I need some clarifications on the "manage hard drive space" section of the Dropbox preferences.

Hi there @rwright - thanks for using Dropbox and welcome to the Community!

Could you send us a full-page screenshot so that we can make sure we're on the same page?

Also, what is the version and exact status of the Dropbox desktop app installed on your computer?

Are all of your files online only or you have some that are available offline on your device?

If the app is 'up to date' and not still syncing, have you tried deleting the cache folder?

Let me know what you find and we'll take it from there.

Could you send us a full-page screenshot so that we can make sure we're on the same page? This is the full page

Also, what is the version and exact status of the Dropbox desktop app installed on your computer? 198.4.7615

If the app is 'up to date' and not still syncing, have you tried deleting the cache folder? I believe it is syncing.

Are all of your files online only or you have some that are available offline on your device? All files are online only. Mac "Get info" says: 525.8 MB on disk

thanks

Hannah

Hey @rwright, sorry to jump in here.

Can you let me know how much hard drive space your computer has (in total)?

Also, how much space do the files in your Dropbox account take up?

You can see this in the plan tab of your account settings here.

Can you let me know how much hard drive space your computer has (in total)? 494GB

Also, how much space do the files in your Dropbox account take up? 2T

On my IMac Apple Support saw that the Dropbox was taking up 400+ GB as system data and right now my system data is using 84 GB.

sorry, I'm using 1.9 of the 2 T.

Thank you so much for all the info regarding your local and Dropbox space @rwright!

You mentioned that you're already using our online-only feature.

If you access your Dropbox folder, does the folder/file icons show the relevant online-only icons? If you have a screenshot of the content inside your Dropbox folder, feel free to attach it here.

yes, all files have the following

Hey @rwright - sorry to repeat myself here, but did you try deleting the cache folder to see if the space is freed up then?

no, because the following instructions don't produce the folder identified

Open your Dropbox folder in Finder.
Press Shift-Command-. (period).
- A folder named “.dropbox.cache” will appear.
Open the “.dropbox.cache” folder.
Delete the files in your cache by dragging them into your Trash.

Thanks for that clarification @rwright

Could you also check the app's preferences and let me know the location of your Dropbox folder as per the Sync tab?

/Users/.../Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox

Thanks for that piece of information too @rwright

Can you also ensure that the 'online only files on Mac' setting is toggled on in your account's settings and send us a screenshot of the properties of the Dropbox folder and one of the properties of an online-only folder of yours to check their sizes?

The .dropbox you asked about yesterday is named

Nancy

Thanks for the screenshots, @rwright, and sorry for jumping in.

Can you send one more screenshot of what you see on this page, when scrolling down to the “Online-only files on Mac” section?

Nancy

Hmm, it doesn’t look like this is your General tab; can you click here and send me a screenshot of the setting I mentioned in my previous post?

that specific title states

Hey @rwright, would you mind enabling that feature to on, please?

not sure how long it's supposed to take to go into effect

Hey @rwright, the setting takes a little time to update in the backend, so please wait for about 5 minutes, then restart the Dropbox app as follows:

Click the Dropbox menu in the system tray or menu bar of your computer.
Click your profile picture or initials.
Click Quit Dropbox.
Start the Dropbox app from the Applications folder or using Spotlight: Press Command + Space bar keys, then type "dropbox" in the Spotlight search, and hit return.

The Desktop app will then re-sync the files with the logical size set to zero byte. This may take some time to complete depending on how many files you have in your Dropbox.

I turn the switch on yesterday, did what you said about quitting and it still says the same thing.

In this case, can I send you an email in order for us to have a closer look into this @rwright?

sure

Hannah

Hey @rwright, before we send you an email, let's check something else.

The screenshot you've sent from the Dropbox app that shows your hard drive space used, indicates that the hard drive is taken up by other files not in Dropbox.

If it were Dropbox files, the color of the bar would be the darker blue shade that you can see for "Dropbox on the hard drive".

"Other hard drive space used" indicates that these are different files outside of Dropbox.

You can check which files take up the most space on your hard drive by following the steps below.

1. Click the Apple menu icon.
2. Click About This Mac.
3. Click Storage.
4. Click Manage….

Can you send me a screenshot of what you see there, please?

If your statement were true then my storage would match and as you see it doesn't. previous support messages in this tread or on your website stated something like, "Other hard drive space used" is a term used in the Dropbox community to refer to storage space. Dropbox calculates file size based on logical size, not physical size. To see which files are using the most storage space, users can adjust their Dropbox settings to set the logical and physical sizes of online-only files to zero." Which I did a while back and was told the "Other hard drive space used" would then go away, which it hasn't.

Hey @rwright, I just sent you an email. I'll be happy to see you there!