We're making changes to the Community, so you may have received some notifications - thanks for your patience and welcome back. Learn more here.

Forum Discussion

Pookeyblow's avatar
Pookeyblow
Collaborator | Level 8
2 years ago

Dropbox removed "Save hard drive space automatically"

I thought "smart sync" was so that Dropbox automatically makes files I haven't used in a while online only. I don't see a smart sync option on my M1 Mac (macOS Monterey 12.1), but I have "Make onl...
Desktop
desktop app
Mac OS
Sync and upload
Syncing
  • Megan's avatar
    Megan
    2 years ago

    Hey all! 

     

    Just wanted to jump in here, and let you know that the option should be back, and all should work like they used to.

     

    Thanks a bunch! 😎

fedeboraxx's avatar
fedeboraxx
Helpful | Level 7
2 years ago

Hi there,

It seems the new Dropbox makes a lot of files online-only without me asking it to do so. It is very annoying AND unhelpful as sometimes I work without WIFI. How do I turn this off? It was much better before, where I told it which files where online, and which needed offline access.

 

Thanks

  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
    2 years ago
    fedeboraxx wrote:

    It seems the new Dropbox makes a lot of files online-only without me asking it to do so. How do I turn this off?

    There is no option to disable this feature. As long as you have enough drive space and you mark your files as Available Offline, Dropbox shouldn't make them Online-only. It will, however, continue to do this if you're low on local drive space.

    • fedeboraxx's avatar
      fedeboraxx
      Helpful | Level 7
      2 years ago

      Thanks Rich. I'm not low on space (and if I were, I'd like to admin this myself). Now, whenever I create a new file, Dropbox uploads it and makes it online-only. Which wreaks havoc with programs like Premiere, which are searching for a ton of linked files per project. Why would Dropbox do this? Why do software companies add features no-one asked for?

      • yoyoyoyoyo27's avatar
        yoyoyoyoyo27
        Helpful | Level 5
        2 years ago

        it's totally awful.  it has made it unusable for Premiere, etc, these days.  the beginning of the end for Dropbox I fear

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

    Hey fedeboraxx, sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

     

    Could you please clarify your device's OS version and the status and version of the desktop app as shown in your menu bar? 

     

    Also, did you try making the files you'd like to access at all times available offline before trying to open them through your 3rd party apps? 

    • fedeboraxx's avatar
      fedeboraxx
      Helpful | Level 7
      2 years ago

      Thanks Walter. I have the latest Mac, and the latest Dropbox, everything updated to whatever is the newest version.

      And do you suggest going through ALL My FILES and right clicking to make the offline? This seems like a huge waste of time

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

        Hi fedeboraxx, have you tried marking the entire Dropbox folder as available offline, or bulk selecting all the files in the root folder to mark them the same way?

About Create, upload, and share

Find help to solve issues with creating, uploading, and sharing files and folders in Dropbox. Get support and advice from the Dropbox Community.

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!