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"Not enough free disk space" But I have 4TB available on my Mac.

Hello!! I'm using Dropbox for work, and for the last few months I've been trying to download multiple video files we have in our Dropbox to be available offline, however, Dropbox is constantly telling me I don't have enough disk space, when I do. As you can see in the screenshots, I have 4TB available on my hard drive. The folder I was trying to download this morning is only 9GB (rounded up) which obviously makes no sense. As I mentioned, this issue has been happening for months and I've found that I am able to download files one by one e.g. if I want to download a 10 GB folder with 5 videos in it, I can't click the entire folder and 'make available offline' because I will get the error, but I am able to download one video, wait for it to finish, then download the next and so on and so fourth until the entire folder is downloaded. I've been doing that as a work around, but I've had enough. It is ridiculous that DropBox is glitching like this. Surely there is something someone knows to do to help me out here.
Screenshot 2023-11-09 at 10.39.58 am.png Screenshot 2023-11-09 at 10.40.25 am.png

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annaneedshelp

Hi all!
So after complaining to my IT about the problem, they did a huge sweep of the laptop and they fixed it! I'm not sure what they did, but I downloaded 200GB of video footage this morning with no issue.

Thank you all for being so patient with me over the last few days, and I'm sorry for not being able to explain exactly what fixed it!

All comments

Hannah

Thanks for bringing this to our attention, @annaneedshelp.

That's truly strange, but let's see what we can find out.

Have you tried restarting both your computer and the Dropbox app ever since this started happening?

Also, what's the version and sync status of your Dropbox app?

You can see that, when hovering over the Dropbox icon in your menu bar.

Let me know and we'll go from there.

annaneedshelp

Hi Hannah! Yes very strange indeed. Let me answer your questions -

"Have you tried restarting both your computer and the Dropbox app ever since this started happening?" - Yes I restart and shut down often. I'm constantly quitting and reopening the Dropbox app due to another issue (when I right-click the file the Db options such as making available offline don't show up. I have this issue about twice a day and I've learned quitting and reopening the app from the menu bar fixes it).

"Also, what's the version and sync status of your Dropbox app?" - The sync status is nothing at the moment as I'm not downloading anything, and the version is v186.4.6207

Nancy

Hi Anna, hope it’s OK if I jump in, too.

Out of curiosity, is this only happening with video files? If you try to make an entire folder available offline, which only contains images for example, are you receiving any errors?

As per the context menu options that you’re missing, have you also tried restarting your Finder? If not, here are the steps to do it.

Let me know how it goes.

annaneedshelp

No worries, Nancy, jump on in! Smaller files or folders go offline/online without any issues, I'm guessing its due to file size. But it sort of answer the second half of the question. If I make an entire folder (that was already offline) as online only and let that action run, and then select the folder to be offline (downloaded to the computer) once again, it will say I don't have the disk space. Which is odd because I had it offline moments before. It's almost like Dropbox is getting overwhelmed making multiple big files offline all at once and decides it can't, even though the space is free.

With the second issue I casually mentioned, restarting Finder does not work (for context, I worked for AppleCare for years so any Mac based solutions I've probably already tried and failed).

Walter

Hi there @annaneedshelp - sorry to jump in too, but could you let us know your device's OS version and if you've reached out to our support team for further assistance since you first noticed this issue?

Also, where is your Dropbox folder located per the app's preferences under the sync tab?

annaneedshelp

Welcome, Walter!

My device is a Macbook Pro 2021 running OS X Monterey Version 12.6 (we are not allowed to upgrade the system yet due to other application requirements).
And no I haven't reached out anywhere other than here.

And looks like my Dropbox folder is located in my user's home folder. I haven't changed this so this must be default or what the company allocated when they set it up.

Hannah

Hi again, Anna!

Just to make sure we've covered this base too, can you also check to see if Dropbox has full disk access on the computer?

You can find the steps here.

annaneedshelp

Hannah, you're back! Haha and yup, it has full access! I thought it was that at first too. So I took away full access, restarted and then gave full access back and restarted, but still same issue.

Jay

Hi @annaneedshelp, could you attach a screenshot showing where you're seeing this error message?

annaneedshelp

Hi Jay!
Sorry I wasn't working over the weekend so didn't see your message. I'm planning on downloading a few big files tomorrow on my office wifi (my home wifi wouldn't be able to handle it quick enough). So I will do that tomorrow and send a screenshot for you then! ❤️

Megan

Hi @annaneedshelp, take as much time as you need, and update us whenever you're ready.

Thanks for the heads up!

annaneedshelp

Thank you all for being so patient with me over the last few days, and I'm sorry for not being able to explain exactly what fixed it!

Walter

No worries @annaneedshelp - we're just glad to hear it's sorted now and thank you for keeping us in the loop too.

Enjoy the remainder of your week and see you around!

Thomas C.40

QUESTION: How did you find someone to talk to about the problem. I can't find anything but the automated assistants.

annaneedshelp

Hey Thomas! If you read my replies, you would have seen that my IT at work fixed the issue. They said something about stuck files giving DropBox the illusion it was full when it wasn't, but like I said, I don't fully know what they did to fix it.

Megan

Hey @Thomas C.40, I hope you're doing well!

If you could also share some additional details with us, that'd be amazing.

Details such as your exact OS, and Dropbox version along with a description of what's happening, will help us get the full idea.

Keep me posted, and we'll take it from there!