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I updated the Dropbox app on my Mac and now it's trying to re-download all of my online files

Hey, so I recently updated dropbox, and now it's seemingly trying to redownload all of my online only files.

Screen Shot 2024-05-01 at 7.47.31 AM.png

Obviously I don't have that much storage, and I don't even have the option to make them 'online only' anymore.

Everything I've seen online says to go into preferences and use selective sync. I did, and that didn't seem to change anything.

I didn't try to use a different application either, as others mention. I simply updated dropbox and now it's become really hard to access my older files.

Please help me

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Comments

Nancy

Hi @Ben44, and thanks for posting this on our Community today.

Can you send over a few more details on the update that led to this? Are you referring to the Dropbox Backup update perhaps?

If yes, then this may be expected behavior, as described here.

Keep me posted.

Ben44

Yes that sounds familiar. There’s no way I can redownload all of my files then, is there a way I can skip the backup or maybe use an external hard drive?

Nancy

Would you like to move your local Dropbox folder to the external drive, or disable Dropbox Backup and move your currently backed up files to the drive instead?

Just to make sure we’re on the same page and I provide you with the correct guidance.

Ben44

I want it to stop trying to backup my computer because I don’t have enough storage to hold everything. I want it to go back to before the backup started so I can access online only files. Thank you

Megan

Hey @Ben44, did you get an error when trying out the steps that @Nancy provided in her previous response, in order to disable your Backup?

Ben44

Hi, thank you for helping me. I disabled and deleted my backup, but it's still saying that it's unable to 'sync' because I don't have enough space on my computer. I restarted dropbox, and it keeps saying the same thing. And I still can't make things online only. I don't want it to keep downloading things, and I don't want to delete my files because I want them to be on dropbox

Nancy

Are you seeing your previously backed up files locally on your hard drive now? Are they all local?

If yes, and they’re the ones taking up most of your computer’s hard drive space, you can try moving them to your external drive, like you suggested above.

Another option, if you’re not accessing all of your Dropbox folders frequently on your computer, is to remove the largest from your hard drive via selective sync and only access them on www.dropbox.com. This way, syncing should also resume.

Ben44

I am not seeing a backup, because I've never backed up before. I have a ton of files on my computer because of my work, but I keep them online only normally. And I can't just move my big files to an external drive because they're in folders with other audio that hasn't synced yet. I work on podcasts and it won't let me move the unsynced audio

As I mentioned originally, I've already messed with selective sync and that didn't help at all. As you can see below, I've deselected everything, including all the folders you can't see because of the scroll bar. It's still trying to sync all of my old files.

Screen Shot 2024-05-03 at 8.04.50 AM.png

Jay

Hi @Ben44, please could you contact the support team directly for them to investigate this matter in more detail.