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Forum Discussion
How do you stop large team files from syncing to my system, once they are in the process of syncing?
I work for a film media company with team members around the world. Dropbox is a great solution until … someone happens to upload a titanic file, (like a film, or huge special FX sequence that are hu...
Thanks for your feedback here, Steve Conard!
I'll make sure your comments are passed along to our team.
If you need anything else, make sure to let us know.
Have a great weekend!
Megan
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHi Steve Conard, welcome to our Community!
As you already guessed, there's no way to stop an active folder/file from syncing, once the process has begun. You could pause the syncing of the app, but at some point, you'd need to resume.
What I'm thinking, that could be used as an alternative, is this: You can choose a specific folder with your team, that people would upload large content there if they have to.
Then, you (and the rest of the team) can choose to remove the folder from your device, using selective sync. That way even if they accidentally decided to upload content, it wouldn't sync to your computer.
Do you think that would work for you?
Let me know!
Thank you, Megan—
I appreciate the feedback. We’ve been dealing with this issue for some time and haven’t found a concrete answer. It’s good to finally know what we already expected.
Changing our project methodology isn’t really the answer. I do appreciate the suggestion. Most of the time everything runs smoothly. We already have established dropbox meetings before a new project begins and remind everyone to set folders to “online-only” status.
It’s sad that dropbox isn’t smart enough to look on to people’s systems and check if they have enough free space for what is about to be sync’d.
Tell your engineers, it would be a nice if dropbox had a file size check solution: “files have been uploaded to a shared folder that exceed the capacity of your hard drive. We’ve set the file(s) to online-only. You’re welcome!”
Thank you again and have a nice day.
- Hannah
Thanks for your feedback here, Steve Conard!
I'll make sure your comments are passed along to our team.
If you need anything else, make sure to let us know.
Have a great weekend!
Dear developers...
This was the single most critical reason I have had 5 people refuse to work with me using DB... I do not know what you have to do to change this but it is on a level of absurdity that you can't choose to eliminate a file from syncing when in the queue.
I would have to let my computer run for approximately 8 days non stop...I travel. Most do. Your platform is losing a LOT of customers and missing a LOT of revenue due to this and obviously this isn't just me... most will simply never tell you.
Thank you = fix it.
Emma
So clearly stated, and so correct. I have been battling DB for days, since it decided to backup an external drive of 8 tb. I am stuck in synching hell.
DB team - please fix this!
- Jay
Hi James R.5, you can disable external drive backups by following these steps on the site.
