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Dropbox taking up space in online only mode

I did some research in the forums and I didn't really find an answer to this problem. On one computer my dropbox folders are mostly set to "Online only", but they still take up as much space as if they were actually there.

Sync is up to date and I don't care if the space is actually physical or imaginary, because neither does windows and other apps which bug me about my limited space on disk. Can someone please answer it once and for all?

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Jay

Hi @David Tran, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

In general, if the files are online-only then they shouldn't take up any quota on your computer.

Could you try right clicking one of the online-only files and then Properties and attach that image here to assist further?

David Tran

Hey Jay,

Thanks for a quick response. Below is an example of an online only folder.

You can see it does say that size on disk is 0 bytes, but my apps don't seem to care about that and keep bugging me for more free space for their caches. Ideally I'd like dropbox to not reserve all that space just in case I will need the files (which I probably won't). Is there any solution to this or at least a workaround?

Jay

Thanks for the image, it does look like Smart Sync is working as expected, since the size on disk is showing as zero bytes.

According to Explorer, when you right click the appropriate folders, does it show the smaller size?

David Tran

It does show zero size on the disk, but the "size" above is still whatever it would be if I actually downloaded it. And the problem is thats the size all the other apps see (Photoshop ect.) and scream about lack of space. So in the end it doesn't make it better if the size is only imaginary when everything acts like its really taken. I would like not to have certain folders in my dropbox on that particular computer at all then if that's possible.

Jay

We appreciate the feedback on this matter. As Smart Sync does appear to be working as normal, and Explorer is showing the correct size, then it would be up to the apps in particular to detect the zero size on disk.

If this isn't possible for those apps, you could use selective sync to prevent entire folders from appearing on the machine.

David Tran

That seems like it should do the trick. Thanks so much for the support. Dropbox is great 🙂