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

fdobedolla's avatar
fdobedolla
Explorer | Level 4
3 months ago

To upload 200 GB of files, do I need to use my hard drive space?

I purchased the business plan. My question is very specific: to upload 200 GB of information, do I have to use the space on a device? What happens if I don't have space on that device? Can't I simply upload it to the cloud, like a server, without using the capacity of my computer?

  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II

    @fdobedolla wrote:

    to upload 200 GB of information, do I have to use the space on a device? What happens if I don't have space on that device?


    If you're using the Dropbox app to sync the files located in your Dropbox folder, then yes, you'll need to use the space on your drive, at least initially. Once synced, files and folders can be marked as Online-only so they don't use any disk space, but only after the sync has completed.

     

    If you don't have enough local disk space, you would need to add files to your Dropbox folder in smaller batches, giving them time to sync, and then marking them as Online-only to reclaim that disk space for more files.

     


    Can't I simply upload it to the cloud, like a server, without using the capacity of my computer?

    Another method would be to use the dbxcli tool in a command prompt or terminal session to upload directly to your account.

    • fdobedolla's avatar
      fdobedolla
      Explorer | Level 4
      Thnx so much.

      I did it as the first option but after upload and select as online only, the files were still using my space drive, I delete them and they were erased even from the platform. Did I miss something?

      Thnx for ur help.
      • Mark's avatar
        Mark
        Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II

        fdobedolla wrote:
        I delete them and they were erased even from the platform. Did I miss something?

        Thnx for ur help.

        Dropbox is a syncing tool. So if you delete them in Dropbox you delete them everywhere. 

         

        They will use up space for a few days first, while they upload, as that takes time - it is not just the initial putting in directory as that's literally just putting them in to a folder. It also waits for a few days just to check that they upload correctly. After that they will go offline only if you select it 🙂