Anyone know why the size of my files/folders in Dropbox is always smaller than they are on my Mac?

Question

Anyone know why the size of my files/folders in dropbox is always smaller than they are on on my Mac? I've synced folders of images using dropbox backup, and I've uploaded folders of images directly to the website and it's always the same. All files, large and small, are always a bit smaller in the cloud than on my computer. Same when files on an external HD.

Здравко · Accepted Answer

Hi @Lightfeather,

Such differences may come up when you observe the same file with/on systems using different prefixes (binary - classical/old school fashion - or Si) and this file is few kilobytes at least (i.e. prefix appears). In your case Dropbox uses binary prefixes in all cases while Mac (more accurately Finder - there may be other file browsers installed that use different conception) uses typically Si prefixes. Take a look here for more info. 😉

Hope it's a bit more clear now.