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Dropbox Files Disappeared from Computer

So I have had Dropbox linked to my computer (Windows - HP Envy with 500 GB hard drive) for quite a while. I recently tried to download a game to my computer, and it told me I was out of space - which is when I realized that my Dropbox files were taking up a little over half my hard drive. I turned on Selective Sync and Smart Sync for all of my files, so that they would be online-only.

I can see on my Dropbox app that it says there are still some files syncing. It has been saying that for 2 days. My system storage no longer says that Dropbox is taking up half my hard drive - so that's good! However, when I try to look at my Dropbox files/folders on my computer's File Explorer, only a few of my Dropbox folders are showing up (with the blue arrows symbol on them).

All of my files are still there on Dropbox.com, but I cannot access them on my computer any longer. My understanding was that Smart Sync and Selective Sync were just supposed to make all my files online-only, which would give them the grey cloud symbol on my computer's File Explorer, but still allow me to access them whenever I am connected to internet.

Is there any way I can have my files be online-only, but still linked to my computer and accessible from my File Explorer? I just want to be able to open things from my file explorer to my own apps rather than having to open the Dropbox website and just preview every time, and also be able to save things like word docs straight to Dropbox when I click "Save As" and "Browse".

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Mark

Hi @rondachristie

You seem a tad confused.... Selective Sync removes the directories completely from the machine where as smart sync leaves the on the machine but with 0 bytes used. They cannot be combined - a file/directory is EITHER Smart Sync'd or Selective Sync'd.

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Mark

Hi @rondachristie

Janet B.5

i HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM. This answer explains WHY but it doesnt tell us what to do to get these files available. Download doesn't work if the file are too big. The files are not visible on computer dropbox so I cannot change the type of sync. Online I can find nothing that tells me how to designate that I want these file to change to smart sync. So in essence the files are no longer available to me if I don't have good internet. Working on line is not a helpful option. So I don't know how to get my files all on smart sync.

Mark

Hi @Janet B.5

Unfortunately if you have no space to initially sync you are quite possibly stuck - they need to be local first before they can become smart sync'd

Janet B.5

Sorry I guess I was not clear. I want to change these files from Selective Sync to Smart Sync so I can see them on my computer even tho stored in the cloud but I don't know how to do that.

Jay

Hi @Janet B.5, if you was to switch from selective sync to Smart Sync, all you need to do is enable syncing for those folders in the selective sync window.

The desktop app will automatically mark them as online-only files, so they won't take up any space on your machine.