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Trying to save files directly on Dropbox (not on hard drive), but they still save on Hard-Disk Drive

Hi All,

Let me start by saying I'm brand new to dropbox, so I apologize if my concerns are low-level and I thank you for your patience in advanced.

Here are my details:

I'm a Bioinformatics student, and I've created a BASH script that:

unzips 22 large files (*.vcf.gz to *.vcf)
assigns these unzipped files to a new subfolder within the original directory
concatenates these 22 files into a single, large file

Each unzipped file (*.vcf) is ~ 22 GBs large, so they eat up the space on my hard-disk drive (HDD).

Accordingly, I've downloaded the dropbox application on my laptop and moved the project directory within the dropbox application

(ex. '/Users/myprofile/"Dropbox (Personal)"/project_directory').

When I run the BASH script that performs the above 3 steps, it doesn't run to completion because the unzipped files are saved to my HDD and it can't store 484+ GB of data.

I'm wondering how I can make it such that when I run the BASH script, the 22 unzipped files and the large, concatenated file are automatically saved onto the dropbox application and NOT my HDD.

I have 2 TB of dropbox space and I'm working on a MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020) running Big Sur v11.4

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Rich

@desmond_singh wrote:
I'm wondering how I can make it such that when I run the BASH script, the 22 unzipped files and the large, concatenated file are automatically saved onto the dropbox application and NOT my HDD.

You can't. That's not how Dropbox works. It's not a cloud-based folder. It's a regular folder on your local hard drive like any other, and anything stored in the folder takes up space on the drive. Files saved in the folders are synced to your account online. It's not possible to save directly to the cloud, bypassing your local drive.

All comments

Rich

@desmond_singh wrote:
I'm wondering how I can make it such that when I run the BASH script, the 22 unzipped files and the large, concatenated file are automatically saved onto the dropbox application and NOT my HDD.

desmond_singh

That makes sense -- thank you for the response. Cheers!

chicago pixel pusher

Maybe I'm confused, but I disagree. If you select the sync online option only you save the local hard drive space. This may depend upon your account. Not sure if it works on the free version. It is confusing to set this. I'm on a Mac and can only do it if I'm running the app locally.

Right click on a file or folder and hover over the sync to show this option. It does seem to behave like a cloud only virtual drive.

I find that when I create new folders and add files I have to select this option each time. There may be a global setting that I've missed.

chicago pixel pusher

However, I see that you're trying to run a script to accomplish unzipping. That may be a completely different issue. Sorry.

Rich

@chicago pixel pusher wrote:
Maybe I'm confused, but I disagree. If you select the sync online option only you save the local hard drive space.

Even if you set a folder to Online-only, when you save a file to that folder it is still saved to the local hard drive, marked as a Local file, and synced to your account. You then have to mark the file as Online-only to remove it from the drive. The OP was looking to save directly to his account in the cloud, which isn't possible. Also, the Smart Sync feature is only available on a paid account.

izzi-e

There is a smart sync option in settings that allows you to save files as an online-only file, that doesn't take up space on your hard-drive. However, once you need to view it again, I believe it will download and become a local file that does take up space. I'm not sure if there's a way to bypass having to download the file on top your hard drive first before uploading it as an online-only folder, but if you have enough space initially, this could be a good option. If you only need to store the large files in Dropbox, then it does work as a cloud based folder.

Here's a link for the Smart Sync feature help:

https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/sync-uploads/smart-sync

Rodger C.

I read this because I have the same issue. Why does Dropbox say it stores in a cloud, if it (supposedly) doesn't? Now I don't know who to believe.

I've got files piling up on my solid state HD that I never knew were there, it's never happened before the last couple of months, and now the drive is almost full. When I found these files today I deleted them but then when I went to Dropbox my folder had disappeared (it's not even my folder, another user set it up for me on his account), and my hard drive is about to crash.

I store NO files on my solid state drive, it's not big enough. Those are supposed to load on the disk drive. I even migrated the Dropbox folder I found on the SS drive to the disk, but that didn't work. I'm trapped and I guess it'll be impossible to use Dropbox any more.

Advaita63

This makes NO sense to me whatsoever. Dropbox tells you that if you use SynchSelect you can choose which files are stored on your local hard drive and which remain in the cloud until you need them. Now I cannot even find a way to download Dropbox files on to an SSD directly from Dropbox.com. There used to be an option of 'Advanced Settings' which has now disappeared. WTF. If I can't solve this I am going to cancel my account. It is quite insane to me.

Rodger C.

(Replying to my own message) I've read about the "sync online only" feature but it's the first I've heard of it --- and yet, that problem of Dropbox storing old unneded files on my solid state hard drive seems to have somehow fixed itself without intervention. I did not know about the sync option and didn't take that step, it simply started behaving. This is still concerning since I still don't know what was happening and can't predict if it will happen again. But I've loaded several fairly big files into that folder, it has ceased archiving on my poor overworked hard drive, and the files transferred without a hitch, which is what I expected from the beginning. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I should add that my own Dropbox account, the one I'm actually signed up with, has never acted this way.

klegreid1

For the past three months, I've had to do a restore to my MacBookAir 3x due to draining storage space (when I have PLENTY). Apple said it's an issue with Dropbox Syncing files/folders to my hard drive (actually duplicating which, in turn, exponentially drains storage space to zero). I can't keep doing restores every three weeks. That's nuts. Dropbox doesn't really have a live person you can talk w/. I've got a paid plan.

Apple thinks it's a coding issue OR has to do with syncing. They told me to hit control and click the file to put it back 'online', which I do. But it's not resolving the problem. Help! Thanks, in advance!

It disables any ability to save files, do Zoom, etc. I need it for work.

klegreid1

Exactly! I have the same problem. I'm extremely frustrated as I need it to do work. What did you ever find out? Thanks.

Megan

Hey @klegreid1, let's jump right into this!

First of all, let me say that since you're using a paid plan, you should have access to our live support. You can find more about it right here.

Now, as for your Dropbox files taking up hard drive space, could you clarify if you've enabled Computer backup, by any chance?

Also, do you have your Dropbox files synced locally to your device, or are they in an online-only state?

Let me know more, and we'll take it from there!

klegreid1

Thank you Megan. Yes, it seems that the Backup options were checked as active. Do I turn those off? I primarily just want to work online not offline.

Jay

Hi @klegreid1, you can disable the computer backup which would give you the option to move the files back to their default locations, so they no longer take up quota on your account.

However, this wouldn't affect the amount of space it takes up on your machine, since those files are already located there. Have you tried marking files as online-only as my colleague @Megan suggested?

klegreid1

Hi Jay,

I believe Dropbox support did help me disable that. In terms of marking online, etc. I've tried that as well. Honestly, I don't know what to do.

Can I ask, is the Dropbox app different from the Dropbox I loaded on my Mac laptop/computer/desktop? Do you think that will help with the functionality of copying and pasting from one doc to another? That is a secondary problem I am experiencing. I read previous threads on this but am not really seeing the solution. There simply isn't the same functionality with copying and pasting from Word on the Web to Excel on the Web. I try to copy and paste a bulleted list from a Word doc into a single Excel cell and it instead pastes it across several cells w/each showing a single, new bullet. It's so strange and frustrating. Thank you, in advance.

Hannah

Hey @klegreid1, there's only one Dropbox application that you can install on your Mac computers, which you can download here.

As for your question about Word and Excel for the web, are you seeing a different behavior when performing the same steps with the local Word and Excel apps?

If so, can you send us a couple of screenshots of what you see, when you do this locally, versus online?