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I'm confused with the available and available offline status of my Windows files/folders.

My Dropbox for Windows app is currently updating. The sync settings seem to have changed to be more compatible with Windows, I take it. It's still currently indexing, but anyway. I notice that instead of the green circle for an offline file, and the green check in a white circle for a folder that's partly online and partly off, the green check in the white circle now seems to mean "Available on this device" whereas the green circle means "Always available on this device."

I don't see any option to change the "available" files to "always available." Frankly I don't understand why there's a difference...? For files that aren't a folder, if I manually make them online only and then offline again, it seems to resolve the issue and make them always available, but this isn't working with a folder. The folder has four files in it, all always available offline. So how come the folder has the white circle with the green checkmark...? Shouldn't it be solid green?

Everything's still syncing so I don't know if this issue will persist with other folders I've had marked as offline, too.

I read the details given here but this just makes it even more confusing and doesn't help the issue. https://help.dropbox.com/sync/sync-icons

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Nancy

Hi @Rachel L.! Welcome back to our forum.

In general, a file becomes available if you open it directly with a third-party app, instead of making it available offline first, by right-clicking on it in the local Dropbox folder.

If you right-click directly on the folder you mention (the one that’s been made available), what options do you see? Do you see any option to make it online-only first, and then available offline, or to make it directly available offline instead? If you choose any of these options, does its syncing icon change?

In case it doesn’t, I’d like a screenshot of the folder in question, so that I can check its status, and one more of the files within.

Keep me in the loop for more updates.

Rachel L.

I have a much bigger problem all of a sudden! Dropbox seems to be downloading everything and now my hard drive is almost full. I don't understand what's going on. I've marked the folders I want to be online only as online only so I should not be out of room, but as long as Dropbox keeps running and syncing, my computer is going to fill up and crash.

What do I do?? I can't even update my files anymore like this. I've had to turn Dropbox off completely and am afraid to turn it back on if it keeps doing this. I have more Dropbox space than computer hard drive space!

(Edit, I closed Dropbox and restarted in case the "downloaded" files were merely cached, but my drive is almost completely full and Windows is sending warnings. I'm on Windows 10. If I turn it back on to finish or to try again to mark things as online only, my computer likely can't take it.)

Rachel L.

Sending a help ticket as I guess I won't be getting an answer here.

Ticket text: Dropbox updated to a Windows 11-compatible version last night and started resyncing everything. It seems to be downloading everything and now my hard drive is almost full. I don't understand what's going on. I'm pretty sure I have selective sync turned on (Dropbox is set to sync only certain Dropbox folders) but can't check anymore. I've marked the folders I want to be online only as online only so I should not be out of room, but as long as Dropbox keeps running and syncing, my computer is going to fill up and crash. It had around 200GB left to go when I turned it off; I have over 1TB on Dropbox, and my hard drive is only 500GB and is nearly full.

I can't update my files anymore like this. I've had to turn Dropbox off completely and am afraid to turn it back on if it keeps doing this. I have more Dropbox space than computer hard drive space.

Edit, I closed Dropbox and restarted in case the "downloaded" files were merely cached, but my drive is almost completely full and Windows is sending warnings. I'm on Windows 10. If I turn it back on to finish or to try again to mark things as online only, my computer likely can't take it. I also have no way to see what has actually downloaded, as the big online only folders that are the most likely culprits were still syncing, so I don't know that uninstalling/reinstalling would work, something unknown is already taking up hard drive space, and it will resume doing so when I turn it back on. How do I fix this?

(EDIT unrelated to my request, but ugh, this forum has become nearly unusable, all the page elements takes so long to load I keep wondering if the site's even working.)

Hannah

Hi there, @Rachel L., we appreciate your update here and your feedback about everything.

I'm sorry to see that you're having this issue.

However, I'm glad to see that you reached out to our support team. Since they have full visibility on account specific info, they'll be able to assist you more effectively.

I've located your ticket, passed your comments along and raised the priority of your case, so you'll be getting a reply the soonest possible.

I hope this helps and please let us know how things go!