Child Item

How can I set all my files and folders to Always Available Offline?

Device
Microsoft Surface Pro9
Operating System/Browser (if using the web)
Windows 11
Dropbox App Version (if using the app)
233.4.4938
Syncing Status
Up to date

Question or Issue
The last update of Dropbox trigged a complete re-index of all my content. After that completed (which took two days, thanks, Dropbox), all the files and folders are now marked with the white icon with green border: Available Offline. I used to have the Always Available Offline icon (green). I want to have all my content Always Available Offline. How do I change this?

The context menu on folders and files offer several options, but Make Always Available Offline is not one of them. I found this previous thread: How to make files "always available offline"? | The Dropbox Community. Advice there is to change everything to Online Only, after which the Make Always Available Offline option becomes available. But that would trigger yet another complete sync, for content that's already fully in sync (I've tested it with a couple of small folders).

Is there a better way? I'd expect that content that's already Available Offline, should be easily marked as Always Available Offline, but that option does not exist, or if it does, it's very well-hidden.

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Comments

Hannah

Hey @florismk, thanks for posting to our Community today.

I don't think there's a different way to go about this, at the moment, but before you try this for all your files, can you try it on a few test files, to make sure it does work for you?

Let me know what you find.

florismk

Hi @Hannah , thanks for your response. I've tried it with two small folders, like I said. And like I said, it triggers a full re-index. Small potatoes for two small folders, but another 2-3 days of re-indexing for my entire Dropbox content.

I've just tried it with a 300MB folder with subfolders. Making it Online Only triggered a 2-minute resync. Then making it Available Offline caused another 3-minute resync, albeit with the desired result. This for something that should be little more than setting a flag for each file and folder. Instead, Dropbox goes through a index/upload/download cycle with the entire content of the folder.

And I'm not sure how wise it would be to apply this to my root Dropbox folder?

So what I thinkl Dropbox urgently needs is a permanent context menu item for Always Available Offline, which should do very little work on files and folders that are already available offline.

Hannah

Thanks for the update, @florismk!

Sorry I missed that you had already done a test on this.

I do understand where you're coming from, though, and I did pass your feedback and comments along to our team about this.

We really appreciate you voicing your opinion on stuff like this and if you need anything else or if you have any other issues, please let us know.

florismk

Is there a way to do feature suggestions?