Selective sync - Showing all folders marked for sync, even though I previously unselected many.

Thanks Nancy,

I kept taking off folders and got it so that it didn't need to sync. I believe reinstalling dropbox may have helped. I do plan to save files to a hard drive as I can't afford this happening again. I think some error happened, hopefully I have it fixed now.

All comments

Vicker

Hi, @sekturina ,

In Dropbox, the "Selective Sync" and "Online Only" are 2 different features. In short, selective sync control whether the item is shown on your local machine or not, while online only control whether the file on your local machine is just an empty file or with the actual content. These 2 features could be combined to use together.

For more information regarding Selective Sync, please refer to the official documentation here.
https://help.dropbox.com/sync/selective-sync-overview

Further, here's a short extract that explains the difference.

What's the difference between selective sync and online-only?

Making your files and folders online-only also helps save hard drive space. These files and folders will still be visible from your computer, but are stored in your Dropbox account online.

Based on how you use certain files and folders, they can automatically be set to online-only.

Cheers

Hi Vicker,
Thank you for your reply.

But I don't think you understood the issue. You concentrated on difference between two features, one of which I didn't talk about, but I might have used the term that sounds like I was talking about it. I am only talking about the selective sync, in which, folders that are not marked will be stored only online and not on my hard drive. I used the term online-only which caused your confusion I assume.

With this clarified it should be easier to understand the issue.
Here's a screenshot of the menu. In reality, some of these folders are already set to *not sync, store only online* and when I open selective sync it shows them marked to sync and store locally. If I try to make any changes, it will change the settings for all folders and store locally folders I previously set not to store locally. Do you understand the issue? Everything is showing as marked to be seen locally, even though I already made many folders not visible on local drive months and years ago.
db screen.jpg

There are too many folders that I already made to be stored only on Dropbox and I don't remember them all. That should be shown in the menu, those folders shouldn't be marked. But all folders are, which doesn't correspond to reality. If I want to turn off sync to a folder now, and I click update, it will register to store locally everything.

Walter

Hey @sekturina - did you reinstall the app or use a different OS profile on your computer since you had applied the changes on your selective sync settings?

If you're still having issues with this after rebooting your computer and quitting and relaunching the Dropbox desktop app, you might need to contact our support team for further assistance.

In any case, please keep us posted!

lshaw22

Can confirm I've had the same issues and the original poster since the latest app update (202.4.5551). When going to into the sync settings it will show everything being check marked as default even though it is not syncing everything.

@lshaw22, can you also clarify the Dropbox app’s syncing status?

If you open your Dropbox folder, you don’t see the folders that had been previously selectively synced/removed from the desktop app, correct?

Garrett Diagonal

People on my team experienced this too - randomly all folders were selected instead of only a select few

@Garrett Diagonal, are you also experiencing this with the latest app version (202.4.5551)?

Are you seeing the same thing or is this not happening for everyone on your team?

cs28

My team and I recently started experiencing this as well. Despite syncing only a subset of the folders, reopening the setting will show them all checked.

@cs28, can you also clarify the app version you’re running on your desktop app?

cs28

v202.4.5551

Jay

Hi @cs28, thanks for the info, could you get in contact with the support team directly for them to investigate this in more detail?

Hi, Walter. The OS is the same and I don't recall uninstalling / reinstalling the Dropbox. There was no need. But it does update automatically I think. I am not sure when the issue first appeared, but I just noticed it recently when I wanted to change sync settings for some folders.

I started talking with your support team, hopefully they will be able to solve it.

Walter

Thanks for the update @sekturina

You can also let us know your ticket ID so that we can look it up in our system, if needed.

lshaw22

This is what it's supposed to look like

Screenshot 2024-07-02 101541.png

And this is what is showing if i go to my selective sync menu. Dropbox shows all folders being "checked" but it's not syncing those checked folders. I would assume if I clicked Update it would.
Screenshot 2024-07-03 090857.png

Hannah

Thanks for the screenshots here too, @lshaw22, I just @'ed you on the other thread as well.

Have you tried reinstalling the app (without uninstalling it first) at all, to see if it helps?

Before I managed to respond to customer support with screen recording and screenshots, sync settings menu changed with added "how do you want to store new files" options (screenshot).

But more importantly, all unmarked folders in my sync menu are shown as unmarked again. Whoever did it, solved it. Hopefully it's the same for all other people with same issue.

How it was today, some 6 hours ago:

Old problematic situation from 6 hours ago

How it looks now (as it was supposed to be)

New updated, as it was before the problem.

Thanks for the additional info, @sekturina. I’ve found your ticket in our system and left a note on your behalf. Our team should get back to you as soon as possible.

I am having this exact problem no matter how many times I uncheck a box in selective sync it makes no difference and when I go back in they all checked again. Did anyone at dropbox fix this problem for you? I can't open any files or applications so can't work. Put a support request in but no one has got back to me.

Jay

Hi @Geraldine Ward, is it possible that the folders are currently in use by another application on your machine?

What folders are you trying to deselect? A screenshot showing this would help greatly.

The Selective Sync ones.

Dropbox Preferences / sync / selective sync / modify. I can't attach a screenshot - it isn't allowing me to. but I would think you know what I am talking about surerly?

anyway to update. Someone in support emailed me back once so I thought she might try and help me fix it but she hasn't got back. I have sent a few emails.

So I have been trying to fix it myself. I have deleted dropbox and reinstalled it. I have managed to get it to unselect the folders but it doesn't seem to make any difference to the storage on my machine and it is still indexing 100 000 or more images?? Yet I haven't been able to work for this to do so. AND I have taken away images to sync so I am not sure why that is happening.

I have managed to free up space on my mac but still I see dropbox is filling it up - I have only a fraction of what I used to have on drobox on my desktop. Seems like I need to go back to hard drives and old school ways. Which I plan to.

Hope it’s OK if I jump in, Geraldine. What’s the current syncing status of your Dropbox app? Has it changed at all, since you posted this?