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pbuckland's avatar
pbuckland
Helpful | Level 6
7 years ago

Smart Sync is default to online-only but not working

Hi all,   In my Smart Sync settings, I have the default set to online-only. i.e. new files should be set to online-only.   However, whenever someone adds a new folder+files to my shared folde...
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  • Sanchez's avatar
    Sanchez
    7 years ago
    Hey pbuckland, 

    In short, when you disable Smart Sync, the Selective Sync settings will apply. 

    When Smart Sync is enabled on an account, the default settings apply for new content only, so your existing files/folders are not affected unless the Smart Sync settings are manually changed. 

    Since your users are finding it difficult to manage both features, I understand that you want to disable Smart Sync, and have them only work with Selective Sync. Another way to do this would be to have each user set their preferences to Local for new files, go in and change to local any online-only content that they have manually set on existing content, and then only use the Selective Sync settings to manage things. Alternatively, they could select to sync all folders from the Selective Sync settings, and then use Smart Sync to manage it all. 
     
    Cheers
Jane's avatar
Jane
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

Could be so @Rich, though I'm curious as to whether my assumptions matched his experience, hence I focused more on what  @pbuckland described initially. I may be wrong, so if this is the case, I hope I’ll be given the chance to modify my initial advice in my next reply below… :upside_down:

pbuckland's avatar
pbuckland
Helpful | Level 6
7 years ago

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. Let me try to clarify a little.

 

I have a shared folder, a sub-folder of this, and many many folders under this.

Something like this:

 

- Shared folder
  - Sub folder
    - Folder 1
    - Folder 2
    - Folder 3
    - Folder 4
    - ...
    - Folder 195
    - Folder 196
    - Folder 197

 

Before Smart Sync started for us yesterday, I had selectively synced only Folder 1 and Folder 2, so only those two showed on my local PC.

 

When the Dropbox app set up Smart Sync for me, I selected the option to make all other non-selectively synced folders online-only. I then made all of "Shared folder" sync in the selective sync preferences, and the online-only folders now show without syncing locally. All is good in the world.

 

However, when another user creates a new folder, say "Folder 198", that folder is downloaded to my PC immediately. I would like any new folders like this one to show up, but in online-only mode. I don't want to have to manually set it to online-only once it has syced locally. I thought the setting would make any new folders online-only by default.

 

Cheers,
Paul

  • Minato's avatar
    Minato
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    7 years ago

    Hey pbuckland,

     

    Can you send us a screenshot of the the Sync tab and of the Selective Sync settings, so we can perform a more thorough investigation?

     

    Both of the above are located on the Preferences of the app and to go there just click once on the System Tray icon, then click on the Gear icon and select Preferences option.

     

    I hope to hear from you soon!

    • pbuckland's avatar
      pbuckland
      Helpful | Level 6
      7 years ago

      Hi,

       

      Here are my settings:

       

      If another user adds a folder under "projects - active only" (so another new black rectangle), that folder is selectively synced to my PC and all it's contents downloaded. I expected it to automatically be selectively synced - that's no problem - but I expected it to default to online-only, but it has defaulted to local instead, and all it's content has downloaded.

       

      This is a problem for many of our employees, as these folders can be huge and unknowingly take up their hard drive space.

       

      Thanks,

      Paul

      • Norah's avatar
        Norah
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
        7 years ago
         
        Hey pbuckland, thanks for all the information provided!
         
        As this is an issue that needs thorough investigation could you raise a ticket with our team here so that we can troubleshoot further for you? 
         
        Once you’ve raised the ticket please include the ID and I’ll make sure that a colleague handles your case asap. 
         
        Thanks in advance for your reply!

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