You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.

Forum Discussion

nino2's avatar
nino2
New member | Level 2
7 years ago

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...
desktop
Dropbox Basic
sync
  • HGohar's avatar
    HGohar
    7 years ago

    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.

     
CharleyW's avatar
CharleyW
Explorer | Level 4

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's avatar
Jane
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
6 years ago
Hey there (CharleyW) & to all following this discussion, I have an update to share with you, as Ross S. (who’s one of our team experts) posted an explanation that could address your concern under this thread. Please feel free to have a look at his last comment at your convenience & let us know should you have any follow-up questions whenever you get a chance. 
 
Thanks for taking the time to write us your thoughts on the Dropbox Community & I’m always here in case you’d like to discuss that in a bit more detail! 

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