You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.
Forum Discussion
How can I completely disable Smart Sync?
How can I completely, 100%, disable Smart Sync so that Dropbox will always download all of my files?
The settings I have found all apply to NEW files and seem to have no impact on old files.
What...
Hey there Whatever2018 - how are you today?
I'm sorry to hear you would like to opt out of Smart Sync. Depending on the account you're on now you can do it following the steps mentioned below:
Individuals that no longer wish to use Smart Sync can do so with the steps found in the following Help Center article:
https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/filesystem-integration#optoutIf you're the Admin of a Dropbox for Business team and you'd like to opt all members of your Dropbox Business team out of Smart Sync, I'd also suggest to see the following Help Center article specifically under the section "Dropbox Business team admins: how to opt out your whole team from the system extension":
https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/filesystem-integration#optout
Also note that some of your team members may have connected a work and personal account. If you opt out your team from the system extension, team members won't be able to use Smart Sync on any personal devices (or personal accounts) where they're also signed in to their Business account.
I hope this information helps and please keep me posted on your progress!
Walter
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHey there Whatever2018 - how are you today?
I'm sorry to hear you would like to opt out of Smart Sync. Depending on the account you're on now you can do it following the steps mentioned below:
Individuals that no longer wish to use Smart Sync can do so with the steps found in the following Help Center article:
https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/filesystem-integration#optoutIf you're the Admin of a Dropbox for Business team and you'd like to opt all members of your Dropbox Business team out of Smart Sync, I'd also suggest to see the following Help Center article specifically under the section "Dropbox Business team admins: how to opt out your whole team from the system extension":
https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/filesystem-integration#optout
Also note that some of your team members may have connected a work and personal account. If you opt out your team from the system extension, team members won't be able to use Smart Sync on any personal devices (or personal accounts) where they're also signed in to their Business account.
I hope this information helps and please keep me posted on your progress!
None of this works at all. Users really ought to have the choice to switch smart sync on or off but this seems impossible. I have "normal" dropbox on other devices but when I upgraded the SDD on this Macbook Air I am on, suddenly the nonsense Smartsync was on and I cannot find a way to switch it off. Time to move to OneDrive, amazing how a startup like Dropbox can drive its customers away. Clowns!
I couldn't agree more. "Smart" Sync is absolutely stupid! Very bad job, Dropbox!
Couldn't agree more. An appalling feature. Unwanted and a nightmare to get round. Completely idiotic.
It's actually worse than the roll-out of Windows 8 by MS... and that was appalling!
- Walter
Sorry to hear you feel this way Seager1.
If you would prefer not to use Smart Sync, then you can do so by setting your default sync preferences for new content to "local" and by recalling any files that are currently "online only".
For instructions on syncing online-only content and choosing the default setting for new content, please see the following Help Center article:
https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/smart-sync
If there are any issues with this process please don’t hesitate to reach back out with screenshots depicting the problem at hand and I'll be more than happy to follow up.
I feel that way too. This change sucks for existing users. I have to now figure out how to get thousands of files to download to my PC as I expected they would. Terrible way to treat existing users. I'll be looking for alternate services.
I don't think anyone is having trouble specifying "local" such that new files and folders are stored both locally and within the cloud. The difficulty is getting the old files to change from "online only" to "local".
You mention in your post .... recalling any files that are currently "online only"
Is there a way to recall currently "online only" files such that they become "local"? @Walter, this is not explained in your provided link.
- Walter
While the most straight-forward way to achieve the mentioned recall would be to right click on the said folders/files and set them to 'Local', there's also a number of applications that can cause Smart Sync files to be recalled.
The most common of them include anti-virus applications and programs such as Microsoft Word and Adobe Photoshop which have "recents" menus, because, in order to fulfill these requests from these processes, Dropbox syncs the files locally to your device.
Some examples are:
- Backup services
- Antivirus
- Recently used file lists
- Third party applications that monitor files in general
If a file has been set to 'Online Only' that you would prefer to have locally available, simply right click on it and select 'Local' from the Smart Sync menu.
I hope this helped trosny!
Your help is not helpful. I read that whole page twice and there's not a bit of info on how to keep dropbox's sync enabled while completely disabling the troublesome "smart sync" feature as the OP requested.
I have smart sync turned off in my local prefs, but apparently that doesn't mean anything as I've gone to access files while not connected to the internet and they are inaccessible! All I get is a ridiculous cloud icon. Forcing smart sync on us has me considering, for the first time in ten years, looking for a different platform for web backups and file sharing.
