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Offline files not downloading on Mac?

I use Mac (OS Monterey 12.4), and have selected "Make available offline" on my dropbox for new files and selected all folders to sync to my Mac. However the files are not being made available offline. Files that I open remain available offline for a while, and then retreat back into the cloud. This problem has been going on for ages: (1) how to I make all my files available offline (without individually marking them all for download)? and (2) if I want to move away from Dropbox how do I retrieve my files?

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Hannah

Hey @PippaS, thanks for posting to the Dropbox Community today.

Do you have lots of free disk space on your computer?

How long does it take for the files to automatically switch to online-only after you've made them available offline?

And what is the sync status and version of the Dropbox app? You can hover over your Dropbox icon for this info.

Let me know and we'll go from there.

PippaS

There's plenty of space on my Mac for the files. The Status is showing as "everything is up to date". And the time for offline to go to online - not sure, maybe several weeks? (I had a scan on my system (jpg) that was available offline back in March, and today (28 August) was online only - but I don't know when it flipped to online-only)

Hannah

Thanks for the update here, Pippa.

Are you running the new Dropbox for macOS version of the app?

It could be that the app is detecting that your hard drive space is low, that's why it's switching the files to online-only.

So, you may have space for the files to sync, but if your free space is low, perhaps that's why this is happening.

Which version of the app are you running?

PippaS

Hi, I think I am running the latest version (how would I know?) I am running v181.4.5678

Nancy

That is the latest stable app version, indeed.

As for your hard drive space, do you mind telling us perhaps how much available space you have on your Mac computer at the moment? It may help clear up the situation a bit, and see what else could be happening.

PippaS

I have about 125GB

Jay

Hi @PippaS, how much does your Dropbox account take up in total according to the plan page?

Is it possible that if you were to try to make the entire account available offline it would take up most or all or local disk space?

PippaS

Including the backup file (0.5Gb) it is 2.5Gb, which is about the space I have available. But I have "unchecked" the iTunes since this is the biggest folder - so this should not sync/offline, and the rest (c.1.5Gb) should fit on my computer - ??

Nancy

Alright, in this case, can you please send us a screenshot of what you see here?

PippaS

here it is

Screenshot 2023-09-08 at 09.58.06.png

Jay

From the screenshot, you have 265.3 GB of data on your account. If you tried to have all of that available offline on your computer, when you only have 125 GB free, it wouldn't work.

Are you certain that you've deselected the larger folders so that the others can download to your machine?