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I need to reduce the size of Dropbox on my computer, but I don't see any syncing icons.

I am working with Windows 11 and have drop box installed on two computers, a Microsoft surface and an ACER desktop. The Acer is very recent and has a hardrive capacity of 500 gigs which I thought more than sufficient but now I find that Photoshop requires MASSIVE AMOUNTS of storage for my photographs. In settings it indicates that 342 gigs are dropbox on the Acer HD. I need to reduce that. One of my first issues is that it is never clear to me what is on the local HD and what is in the cloud on Dropbox. When I research this, I see that there should be little symbols but the only ones I have indicate whether the file is shared. Because I have multiple plug in harddrives for music and photos I need greater clarity on this. Secondly, I have a feeling there is tremendous redundancy in my music library. I would like to get all the music off my desktop but is there a way, when uploading, to have dropbox not upload duplicates or does that require third party software. Lastly, I do not find dropbox intuitive, can anyone recommend tutorials that will help me. Part of my problem is that I use dropbox infrequently and thus have to relearn it .. and it is not easy. Thanks.

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Nancy

Thanks for posting here, @Hebephrene.

Regarding the syncing icons you should be seeing, can you upload a screenshot here of what appears next to your files when opening your File Explorer > Dropbox folder?

As for preventing duplicates while uploading to Dropbox, do you mean that you’d like to directly place your music files within the local Dropbox folder and let them sync to your account online? Do you have duplicate music files spread across various folders, which will be added to Dropbox?

Finally, you can take a look at this page for more tips on how to navigate and work on your Dropbox account. Feel free to ask me any other questions you may have, though.

Ping me when you’ve got more info.

Hebephrene

Nancy thanks for trying to help me. I would like to upload two screen shots. One shows my File Explorer Local Dropbox, the other what I get when I visit Dropbox in the Cloud. Am I supposed to use the Link button? I don't see an icon for attaching the files?

With regard to synch. No I want to get the music files off my harddrive and onto the cloud as they are backups of the files I use with Media Monkey which I have stored on a portable hard drive. My plan is to upload them to One Drive where I won't have to think about them unless something goes wrong with the portable hard drive where I keep the Media Monkey files. Nor do I know how to "ping" you. So I am just submitting.

Rich

@Hebephrene wrote:
Am I supposed to use the Link button? I don't see an icon for attaching the files?

You can use the camera icon to attach an image.

No I want to get the music files off my harddrive and onto the cloud as they are backups of the files I use with Media Monkey which I have stored on a portable hard drive.

Have you thought about using the Backup feature to just back up your portable hard drive instead? Dropbox will back up the drive to your account.

https://help.dropbox.com/organize/dropbox-backup-overview

Hebephrene

So, Rich, I go to the camera and then scroll to the screenshot file and open it, or is the camera taking a screen shot? Why would dropbox not use the universally accepted approach of a paper clip? Makes no sense.

Hebephrene

My bad, I could not see the top of your answer where you tell me to use the camera like it was a paper clip.

Rich

@Hebephrene wrote:
Why would dropbox not use the universally accepted approach of a paper clip? Makes no sense.

A paper clip icon would imply that you can attach any type of file. The forums only allow images, so the camera icon is used. Similar icons are used on most systems that only allow images or videos, and not all types of files to be attached.

Hebephrene

Rich , when I click on the camera I get a screen that wants to know my source, the size of the file etc. This seems much too complicated. Are they asking me to write in the source ie the location on my harddrive for the screen shot. Utterly baffling