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Forum Discussion
Online Files are shown as Zero Bytes
I am currently on MacOS Monteray 12.4 and using SmartSync (online-only) by default. The Dropbox App version is v151.4.4304 . I noticed that all the cloud files are now shown as Zero bytes. I could still download them (make them available offline) but I remember in previous versions, I could see the size of the files before choosing to download them. Is there some fix for that? I just followed some discussion groups and clicked on "Fix Permissions" under the account tab, which is syncing many files. Not sure if that will fix the issue. Any other tricks to fix this?
- Megan
Dropbox Staff
Hi zolabola, how are you today?
If the file or folder isn't synced locally to the device, it'd make sense that you'd only see zero bytes and not the full size of them. That is expected behavior.
You can check online to see the size of the file or folder, or download it locally.
I hope this clarifies.
- Hi Megan,
I don't think this was the case with previous versions of app or perhaps MacOS. I used to be able to see sizes of remote files before syncing them. Did something change?
Thanks- Megan
Hi zolabola!
This has been the usability of this specific feature, for the content to take up zero hard drive space, therefore 0 bytes.
Is there maybe a chance that you were viewing a different path, or maybe the placeholder each file or folder holds?
In any case, I'll forward your feedback to the appropriate areas so we can continue to improve.
If you need anything else, let me know.
Apologies if this has been discussed before but I couldn't seem to locate anything related in the search.
As stated in the subject line. My new MAC (I'm still becoming accustomed to) is not reporting the Online Only filesize in Dropbox.
I have checked off the setting in the online account for 'Online-only files on Mac' OFF. It was originally set to OFF, I tried both ON and then again OFF again.
I have closed and reloaded the app and rebooted the Mac.
Files still report 'zero bytes' in the DropBox Size Column.
The description isn't so clear to me as this setting states;
'This displays online-only file sizes in Mac Finder as zero bytes so you can easily review which files are taking up hard drive space.'
If they display as zero bytes, how would you determine what is taking up space? Likely I'm going down the wrong path?
I use freefilesync to keep data sync'd up across drives and with DropBox. Because freefilesync detects the DropBox file size on the Mac is different than the source files on my portable SSD, 'xxx bytes' vs 'zero bytes', it always want’s to overwrite all. I have .8TB to sync so this isn't an option to do with online files.
If I select a file to on the Mac to be 'available offline' it will update and report the size accordingly. Setting it back to online reports back as zero bytes.
On my windows machine, DropBox reports the file size regardless if the file is set to Offline or Online only so no issues syncing my devices with DropBox there.
MAC
Windows
Thanks in advance.
Shawn
- Hannah
Hey Trappist, thanks for reaching out to us!
I've moved your post to this relevant thread and want to let you know that with the release of macOS 12.3, some changes were introduced, which mean that all online-only files will display a file size of Zero bytes.
You can see more details on Dropbox support for macOS 12.3 and higher here.
I hope this clarifies things.
