few tense minutes in which I can see my hard drive's capacity trickling from GB to MB...

Thanks.

Rich

@mchamoun12 wrote:
If my collaborators that have shared access to these files attempt to access them, would that explain why they download locally to my computer again?

If you mean shared through Dropbox using shared folders or links, then no, not at all. The comments above are referring to any process or application local to your computer that attempts to access the files within your local Dropbox folder. Think file previews, antivirus or malware scans, backup processes, etc. If it touches the files on your local computer, it can cause Dropbox to download them.

Now, if you're sharing access to your computer with other people and they access those same files, then yes, they will be downloaded, because it would be no different from you accessing the files.

Chris C

Lets say I have a folder with 4 video files in it. I have versions 1-3 set to "Online only" via the smart sync dropdown menu in Mac OS. When I open v4 (which does reside on my hard drive) in quicktime to view it, one (or more) of the other versions in that folder begins to download.

These are only a few hundred MB, but I do have folders containing gigabytes of information and if several of those files download it could cause a problem on my computer.

I do not have any antivirus software running and no I have one app connected (vimeo) that I don't think has any bearing on this issue. It seems directly related to opening a file in Quicktime.

Daphne

Thanks for joining us here @Chris C!

Can you just clarify, are you opening the file by navigating to the file in the Dropbox folder and opening it from there?

Or are you opening Quicktime and then opening the file through the app?

Chris83

Hi Daphne – I'm double clicking the actual file in the finder.

Daphne

Do you have the same issue if you simply launch the Quicktime app?

Sometimes, the recents lists for apps can trigger the download of Smart Synced files as they can request data from the file.

Chris83

No, I just tested it and launching Quicktime does not trigger any downloads in dropbox.

Jay

Hi @Chris83, it sounds like something is triggering the download of the other files in that folder. Are these versions of the videos actually linked to each other in some way within the app, or are they completely separate, saved, individual files?

I'd recommend checking this article to see if the app you're loading it in is recalling those other files, and what can be done to prevent this (such as the 'recently access files').

Chris C

I’ll check the article.

These are all individual files. They’re completely individual, saved separately.