Show all files online-only, but not use up the 300,000 limit in the desktop app

[Oliv from Paris]

Allow you to view locally (on your computer) the full tree view of files stored in the cloud, and therefore not limit the number of files that can be synchronized locally on a computer (currently at +/- 300,000). A level that you quickly reach when you have 15 or 20TB on your Dropbox. It is very restrictive to be forced to use "selective synchronization". Many thanks in advance!

[Jay]

Hi @Oliv from Paris, thanks for messaging the Community!

Are you referring to the similar feature that allows you to view online-only files in your Dropbox folder, or something else entirely?

This will help me to assist further!

[Oliv from Paris]

Hi, thanks for your answer.

The way I wanted to use Dropbox is as follows:

– copy all my work folders organized in a detailed tree structure (+/- 20TB) to the cloud.

– Then, locally on my different computers, synchronize all my files with the complete tree structure on my Finder (Mac), and with all the files in "online" mode and not accessible "offline", so that they do not take up space on my internal hard drive.

– And in use, I wanted folder by folder, according to the needs of each day, load a few files locally to work with, and then put them back "online".

The problem is that I cannot display my entire tree structure locally on my computers, because the Dropbox desktop application is limited to a display of +/- 300,000 files. And obviously I have many more.
So I am forced to use Selective synchronization, on my complex tree structure, it becomes very very laborious!!

Olivier

[Jay]

Thanks for the info. In this case, only the online-only feature would work, since there isn't another potential method of doing what you're asking. 

If you are reaching the limit of the 300,000 files, which would affect the performance of the Dropbox desktop application, then you would need to use selective sync.

We appreciate the feedback on this matter. We take all comments into consideration when improving the Dropbox site and services.

[Oliv from Paris]

Thank you for your comment.

For my information, why is there this limitation of 300,000 files? What is the technical reason?

Thanks again for your products and services, I hope they continue to improve!

[Oliv from Paris]

We are still looking for a solution to view our entire tree structure locally...

Does having 3 licenses and therefore three separate users (Business Plus offer at 15 TB) allow you to exceed the limit of 300,000 files on the same computer?

Is it 300,000 maximum per license? or per computer, regardless of the number of licenses?

A solution would perhaps be to display our complete tree structure by segmenting it on three different workstations?
It's a bit laborious, but while waiting for Dropbox to propose to remove this limitation? 😉

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Rich]

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@Oliv from Paris wrote:

Is it 300,000 maximum per license? or per computer, regardless of the number of licenses?

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300,000 is not a hard limit. It's just that you COULD (and likely will) experience performance issues while syncing more than 300,000 files. Ultimately it's depends on the hardware specifications and operating system of your computer. The better the computer, the better it will be able to handle large amounts of files.

• https://help.dropbox.com/plans/large-deployments

[Oliv from Paris]

Okay, thanks for the clarification.

I currently have an iMac Retina 5k, 27 inches, 2015. 4GHz Intel Core i7 4-core processor and 32 GB of Ram. I'm thinking of changing and getting a very recent Mac.

Do you think this will be decisive and greatly increase this limitation? Because I only put on our DropBox maybe 1/4 of the files we need...

A precise indication of the number of files manageable according to the type of computer would be appreciated!

Thanks! Olivier.