How can I use Dropbox without Syncing everything on all of my devices?

Question

I've just logged in to dropbox and everything on my PC has now been synced to Dropbox. If I unsync it, it logs me out. If I log back in it just resyncs. I've deleted files from my Dropbox and it's deleted them from my PC.

Does anybody know how to prevent this please?

Hannah · Answer

Hey @agathosdaimon, thanks for reaching out to us.

The Dropbox application's job is, to sync any files you add to the Dropbox folder to your account online and other devices, and to also sync to that computer any files added from other devices or online.

As you already mentioned, if you're going to be using the Dropbox app, you can use selective sync to unsync your folders.

You could create empty folders in your Dropbox folder, unsync them with selective sync and then upload files from the website or the Dropbox mobile app.

But if you don't want Dropbox to appear on your computer at all, you can always just use our website or the mobile app exclusively.

agathosdaimon · Answer

Hi

i wanted to upload some folders to dropbox but not have it trying and automatically sync everytime i do this because i dont have the space for dropbox to be making duplicates on my pc of what i am trying to save online

I dont understand why dropbox makes this so unintuitive -  everyone doesnt have terabytes and terabytes of space on their pc for duplicates of data

i can see that after i have uploaded to dropbox, i can selectively unsync folders but is there a way to have this set in place before i start uploading?

Rich · Answer

@DylanMurtagh wrote:I've just logged in to dropbox and everything on my PC has now been synced to Dropbox. If I unsync it, it logs me out. If I log back in it just resyncs. I've deleted files from my Dropbox and it's deleted them from my PC.

Dropbox is a sync tool. It's main purpose is to sync files between your PC and your account online. Modify or delete a file one one side, and it's modified or deleted on the other side. If you don't have a need to sync your files, don't install the Dropbox application. Instead, just use the Dropbox website to upload and download files as needed.

If you want just the files in your Dropbox folder to sync between your PC and your account online, and you don't want it to sync your Desktop, Documents, etc., then don't enable the backup feature in the Dropbox app.