"Online only" default option for app--completely useless?

[drop device]

I set up the dropbox app on my PC, and followed the instructions to make the attendant folder treat everything I put there as online-only by default. As the instructions say, "This setting means that all future files and folders that you add to the Dropbox folder on your computer will be online-only." Clear enough, right? Except whenever I copied and pasted a file into the folder (I need the originals to live elsewhere, and don't want duplicates taking up space), it was offline, with the green check. I did everything I could to make it work, gave it time thinking maybe they would switch after a bit, and then finally noticed this caveat at the bottom of the instructions they give to make online-only the default:  "Note: If you create a document directly on your computer and move it into your Dropbox folder, it’ll still be available offline unless you manually set it to be online-only." What? As opposed to what?! Moving items I created (or that just exist on my computer period) into the dropbox folder is the only way I have to put them in there! So what is the point of the setting that I want files I put there to be online-only? What else would they mean by "all future files and folders that you add to the Dropbox folder on your computer," if not these? Please tell me what I am missing and what I can do to make this work properly. Thanks very much!

[Jay · Accepted solution]

Hi @drop device, thanks for posting!

Dropbox is primarily a syncing service. This means that you can add files to your Dropbox account from another device or the site. When the default is set to online-only, this means that new files added via another device or the site would appear as online-only on your computer.

Files that were already local on your computer, when you copy and paste them into the Dropbox folder, would remain local. You'll need to manually mark them as online-only, as stated in this article.

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