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Forum Discussion
Dropbox Files Take Up Hard Drive Space
My laptop keeps showing me that my Dropbox files are taking up space on my hard drive. I am certain they are syncing and on the cloud. How do I resolve this? Thanks.
Thanks for taking the time to post here, Roni5050.
Just wanted to let you know that the Dropbox desktop app's job is to sync local versions of your files to your computer.
This allows you to access your Dropbox files and work on them, even if you're not connected to the internet and it's our preferred method of uploading/downloading larger files.
You can of course still use the website and if you'd like, you can also use our selective sync feature, which will help you remove entire folders from your Dropbox folder, but keep them on dropbox.com, to free up some of your space.
I hope this helps!
Are you using the free version of Dropbox, or a paid version? It looks like the free version uses hard drive space now, and only paid dropbox uses cloud storage
I use a paid version.
- Rich
Super User II
Free or Paid doesn't matter. By default, the Dropbox folder on your computer is ON your computer and takes up local drive space. The primary purpose of Dropbox is to sync files between your computer and your account online, along with other devices linked to your account. Dropbox is, by default, not a cloud-based folder or drive where your files only exist in the cloud.
Using Selective Sync (available to all accounts) or Smart Sync (available on Professional and Business accounts) you can remove the local copies of folders and files. See Lusil's reply above for links to the appropriate help articles for more information.
I find myself Googling how to do this every few years, why don't they make these things easier to use? I have a very slow pc jammed up with files that I thought were in the cloud. Same for Google Drive. A complete waste of time. All help articles seem out of date and I get lost trying to simply un-sync the friggen folders on my hard drive!
- Lusil
Dropbox Staff
Hey there ausworkshop,
If your hard drive is running out of space and you want to remove some folders from your Dropbox folder on your computer but not your Dropbox account, you can selectively sync them.
Please bear in mind that this is a space-saving, device-specific feature, which means that whichever folders you choose to selectively sync on one computer will not be removed from another.
I hope this helps, but don't hesitate to get back to me if you have any other questions!
