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

chrisryanphotog's avatar
chrisryanphotog
Explorer | Level 4
2 years ago

Trying to copy a folder from an external drive to Dropbox, but get error about the disk space.

Hi all,

I have just upgraded to Dropbox with 2 TB of storage. I am trying to copy a folder of 76.62 GB from an external hard drive to Dropbox which has 1.84 GB in it. I am getting the message: Not enough disk space to copy...Aditional 2 GB of disk space his required to copy this file. You can manage disk space by removing items from the Storage section of About this Mac. I have already made files Online Only. What am I doing wrong?

Desktop
Mac
Storage space
Sync
  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    2 years ago

    There should be an option for this in the app's preferences under the Sync tab, Chris. 

     

    Can you give it a go and let me know if this helps? 

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

    Hey chrisryanphotog, thanks for using Dropbox and welcome to the Community!
     

    From the sounds of it, you must be running out of hard drive space on your computer - the message you get isn't referring to your Dropbox quota. 

     

    Did you give enough time to the desktop app to sync your changes after setting your file to be online only?

     

    Is the desktop app 'up to date' or still syncing in your menu bar perhaps?

     

    Let me know what you find!

    • chrisryanphotog's avatar
      chrisryanphotog
      Explorer | Level 4
      2 years ago

      Hi Walter,

      Thank you for the quick response and advice.

      Yes, my MacBook Pro is running out of space, that's partly why I am putting files onto Dropbox. I think you're right, I needed to allow the app to sync changes after setting the files to be online only. I have successfully transferred files today without problem however I must control/click on each folder and set each one to online only every time I choose another folder to copy to Dropbox. Is there a way of setting preferences to make all new files to be online only?

      Regards,

      Chris

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

        There should be an option for this in the app's preferences under the Sync tab, Chris. 

         

        Can you give it a go and let me know if this helps? 

About Storage Space

Looking for help with managing the storage space in your Dropbox account? Talk to the Dropbox Community and get advice from members.

Need more support

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!