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Forum Discussion
Storage Usage reported for online-only folders on Finder doesn't match the "User Info".
So after more than a year of discussion on pretty much the same topic, this still has not been resolved. Sugesting that issue will be resolved in the next version of software is somewhat unacceptabl...
According to Dropbox team Jane, if the info about the dropbox folder is close or equal to zero bytes, it means it doesn't take any physical space on the hard disc. The problem I guess that the operating system still sees it as if it is taking that physical space and acts accordingly, i.e., full disc or neat full. I don't know what is the way around that.
Jane
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffThank you Jane for the clarification. So in your opinion, the large files I have on dropbox.com and don't see on my computer (as per settings) won't take any physical space if I chose to "see them" on the computer even if the storage info shows they occupy space so long the get info isn't confirming that, correct?
- Jane
I'm having these same issue on my macbook. OS 10.12, Dropbox v59.4.93
I have everything set to auto selective-sync, but when I select a folder to sync and not bring onto my computer, it seems to bring it straight to my computer (only with the blue icon, turning to grey cloud, never with a green icon) because my hard drive fills up quickly. I have logged out, disconnected, clearned my cache, but still my computer thinks I have 150GB of Dropbox files when I only have about 37GB synced locally.
I spend hours each day synching and unsynching trying to get a few files before my computer and dropbox tell me they are full again, when I know it's not true. I have cleared my cache over and over but only seem to gain a few GB each time. Where are these invisible files located? How do I get rid of them? How do I prevent this from happening so I can just get back to work? I can't work with my computer hard drives filling up with magical invisible files all the time. Help!!
Same issue here, this has been going on for a while now and the best solution is a work around. Has the dropbox team made any progress on this? Its annoying enough for me to move services.
According to Dropbox team Jane, if the info about the dropbox folder is close or equal to zero bytes, it means it doesn't take any physical space on the hard disc. The problem I guess that the operating system still sees it as if it is taking that physical space and acts accordingly, i.e., full disc or neat full. I don't know what is the way around that.
I agree with HGohar. When I check individual files on the Dropbox folder it confirms zero bytes on disk. However, when I go to About This Mac/Storage it shows a huge amount of documents on my Mac HD. When I click Manage and go to Review Files it lists the largest files for me to check. When I trace one of the large files back to its folder (in Dropbox) I discover that it is online and shows zero bytes when I check info.
So the issue is that the Mac is reading the size as stated for that file in the finder (it still shows the original size) even while synced online.
Dropbox may be successfully moving the file to online only but the Mac still believes that it is present on the hard drive. That creates an issue for storage management within the Mac system.
This exact problem has been reported repeatedly to Dropbox but apparently has been ignored.
I believe that the Dropbox team needs to address this issue and stop telling everyone to just check the info for individual files. The fact that the Mac system believes the files are still there continues to cause confusion and storage conficts.
Dropbox team can you correct this issue so that the Mac storage management system agrees with Dropbox?
- Jane
