Storage Usage reported for online-only folders on Finder doesn't match the "User Info".

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?

Hey HGohar & mikkokan, can you please share the relevant info with me in regards to your concern, in order to follow-up with you in a bit more detail? Thanks in advance!

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.

Thanks Jane, I followed the steps you mentioned. The Dropbox info shows it occupies 840kb (physical size 35 GB) however when comparing it with the "About this mac" ----> Storage---->Documents---->file browser it shows that it occupies 35 GB of the hard disc. So I'm not sure if my mac sees it at 840KB cause it is calculating the available space based on the physical rather than the logical size. I've tried to include a screenshot but I get an unexpected error message.