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How can I show online-only folders on my Windows machine?

I have a help ticket ongoing but maybe someone else has an answer in the meantime.

I've uninstalled/reinstalled Dropbox on my laptop to opt out of the Windows update and try to avoid the conflicted folders it kept creating. It's created the Dropbox folder anew, with the few files in it online only, but since I selected all my main folders to be online only until I can manually download what I want, they don't show up in the Dropbox folder. It seems the only way to generate my folders and subfolders is to choose them to sync/download.

Thing is, some are too big to fit on my hard drive. I do plan to delete some stuff manually...but I can't do that until my folders and subfolders show up on my computer, and I can choose from there.

I'm pretty sure online-only folders used to show on the computer. But not now. Is there any way for me to see all my folders and subfolders on my computer, with their contents (files) online only, so I can start managing and syncing what I choose?

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Rich

Rachel L. wrote:
but since I selected all my main folders to be online only until I can manually download what I want, they don't show up in the Dropbox folder.

You didn't select folders to be online-only. You used the Selective Sync feature to remove the local copy of the folders completely. Selective Sync and Online-only are two different features.

Selective Sync is used to completely remove a folder from your local Dropbox folder. Any folder removed will never sync to that computer. If you want the folder to appear on your computer, it must be checked in the Selective Sync settings.

Online-only is a way to specify that files and folders should only be stored in your account online, but remain visible on your local drive without taking up space. Such files and folders have a marker file left behind. Interacting with that marker file will cause Dropbox to download the file or folder back to your computer so you can interact with it.

Rachel L. wrote:
Is there any way for me to see all my folders and subfolders on my computer, with their contents (files) online only, so I can start managing and syncing what I choose?

Go into Dropbox Preferences and set the default sync preference to Online-only.

Then go back into the Selective Sync settings and check all of your folders again. They'll sync down to your computer in an Online-only state.

All comments

Rachel L.

Screencaps of my Dropbox folder as it currently appears--no folders--and the Selective Sync options in the app, I want these folders to show up, just with contents online only. I have 350GB hard drive space.

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Rich

Rachel L. wrote:
but since I selected all my main folders to be online only until I can manually download what I want, they don't show up in the Dropbox folder.

You didn't select folders to be online-only. You used the Selective Sync feature to remove the local copy of the folders completely. Selective Sync and Online-only are two different features.

Rachel L. wrote:
Is there any way for me to see all my folders and subfolders on my computer, with their contents (files) online only, so I can start managing and syncing what I choose?

Go into Dropbox Preferences and set the default sync preference to Online-only.

Then go back into the Selective Sync settings and check all of your folders again. They'll sync down to your computer in an Online-only state.

Rachel L.

Oh my God, thank you. 🙏 I didn't understand this distinction but it makes more sense now. There were still hiccups with Dropbox repeatedly trying to download files without my permission, which hangs up the sync (this is a longtime ongoing issue, I think maybe a conflict with my antivirus though I'm unsure), but I kept aggressively setting them to online only again and it's finally stopped syncing for the first time in 2 weeks.

I now look forward to a slog of manually resetting and updating everything the way I couldn't on mobile but here's hoping at least now I finally can. 🤞

Theresa

Hi there @Rachel L. and welcome to the Dropbox Community. I’m really glad to hear things are working now and thank you for taking the time to update us. It’s always so helpful for others who might be wondering the same thing about showing online-only folders on Windows.

I’m Theresa 👩‍💻, one of the Community Managers here at Dropbox HQ. I just love jumping into threads like this or starting new ones to help share tips and ideas. Now that things are displaying as expected, I’d love to know do you have a favourite Dropbox feature that helps you manage your files, or maybe you have a cool tip or trick on how you go about naming files?

Looking forward to hearing more,

T😸 (Dropbox Community Manager)