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Forum Discussion
Storage Usage reported for online-only folders on Finder doesn't match the "User Info".
So after more than a year of discussion on pretty much the same topic, this still has not been resolved. Sugesting that issue will be resolved in the next version of software is somewhat unacceptabl...
According to Dropbox team Jane, if the info about the dropbox folder is close or equal to zero bytes, it means it doesn't take any physical space on the hard disc. The problem I guess that the operating system still sees it as if it is taking that physical space and acts accordingly, i.e., full disc or neat full. I don't know what is the way around that.
Jane
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox Staff
Thanks for the replies and splitting of threads.
Now that you've investigated that Finder reports sizes incorrectly, what are next steps? Do we live with this forever?
Surely the point of Smart Sync is to allow us to save space. And in order to save space, we need to conveniently know how much space is being taken up. Having to individually "Get Info" on files/folders defeats this process.
Can we (as in dropbox) get in touch with Apple and get something about this behaviour updated?
Jane,
You are asking for a lot of information from users, and your "solutions" are not solutions, just more questions. This behavior is disappointing and should be fixed. Only a true solution should be marked as such. Nothing here so far has been "Solved."
Doesn't Dropbox have a development team that can run MacOSX 10.13.4 and replicate this issue themselves (The answer is yes). Please ask them to figure it out. And please stop this madness of "Solved" replies when no solutions yet exists.
Many thanks,
Mike
Hi Jane,
I have to say I also find myself frustrated reading these comments, and other threads about this issue. I think it's very clear for everyone the difference between physical vs logical size. The point I and many others are trying to get at is that Dropbox is breaking the default, and expected behaviour of the operative system. The du command may be useful for single folders. However, Disk Utility and System Information report the nominal size of Dropbox files (online and offline) under Documents in High Sierra (10.13.4), which gives a very skewed overview of actual disk usage. The size column in Finder is more or less useless too. Clearing the Dropbox cache doesn't fix this issue, and so far there has not been a single real solution to this problem.
I agree with HGohar. When I check individual files on the Dropbox folder it confirms zero bytes on disk. However, when I go to About This Mac/Storage it shows a huge amount of documents on my Mac HD. When I click Manage and go to Review Files it lists the largest files for me to check. When I trace one of the large files back to its folder (in Dropbox) I discover that it is online and shows zero bytes when I check info.
So the issue is that the Mac is reading the size as stated for that file in the finder (it still shows the original size) even while synced online.
Dropbox may be successfully moving the file to online only but the Mac still believes that it is present on the hard drive. That creates an issue for storage management within the Mac system.
This exact problem has been reported repeatedly to Dropbox but apparently has been ignored.
I believe that the Dropbox team needs to address this issue and stop telling everyone to just check the info for individual files. The fact that the Mac system believes the files are still there continues to cause confusion and storage conficts.
Dropbox team can you correct this issue so that the Mac storage management system agrees with Dropbox?
- Jane
Jane,
I've read through all of these posts, and still have not found a solution. Will you please refrain from marking your post as a "Solution" when you only ask more questions? It is very confusing to newcomers, and is also just misleading. As far as I can tell nothing here has been "solved."
Let me ask you this, doesn't Dropbox have a development team that can run MacOSX 10.13.4 and replicate this issue themselves? The answer is yes, and I think it would be a better use of time for them to replicate it rather than continually asking users to post more information and marking your further questions as "Solutions."
Many thanks,
Mike
- Jane
- Jane
- Jane
Thank you Jane for coming back to me. My dropbox shows that my files are synced to the cloud, however, the hard disc on my mac shows that these files still exist and occupying the same space. Therefore smart sync isn't freeing any space on the hard disc. The sync is complete and I can access it from other devices.
- Jane
