Can I unsync folders with selective sync, but keep their names in the Dropbox folder?

[simonraybould]

Hi all.

I'm short of space on my hard drive so obviously I'm going to use selective sync to reduce the folders/files that are stored on there. My understanding is that folders I chose to keep on my hard drive exist in two places - on the harddrive and on the dropbox servers so I'm radically hacking away at the folders I want to keep on my computer and leaving the rest only on Dropbox's servers.

So far so good.

However, that seems to mean I can only access files that aren't selected for syncing but going to dropbox.com. What I'd ideally like is a way of storing the files/folders on dropbox's servers but keeping a 'shadow' of them on my hard drive, to navigate via Finder (I'm on a Mac) as though they were on my hard drive, so that I can access them by clicking on them and they'd (download and) open as though they were on my drive.

Have a missed something obvious 'cos I can't see a way!

[Rich]

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@simonraybould wrote:

However, that seems to mean I can only access files that aren't selected for syncing but going to dropbox.com.

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That is correct. When you uncheck a folder in Selective Sync, it's removed from the local drive.

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What I'd ideally like is a way of storing the files/folders on dropbox's servers but keeping a 'shadow' of them on my hard drive ...

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What you're looking for is the ability to mark files or folders as Online-only.

• https://help.dropbox.com/sync/make-files-online-only

[simonraybould]

Cheers!  I did wonder if that was it. Obviously when I access those files they're downloaded and take up space (d'oh!) for the duration of time I'm editing them etc. Can I confirm that when I've finished editing them (and close? delete?) the syncing means that the new version is stored online?

[Jay · Accepted solution]

Hi @simonraybould, when you edit a file that is online-only, the file would sync to your computer so that you can view or edit it. 

Once you save the file, like a normal local file, it would sync those changes to the site.

If you have any further queries, feel free to message back.