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Selective Sync is syncing files that are not selected.

I installed Dropbox on a laptop. Dropbox is configured to Selective Sync, two fairly specific folders. However it is downloading everything around that folder starting 2 folders up. The sync should have downloaded the 12 files in the folders I selected, but instead it downloaded 6237 files!

What is happening is the sync is downloading everything under the Aviation folder. Any files in the Aviation folder are there on my local dropbox folder now as well as all the files and folders in the folders pointed to by the red arrows.

What do I have to do to only sync the folders I selected?

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Accepted answers

Jay

My query was just to see if they had the gray icon, that’s all.

Could you check if you’re running a beta version of the Dropbox desktop application. You can do this by hovering your mouse over the Dropbox icon in the system tray or menu bar.

It should say something like 41.4. If it says 42.3, then you’re running the beta. Please follow the next steps to downgrade to the stable build:

1. Visit https://www.dropbox.com/account
2. Scroll down to the section titled "Preferences" and uncheck the box next to "Early releases" if it is checked.

Then, use the following link to install the latest stable version of the Dropbox desktop application:

https://www.dropbox.com/download

Let us know how it goes!

All comments

Mark

It shouldnt be an issue, but, I'm wondering if the fact it has a period ( . ) in it is causing an issue.

Windows doesnt play well with them!

Maybe try renaming 3.125 to 3-125 to test it out first?

gwilson1120

I have loaded several folders into my laptop DROPBOX folder, let them sync and then unchecked them to free up space on my laptop. But Dropbox continues to sync them. Should I use a different approach or should I restart my PC?

Jay

Just so you know, but when you want the folders with the arrows to sync, then you need to check them, and then uncheck the other two folders, 144 and 177.

Let us know if we’re misunderstanding something here!

gwilson1120

It is interesting in that some of the folders have the small green arrow and some have the brown? arrow. And for some folders when I inchecked them they were removed from my computer. I have checked and some of the "unchecked" folders are still syncing. Should I just delete the folders on my dropbox folder in the PC and let Dropbox resync? I can place them on a flash drive to be safe. I own a software company so I understand some of this can be daunting. Thank you for your help. George

Jay

There shouldn’t be any brown arrows… The only icons we have on files and folders are as follows:

sync-icons10 Synced (and in terms of Smart Sync, locally stored) sync-icons8 Sync in progress sync-icons4 A file or folder isn't syncing due to Selective Sync sync-icons9 Sync not happening sync-icons0 Smart Sync - Online-only content sync-icons5 Smart Sync - Folders with both online-only and local files in it

Which ones are you seeing on the files/folders?

robbsalzmann

AgentJay, That's the point of my post. The unchecked folders are syncing. They should not. and I do not want them to. Thats the problem

Jay

What icon is showing on those folders in Explorer? You can use the previous post to check which one it is.

robbsalzmann

I don't understand your question, nor see its relevance. This is a fresh install of Dropbox on a new OS. Selective sync is selected during setup. Yet, the folders that are unchecked in the image in my original post are syncing. They are being downloaded to my computer by dropbox. I have the problem frequently with other selective syncs as well.

gwilson1120

There must have been a selective sync conflict, so I took the folders which were unchecked and moved them off of my laptop to a flash drive. I then tried checking and unchecking a couple of those on DROPBOX.com and it seems to be fine now.

robbsalzmann

"Selective sync conflict"? is that a thing? Where is it documented?

If this were 2 or 3 folders I could see doing what you did. However, there are literally thousands of files being downloaded that are not selected in Selective Sync.

Rich

robbsalzmann wrote:
"Selective sync conflict"? is that a thing? Where is it documented?

Yes.

https://www.dropbox.com/help/syncing-uploads/selective-sync-conflicts

Jay

robbsalzmann

Thanks for the clarification. I see the gray icon. I'm going to try the downgrade option to see if that helps.

robbsalzmann

Rich, Thanks for the link. Reading up now....