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Why the Dropbox constantly makes my files online-only even if I make them local?

Recently, I found that after I make some files locally, if I leave it aside like 10-20 minutes, I will find them online-only again. It is quite frustrating because it means that I have to constantly make things local in order to work on it. I checked my preference on Sync, it sets "available offline" for new files. I suspect, is there something called smart sync, which automatically make files online once your local storage is low? But this happens when my computer still have 260GB storage. So it's just weird.

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Jay

Hi @Leo289, could you try instead right clicking the file and choosing Make available offline and let us know if you experience this issue on those files as well?

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Walter

Hey @Leo289 - sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

Could you let us know the exact OS version of your computer and the version and status of the Dropbox desktop app as shown in your menu bar/system tray at the moment?

Have you tried rebooting your computer, quitting and relaunching the app or even reinstalling it since you first noticed this?

Let us know more and we'll take it from there, Leo.

Leo289

Hi Walter,

My OS version is Sonoma 14.3.1 (23D60); I think my dropbox version is v192.4.4605. I am on Dropbox pro.

This is not very recent issue. I notice this issue for a while, and it became troubling recently because I need to work on large dataset. Yes, I have tried rebooting my computer, quitting and relaunching the app and reinstalling as well. It doesn't work.

Another weird thing I noticed is that the "Storage" on my mac setting shows that my computer has 260GB unused space, but the "Manage hard drive space" from the dropbox shows that "Dropbox on hard drive" + "Other hard drive space used" take up 0.98T out of my 1T hard drive space. Screenshot 2024-02-19 at 11.12.48.png Screenshot 2024-02-19 at 11.13.38.png

best,

Leo

Nancy

Thanks for these screenshots, Leo! Can you send me one more of what you see after right clicking on your local Dropbox folder and going to “Get info”?

Are your files back to online-only at the time you take this screenshot or downloaded locally?

Leo289

Screenshot 2024-02-19 at 17.53.02.png

Hi Nancy,

I think so. Sometimes it is unnoticeable because it won't make the entire folder online-only, it will just make some files within that folder online-only while I just made the entire folder local.

Nancy

Thanks for that! Out of curiosity, if you open the folder and make its files available offline directly, instead of the folder, are you experiencing the same behavior?

Leo289

When the issue happened, sometimes I will just click on the few files that have become online-only and make them local. But the issue will happen again. I just encounter the issue again with one of the folder I've been working on. Another thing is that the fully-local icon (green tick) has been disappeared for quite some time. I just saw it re-appeared in one of my folder today. Usually, even if all the files are made local, I don't see the green tick by the folder. I don't know whether that's relevant or not.

Leo289

I just noticed that the green tick will appear if I right click the folder and choose "make available offline". But usually, I will click the download symbol right next to the folder, but there won't be a green tick.

Screenshot 2024-02-19 at 19.43.46.png

Nancy

When making your files/folders available offline in general, are you right clicking on them and selecting the “Make available offline” option or are you usually clicking on the cloud icon with the arrow next to them?

I’d just like to confirm that this is happening no matter the way you download your files locally, and not just when you click on the cloud icon.

Leo289

I think most of the time I will click on the cloud icon with the arrow. So far, “Make available offline” seems to keep everything local.

Jay

Hi @Leo289, could you try instead right clicking the file and choosing Make available offline and let us know if you experience this issue on those files as well?

Leo289

So far, with "Make available offline", the issue doesn't appear. It seems the green tick is a guarantee.

Nancy

Hi again, Leo! It looks like this is the cause of the issue. To make your files local on the desktop app, you need to right click on them directly and select the relevant option from the menu. Clicking on the cloud icon isn’t what we generally recommend in order to do this.

If the issue arises again though, let us know.

ginodimeo

This has been a massive bugbear for me too since the Dropbox update after Ventura. And the inability to stop the process of making files available offline if you accidentally click the icon, which was possible beforehand.

ginodimeo

By the way, the right-click solution doesn't work for me – if you do this with a folder it doesn't make the contents online, so the only solution is to click the cloud icon. But to say that Dropbox don't recommend doing this is weak – just fix it. People have been complaining about the numerous bugs on the post-Ventura Mac update from the the get-go. It's incredibly frustrating.