Child Item

How can I make all of my folders available offline on Windows? There's no option for that.

Device

Acer desktop PC
Operating System/Browser (if using the web)

Windows 10
Dropbox App Version (if using the app)

235.4.5905
Syncing Status

Up to date

Question or Issue

I have only just noticed this and I think it has changed.

Scenario A

A few folders in my Dropbox are marked with a white tick on a green background.

I believe these folders are available offline. i.e stored on my hard drive.

Right mouse gives me the option to 'Make online only'.

Scenario B

Most folders in my Dropbox are marked with a green tick on a white background.

I believe these folders are online only. i.e. NOT stored on my hard drive.

Right mouse gives me the option to 'Make online only'.

There is NOT an option to make Offline.

I have a laptop on Windows 11 sync'd to exactly the same Dropbox and all folders follow Scenario A. i.e. are stored on my laptop's hard drive

I want ALL folders on my home PC to be on the hard drive, i.e. as per Scenario A

Thanks

Find more posts tagged with

Desktop

Sync

Windows

Folders

Insightful

Closed - Partially Delivered

Delivered

Accepted answers

Nancy

Hi from me too, @Andy T.23! From your description, it sounds like most of your folders have this syncing icon next to them, like Dell suggested.

As an additional step, you can also right-click on them, select the "make online-only" option, wait till all of them have changed and then make them available offline instead.

Does that help?

All comments

Dell_Dropbox

Hey there, welcome to the community @Andy T.23

Here's a helpful page on Dropbox Sync Icons and what they mean for windows users.

Can you confirm whether sync by demand is turned on for this device in your Dropbox settings?

Open Dropbox, click your name/icon in the bottom left corner, open preferences, select sync, and check the status there.

Nancy

Hi from me too, @Andy T.23! From your description, it sounds like most of your folders have this syncing icon next to them, like Dell suggested.

As an additional step, you can also right-click on them, select the "make online-only" option, wait till all of them have changed and then make them available offline instead.

Does that help?

Andy T.23

Hi,

Thanks for that. I do not see 'sync by demand'. I have attached a couple of sceenshots of my options.

Andy T.23

Hi Nancy, Thanks, this does appear to work OK, but will be a long process I suspect.
I believe that files and folders that are flagged as on-line are actually already off-line as selecting properties for them shows 'Size on disk' as a valid figure.
That would mean that it is just showing me the wrong syncing icon against them in explorer ??

Andy

Nancy

I totally understand what you mean. If you check again the Help Center article I linked above, there’s a slight difference between files/folders that are available offline (the ones that have the green circle with a white checkmark) and the syncing icon that you currently see on your end.

In any case, I’m afraid that the steps I sent you above are the most certain way to switch your folders back to being available offline again. If you wish, you can try changing one folder first and see how long the process is going to take.

Andy T.23

Thanks Nancy, yes it is working. I am making progress through them a few at a time.