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Why don't you let us search by file size on Dropbox Web?

Hi, when I want to find the largest files in my dropbox account, the official method according to these boards is that I need to go through the filesystem (Windows Explorer or Mac Finder) and do a filesystem search.

However this doesn't work for smart sync files.

Please add an option to sort by size or filter by size on the Dropbox Web interface.

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Nancy

Hey @Troy! Thanks for posting here.

Have you tried following these steps? Do they help with what you’d like to achieve?

Let me know.

Walter

Hey @Troy, did you get the chance to see Nancy's response yet?

Pookeyblow

I want to sort all my files by size. Not just files and folders in the main Dropbox folder or a specific folder. But all of them. I don't know where some large files are located and I can't do it on my Mac as many files are online-only and shows up as "Zero bytes". How do I find these large online-only files?

Walter

Hey @Pookeyblow - would these steps help with what you had in mind perhaps?

Pookeyblow

No.

If I'm correct that only works for specific folders you chose yourself and doesn't include subfolders and the files inside them. I need to sort all files by size regardless of where they are stored.

Let's say I have a 1GB file inside a folder somewhere. I've forgotten about this file and don't know it even exists. How do I find it? How can I find big files so I can organize my storage better?

It works on Mac, but not for online-only files as they don't show their true size. Their size are 0KB.

It seems like my only option is to manually open every single folder to check if there are big files in them. That will take years. And it doesn't actually help that Dropbox doesn't display the size of folders either.

This is basic functionality of file systems. It's crazy to me that Dropbox - one of the biggest cloud storage services in the world - doesn't have this feature.

Or am I mistaken?

I would appreciate if you could send this message to your UX Director. It's crucial if you have a lot of online-only files because it eliminates extremely important macOS Finder functionality.

Thank you!

Walter

I see now, thanks for elaborating on your ask @Pookeyblow

I'll make sure to pass your comments on to the team - thanks so much for the feedback and providing your use-case.

Just note that you can post your feature request in our Share an Idea section following these tips if you like other users to share their own feedback and up-vote it as well.

Pookeyblow

Unfortunately, sorting all your Dropbox files by size isn't currently possible if you have "online-only" files. These files appear as 0KB on your computer, making sorting by size useless.

With so many users relying on online-only files, a workaround might seem obvious: sorting by size directly on Dropbox.com.

Disappointingly, that's not an option either. Currently, you can only sort by size within individual folders, and it doesn't include files in subfolders.

This means that Dropbox's online-only feature has a huge downside: finding large files, whether on your computer or in the cloud, becomes a near-impossible task.

And there is no workaround.

Imagine a scenario where your Dropbox storage nears capacity, and you need to identify space-hogging files. Without the ability to sort all files by size, you'd be forced to manually sift through every single folder. It would take me years.

The online-only feature is fantastic, but it can make finding large files a challenge. The ability to sort ALL files by size, including online-only ones, would significantly improve storage management and save users a lot of time.

I'd love to see this implemented!

Walter

Thanks for all the additional feedback on this @Pookeyblow

I've already passed it on to the team and please let us know if you have anything else to add.

Pulvertoastmann

Any news on this?

This is the most frustrating thing about Dropbox I can think of, especially since DB bailed out of unlimited storage for business accounts, forcing us to manage space. And what's even more frustrating: there was a time when this was actually working, when online-only files would show up with their actual size! Why was this even removed?

Lastly and annoyingly, on Windows machines this is still working and I am using this as a workaround: I installed DropBox on a Windows machine for the sole purpose of searching for large files and I access it through Teamviewer from my Mac when I need to clean up.

It strikes me as rather insane that, as the market leader, Dropbox is forcing its users to resort to such desperate measures, just to be able to do something as simple as managing files.