Child Item

How to "Free up space" locally on my Linux device?

Device
Acer Aspire 3 15 laptop
Operating System/Browser (if using the web)
Linux Mint & Firefox
Dropbox App Version (if using the app)
v240.4.8493

Question or Issue
In Linux (Mint), are there OneDrive comparable functions of "Always keep on this device" and "Free up space"?

I want to make sure that the large amount of online storage that I use (2 TB) are not taking up space on my laptop drive (1 TB). Ideally, similarly to OneDrive's functionality, I would like to be able to set individual folders and files to "Always keep on this device" or "Free up space" when using right-click.

Thanks!

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Comments

Megan

Hi there, @JYoungCommercial, let's jump right into this!

So, if you'd like to free up some hard drive space without deleting files, you have two options:

You can use selective sync to remove entire folders from your Dropbox folder
Or you can make your files online-only

Keep in mind that when using selective sync, the folders will be gone from the Dropbox folder, but they'll still be available on our website and other linked devices.

When making files online-only, the files will still appear in your Dropbox folder, but they'll change into placeholders with no physical size so they won't take up space. If you want to keep your content available locally you can choose to make them available offline. Based on what you described and asked it sounds like this feature would better suit you.

I hope the articles I hyperlinked provide enough info for you, but if you have any questions, feel free to let me know.

Thanks!

JYoungCommercial

Thank you, Megan.

This works in Linux?

Jay

Hi @JYoungCommercial, currently, there isn't an option to free up space with the online-only option on Linux OS.

The selective sync option is still available, however, this would remove entire folders from your machine, and they will only be visible on the Dropbox site.

JYoungCommercial

How would I choose the "selective sync" option, please?

Hannah

Hey @JYoungCommercial!

You can follow the steps in this article to use our selective sync feature.

If you have any more questions, let us know!