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Forum Discussion

Emeskay's avatar
Emeskay
New member | Level 2
6 years ago

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.
Desktop
FAQ
Sync
  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    2 years ago

    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!

Lusil's avatar
Lusil
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
Hi there, Emeskay and MNWIV!
 
Initially, please note that files that are in the Dropbox folder are available locally and for this reason take up space on your hard drive, no matter the plan that you are subscribed to. 
 
To ensure that your files have synced to the website and to other connected devices, you can find out by hovering over the Dropbox icon that’s next to your desktop’s clock (if it’s finished syncing, it should read up to date) and from the syncing icons on your files (if they are synced, they will have a green icon with a check-mark on them). 
 
If you don’t want your folders to take up space on your computer, you can selectively sync them which would remove them locally. If you’re under a Professional or Business subscription, you can also use Smart Sync to make files online-only. If you’re not sure which plan you have, you can navigate to your Plan tab for more details. 
 
I hope this helped clarify matters a bit more. Let me know if you have any other questions! :grin:
cpie23's avatar
cpie23
New member | Level 2
4 years ago

This is what I don't understand about smart sync though - I'm a photographer and have a ton of RAW files and large jpg files from editing in Lightroom and Photoshop. I save all my filed to my Professional Dropbox account because I've had multiple failed external hard drives and computers. I use the smart sync function and it simply doesn't matter. I'm running critically low on computer space every single day. What is the deal with this? It's driving me nuts that I can't figure it out. 

    • FredericVT's avatar
      FredericVT
      New member | Level 2
      3 years ago

      Hello,

       

      I'm using Dropbox Pro on Windows 10. In my preferences:

      - "online only" is set

      - "Selected Sync" is used and zero folder is selected (absolutely nothing)

      So in theory, I should have nothing copied to my hard drive by Dropbox.

      Note that I can't use the online version as I'm backuping huge files online, and the web version of Dropbox is limited in terms of file size.

      I'm pretty much upset because Dropbox keeps on copying files to my hard drive, no matter what I do. What did I miss?

      • Mark's avatar
        Mark
        Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
        3 years ago

        Hi FredericVT 

        To upload initially they have to go in to your Dropbox folder locally. Thats the only way to upload via the software. Once they have then uploaded you can use the web interface to move them to a none sync'd folder or turn it to Online Only. However, you HAVE to do the local part first

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