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I need some clarifications on the "manage ****** drive space" section of the Dropbox preferences.

rwright

What does the above mean in the "manage ****** drive space" section of my account? According to the way I sync my account everything is supposed to be stored online only, even though I constantly have to "delete" files from my "dropbox on ****** drive". It also looks like something is being stored somewhere on my computer as "other ****** drive space used". How do I get rid of this other than deleting the app? I have a 2023 MacBook Pro running Sonoma 14.1.

I have a similar issue on my IMac and apple support had me delete the app and my space problem was solved.

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Walter

Hi there @rwright - thanks for using Dropbox and welcome to the Community!

Could you send us a full-page screenshot so that we can make sure we're on the same page?

Also, what is the version and exact status of the Dropbox desktop app installed on your computer?

Are all of your files online only or you have some that are available offline on your device?

If the app is 'up to date' and not still syncing, have you tried deleting the cache folder?

Let me know what you find and we'll take it from there.

rwright

Could you send us a full-page screenshot so that we can make sure we're on the same page? This is the full page

Also, what is the version and exact status of the Dropbox desktop app installed on your computer? 198.4.7615

If the app is 'up to date' and not still syncing, have you tried deleting the cache folder? I believe it is syncing.

Are all of your files online only or you have some that are available offline on your device? All files are online only. Mac "Get info" says: 525.8 MB on disk

thanks

Hannah

Hey @rwright, sorry to jump in here.

Can you let me know how much ****** drive space your computer has (in total)?

Also, how much space do the files in your Dropbox account take up?

You can see this in the plan tab of your account settings here.

rwright

Can you let me know how much ****** drive space your computer has (in total)? 494GB

Also, how much space do the files in your Dropbox account take up? 2T

On my IMac Apple Support saw that the Dropbox was taking up 400+ GB as system data and right now my system data is using 84 GB.

rwright

sorry, I'm using 1.9 of the 2 T.

Megan

Thank you so much for all the info regarding your local and Dropbox space @rwright!

You mentioned that you're already using our online-only feature.

If you access your Dropbox folder, does the folder/file icons show the relevant online-only icons? If you have a screenshot of the content inside your Dropbox folder, feel free to attach it here.

rwright

yes, all files have the following

Walter

Hey @rwright - sorry to repeat myself here, but did you try deleting the cache folder to see if the space is freed up then?

rwright

no, because the following instructions don't produce the folder identified

Open your Dropbox folder in Finder.
Press Shift-Command-. (period).
- A folder named “.dropbox.cache” will appear.
Open the “.dropbox.cache” folder.
Delete the files in your cache by dragging them into your Trash.

Walter

Thanks for that clarification @rwright

Could you also check the app's preferences and let me know the location of your Dropbox folder as per the Sync tab?

rwright

/Users/.../Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox

Walter

Thanks for that piece of information too @rwright

Can you also ensure that the 'online only files on Mac' setting is toggled on in your account's settings and send us a screenshot of the properties of the Dropbox folder and one of the properties of an online-only folder of yours to check their sizes?

rwright

The .dropbox you asked about yesterday is named

Nancy

Thanks for the screenshots, @rwright, and sorry for jumping in.

Can you send one more screenshot of what you see on this page, when scrolling down to the “Online-only files on Mac” section?

rwright

Nancy

Hmm, it doesn’t look like this is your General tab; can you click here and send me a screenshot of the setting I mentioned in my previous post?

rwright

that specific title states

Megan

Hey @rwright, would you mind enabling that feature to on, please?

rwright

not sure how long it's supposed to take to go into effect

Megan

Hey @rwright, the setting takes a little time to update in the backend, so please wait for about 5 minutes, then restart the Dropbox app as follows:

Click the Dropbox menu in the system tray or menu bar of your computer.
Click your profile picture or initials.
Click Quit Dropbox.
Start the Dropbox app from the Applications folder or using Spotlight: Press Command + Space bar keys, then type "dropbox" in the Spotlight search, and hit return.

The Desktop app will then re-sync the files with the logical size set to zero byte. This may take some time to complete depending on how many files you have in your Dropbox.

rwright

I turn the switch on yesterday, did what you said about quitting and it still says the same thing.

Megan

In this case, can I send you an email in order for us to have a closer look into this @rwright?

rwright

sure

Hannah

Hey @rwright, before we send you an email, let's check something else.

The screenshot you've sent from the Dropbox app that shows your ****** drive space used, indicates that the ****** drive is taken up by other files not in Dropbox.

If it were Dropbox files, the color of the bar would be the darker blue shade that you can see for "Dropbox on the ****** drive".

"Other ****** drive space used" indicates that these are different files outside of Dropbox.

You can check which files take up the most space on your ****** drive by following the steps below.

1. Click the Apple menu icon.
2. Click About This Mac.
3. Click Storage.
4. Click Manage….

Can you send me a screenshot of what you see there, please?

rwright

If your statement were true then my storage would match and as you see it doesn't. previous support messages in this tread or on your website stated something like, "Other ****** drive space used" is a term used in the Dropbox community to refer to storage space. Dropbox calculates file size based on logical size, not physical size. To see which files are using the most storage space, users can adjust their Dropbox settings to set the logical and physical sizes of online-only files to zero." Which I did a while back and was told the "Other ****** drive space used" would then go away, which it hasn't.

Megan

Hey @rwright, I just sent you an email. I'll be happy to see you there!

rwright

I figured out the problem since no one with Dropbox would make the correct suggestion. As mentioned, Apple told me to remove the Dropbox app because it was messing with the storage on my IMac. Once I removed the app, everything on my computer went back to normal, however, I didn't come to this realization for 5 months.

The same problem was beginning to happen on my Macbook Pro. After reaching out to Dropbox, and multiple messages, screen shots sent, NOTHING was resolved. I just kept being asked for the same information by different agents.

As a training tool, the [removed per Community Guidelines] is what the "other ****** drive space" should look like if it is representing the proper relationship to the computer. All it took was removing the app and relink my account! And while the "storage" represented in the app isn't an exact match to the storage indicated for the computer, it's closer than the issues I'm having with the laptop, which are 200GB off!

The irony is I moved all my files to Dropbox because I was having similar storage issues with iCloud. The reality is it wasn't dropbox I liked it was Box, because I didn't have any issues with storage and I could see folder details at my account. Box doesn't have practical individual user account options. Now I have to move everything someplace again at some point.