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

alanS's avatar
alanS
Explorer | Level 4
3 years ago

Mac seems to think HD is full of DropBox files?

I'm using a Mac and have about 100Gb of DropBox folders, many are local on my HD as well (I have DropBox Plus 2Tb plan). I went through and changed all files to online only (grey icon) and now my D...
desktop
Mac
sync
  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    3 years ago

    Hey alanS, sorry to jump in here, but I just wanted to mention that this space might be taken up by the cache folder that Dropbox creates on your computer.

     

    If the desktop app has finished syncing and it's 'up to date' in your menu bar, you could try deleting it to free up some hard drive space.

     

    Let me know if this helps, Alan.

Walter's avatar
Walter
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

Hey jonpen69 - could you let us know some additional information so that we can assist further?

 

For example, what is your computer's OS version and if you're running the Dropbox desktop app, what is its current status and version as shown in your menu bar?

 

Also, a screenshot of where you're spotting the discrepancy would also help, so feel free to include one. 

jonpen69's avatar
jonpen69
New member | Level 2
2 years ago

I am On Mac OS10.15.7 I solved it. it was the Dropbox.cache folder which contained all the mirrors of uploaded files that were not cleared out of this folder after a successful upload.

  • jonpen69's avatar
    jonpen69
    New member | Level 2
    2 years ago

    So... I had to reveal the Dropbox.cache folder by pressing (SHIFT, COMMAND, (.)PERIOD) and delved inside the "old.files" folder. Why this wasn't being emptied after a successful sync is the question. And why it stored it there in the first place is a waste of space and time, I was transferring from an external drive directly to dropbox which begs the question, Why does it even get copied into the mac file system at all?

  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    2 years ago

    The Dropbox cache folder acts as a staging place for your sync tasks (uploads, downloads, backups etc.) and keeps the files for 3 days as a fail-safe as you'd be able to restore the files from there in case of an emergency. 

     

    This means that it's auto-cleared after 3 days of a successful sync and if you made sure that the app is 'up to date' and not still syncing, you're safe to clear it manually as you did. 

     

    In any case, I'm glad to hear you sorted this out in the end and thank you for keeping us in the loop too jonpen69 

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