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How to free up space in my Dropbox account without losing any files on my computer?

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Searching for almost an hour and it is WAY too confusing! I am over storage on Dropbox. Rarely use it anymore and there's a lot I want to delete ONLY IN THE DROPBOX CLOUD. I do NOT want to delete any original files on my computer, but I do want to delete the tons of duplicate files Dropbox created. (I have zero need for duplicate files clogging my storage.) So how do I do this? Dropbox instructions are incredibly confusing. Thank you.

Basic plan, MAC.

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Hannah

Welcome to the Dropbox Community, @Ejody!

I'm sorry to hear about any confusion caused here. To get to the point, if you'd like to locate and delete duplicate files you may have in your Dropbox account, you can do so by following the steps in this article.

Keep in mind, though, that if you have linked your computer to your Dropbox account, by installing and signing into the Dropbox desktop app, any deletions you make online, will sync to your local Dropbox folder. This also works vice versa.

This will not delete any files in other locations on your computer, just your Dropbox folder.

If you want to, before deleting anything, you can give me some more info on the duplicate files and how you think they got created, so that we can avoid file deletions.

Thanks!

Ejody

The steps in that article have incorrect information.

The initial instructions:

How to find and manage duplicate files on dropbox.com

Log in to dropbox.com.
You can find duplicate files in the following ways:
- If you have an individual account, click (settings) next to All files or next to a specific folder.
- If you have a team account, click (settings) next to a folder you have edit access to.
  - Note: Admins and members of team accounts can only find duplicates in the folders they have edit access to.
Click Organize.
Click Find duplicates.

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When I click "Organize" there is no option for "Find duplicates", only "Sent Naming Convention" or "Multi-File Organize"

And there are no options for "Find duplicates" hunter either of those, nor anywhere else I can find.

So this is still quite a mystery. And tomorrow Dropbox starts deleting my files.

I've spent hours trying to figure this out.

Ejody

I've tried to reply with more info but am getting a warning that an incorrect link is included (there are no links at all.)

Hannah

Thanks for the update, @Ejody.

I just tested this on my end and it works fine for me; can you log in to your account from a different browser or a private browsing window and let me know if you can see the option there?

Ejody

Initially tried on Firefox and just tried on Chrome, same result. No options for "Find duplicates."

Walter

Does this persist on an incognito or private browsing window with no extensions or plugins running as well @Ejody?

Ejody

It does exactly the same in incognito mode on Firefox. No option for finding duplicate files.

It's almost as if Dropbox intentionally is giving me no option other that deleting and losing files forever, or buying a $120 plan... but no company would EVER do such a thing, would they?!😠

Hannah

I do understand your frustration over this, @Ejody.

A workaround you can try is to just download all the files to your computer from the Dropbox website and then sort the duplicates out on your own time.

Actually, you did mention that you had the files already on your computer, was that through the Dropbox desktop app?

If so, there's no need to download them at all; you can simply just sign out of the app to stop it from syncing to your Dropbox account and that way, your local Dropbox folder will not be affected by any deletions.

Megan

Hey there, @Ejody!

Following up to confirm whether your issue is resolved or if further support is needed. We're here to help either way.