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My Dropbox app keeps indexing files and I'm running out of hard drive space

I was running out of room on my MacBook Air (2 TB, Sonoma 14.7.8) and was told to make all Dropbox folders Online only to free up storage. It started indexing and freed up almost 1 TB so I was happy for a few minutes. Then it kept indexing and a few days later I was out of memory again. This has been going on for 6 weeks!

ChaptGPT calls this a "rehydration" DropbBox Death loop. Chat said to mark the whole DropBox master folder as Online Only, then stop and restart DropbBox ap. Did not solve the problem.

Possible clue: My main computer (MacBook Pro (4 TB, Sonoma 14.6.1) is doing fine except the Finder now shows that there is a 20 GB "Conflicted" copy of my DropBox files.

Can anyone help me?

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Vicker

Hi, @Mark Kroll ,

It looks like you have too many files in your Dropbox. There are a few ways you could relieve the situation.

Using the Dropbox Selective Sync feature to unselect some less likely to be used items so they are not synced to your computer at all. Note that this is different from the Online Only function.

Selective sync overview: Sync or unsync folders from your desktop from Dropbox Help
https://help.dropbox.com/sync/selective-sync-overview

Another technique I use regularly as a housekeeping exercise is to compress some of the old folders that contain thousands of files into a ZIP file, so they become 1 single item to sync.

Cheers
Vicker

Hannah

Hey @Mark Kroll, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Since it's been a few hours, can you tell me if you're still having this issue?

If so, is indexing still happening? And does it ever finish?

Also, is your hard drive space getting cleared up when you switch files to online-only or is the feature not working?

Regarding the conflicted copies, these are usually files that are created when multiple people are editing the same file at the same time.

You can read more about them and how to avoid them here.

Let me know how it goes.

Mark Kroll

Vicker

Thanks for the great suggestion re ZIPing. I ZIP a large number of high-population folders but that did not solve the problem. Can I selective sync folders on my 2 TB laptop without affecting the sync on my 4 TN desktop?

Mark Kroll

Hannah

I am the only person editing these files. I put essentially every laptop folder on online-only that that still did not solve my problem. Still syncing after 7 weeks. Thanks!

Hannah

Hi Mark!

Conflicted copies can also happen if files are edited from the same account but from different computers at the same time; could that be the case?

Also, to answer the question about selective sync, the feature is actually device specific, so any changes you make on one connected computer, won't affect the other.

As for the continuous indexing, have you tried to quit the Dropbox app and then re-launch it, to see if it helps?

Restarting the device might also help in this case.

Megan

Hey @Mark Kroll, I hope you're doing well!

Just popping in to see if you've had a chance to look at our last message. Still need help? We're all ears! If the issue is sorted, let us know what worked out for you.