My hard drive is full. So, I have marked several folders to be On-line only. Will they automatically be removed from my hard drive or, do I need to take some additional steps to free up hard drive space?
Hi @Kookoo2, thanks for posting today!
The files would become online-only, meaning they would free up space on your hard drive, but you'll still see the placeholders there.
If you have any further queries, feel free to message back.
I actually think I have a problem with this too, my macbook (MacBook Pro 15 inch, 2019) says it has around 620 gb of system Data. When I went looking for what takes up that space it was the File "Cloud Storage", which in my case only contains the file Dropbox. So I took a look at my Dropbox and it has all in all about 1.38 TB of Data. But most of my Files on Dropbox are online only. I'm really confused as to why it takes up so much space?Also after reading another post about this problem I checked the box in the settings for it only to show the filesize of the files which are actually on my computer. But it still shows all the filesizes. Could that be the problem?
Hey @7ererer - sorry to hear you're having issues with this.
If you made sure that the app is 'up to date' and not still syncing in your menu bar, could you check your cache folder and let us know what you find?
Hey @Walter
The app is up to date, this has been an issue for me for several months, but now it's getting critical. I tried to find an erase the cache before, but could only find this greyed out folder if I follow the instruction. And its only 42 Byte, don't know what I'm doing wrong.
Hey @7ererer, I see in your screenshots that some of the folders in your Dropbox folder are marked as "available offline" (green circle with white check mark).
Can you right/control click on a few of them and choose "make online-only" to see if that frees up any hard drive space?
Yes it does, but not the amount it should. And also most of the files I have not yet made online are small ones, like textfiles. I tried it with one bigger file and it didn't nearly free up as much space as it should have.
Hey @7ererer, would you mind clarifying the version of the Dropbox app that you're using, along with the app's current syncing status?
You should be able to find the app's version, by hovering your cursor over the little Dropbox icon, next to your WiFi on your menu bar.
Syncing is up to date, Version is 196.4.6900
Hey @7ererer, thanks for the speedy response!
Have you tried rebooting your computer, quitting and relaunching the app or even reinstalling it since you first noticed this?
Did you also try to make all of your files online-only, as Hannah suggested?
I haven't tried reinstalling the app, I hoped that I could avoid it, since it takes a long time. But maybe I'll have to....I tried with a few additional files but it didn't free up as much space as it should have. I suspect that there are somewhere files, marked as online only but still in a cache somewhere. Why can't I open my cache (see above)?
Where is your Dropbox folder located as per the Sync tab in the app's preferences @7ererer ?
Hey, over the weekend I uninstalled and deleted everything connected do dropbox from my Computer, then installed it again. That has worked, almost all system data has gone, only that somehow now the path to some files has changed (?) and i need to reconnect some of my Indesign files. Hoped that there would be an easier way but doesn't seem like it. I still think that it was some kind of bug.
Hi everyone! Can you please go to this directory ~/Library/GroupContainers and let me know if you can access your cache/temp data there?
As for your hard drive usage, I’d like you to go to your main drive in Finder, highlight it by clicking on it and then, hit space to show a preview of the drive.
This will show the total size of the drive, the amount of that which is available, and finally the amount of “purgeable” data. This purgeable data is part of the “available” data which is actually currently taking up disk space.
Otherwise, you can also double check this by using the Disk Utility app on your Mac device.
Finally, you can also try using our Manage hard drive space tool to make sure your files are online-only and not taking up hard drive space:
Click the Dropbox icon in your menu bar.
Click your avatar (profile picture or initials).
Click Manage hard drive space to open the tool.
Let me know if that helps.
