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

mh24ac's avatar
mh24ac
Explorer | Level 3
2 years ago

How to enable files syncing as online-only during installation so that no file exists locally?

I want to install dropbox on my new notebook. Since I have little hard disk space on the notebook would like to activate smartsync directly during installation so that no file is local. When I install Dropbox and log in Dropbox immediately starts to synchronize files and thus begins to occupy space. I don't have enough space on my hard drive for all the files I have in Dropbox.

Is there a solution for this?

  • Megan's avatar
    Megan
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

    Hi mh24ac, I hope you're doing well! 

     

    So, the best way to go on about this, is to start from scratch. 

     

    You'd need to sign out of the account on the app, rename or delete the existing Dropbox folder and the content that has already been synced to the device, and then sign back in. 

     

    Now, keep in mind that upon the set-up process, you might see "How you want your files to sync" -if you don't see this, please click on the advanced settings while setting up the app-, and you want to choose online-only. 

     

    That should do the trick.

     

    Of course, another alternative is to let content sync, and gradually change their status to online-only as they sync. Can you give it a go, and let me know of the results? 

     

    Thanks!

    • mh24ac's avatar
      mh24ac
      Explorer | Level 3

      thanks for your answer, but this setting only affects newly created files. Dropbox stops the sync starting immediately and thus I don't have the "offline links" to all my files on dropbox in my local dropbox folder. Also new files created from other machines do not appear as local links. seems that dropbox cannot meet my requirement.

      thank you

About Apps and Installations

Have a question about a Dropbox app or installation? Reach out to the Dropbox Community and get solutions, help, and 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!