Cancel an online-only file download (as it is happening)

[MikeB1971]

Hi Folks,

Well this is odd.

If you have a large online-only file and you (double-)click it to access it in Windows Explorer, Dropbox starts downloading it (syncing it).

So far so good.

But what if I want to cancel that sync?

The only button I see here is "Sync next" (which, incidentally, does absolutely nothing, the file continues to download).

Imagine having three 300 GB files online and clicking them all by mistake... you'd block your sync queue for days.

What am I doing wrong? Is there maybe an option to have Dropbox ask me if I am sure, because I don't see the point of making files online-only if I can simply revert that status by clicking them in Explorer. They should be a little harder to get offline again, surely?

Thx,

Mike

[Jay · Accepted solution]

Hi @MikeB1971, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Currently, there isn't a direct feature to stop this downloading of the file when you attempt to open it.

What you could try is to right click the file or folder, and mark it as available online-only, so that they won't try to download.

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

[MikeB1971]

---

@Jay wrote:

Hi @MikeB1971, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Currently, there isn't a direct feature to stop this downloading of the file when you attempt to open it.

What you could try is to right click the file or folder, and mark it as available online-only, so that they won't try to download.

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

---

Hi Jay,
Just a follow-up on this, right-clicking and resetting the online-only status works! But interestingly, only in native Explorer (I am using Directory Opus, where this does nothing but hang the app).

OK, that's a useful workaround.

I'll just have to remember to keep the mouse cursor away from files that are online-only from now on...

(A "interesting" side effect of accidentally clicking an online-only file and then resetting the status in this way, however, is that it has caused an onging upload to restart. So my 50-gig upload is now restarting instead of continuing at 30 gig where it was. Sigh...)

Thx,

Mike