Does Mac Dropbox store offline files in System Data?

[Laurence S.4]

Dropbox 185.3.5963 MacOS Ventura 13.6

Can someone confirm that offline Dropbox files/folders are stored in System Data. I have 1.06 TB of System Data and 987 GB of Dropbox data on a 2TB SSD with 650 GB available.

If this is the case then users should be informed as there are many websites that recommend deleting System Data to recover space.

[Hannah]

Hey @Laurence S.4, thanks for reaching out to us.

The local version of your Dropbox files are stored in the location that your Dropbox folder is in.

Also, there's the Dropbox cache folder, which would be in the same location, as Dropbox keeps a cache of files for efficiency and emergency purposes.

You can read more about this here.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

[Laurence S.4]

I can see all my files and folders in the Dropbox folder which at in ~/Library/CloudStorage. My point is that they all seem to be categorised as System Data as shown here:

Please confirm that this is intentional and by design as I expected them to be shown as iOS files. Many websites say that System Data simply contains caches which can be deleted. 

[Laurence S.4]

Thank you for replying so rapidly. Obviously in this case my 987GB of Dropbox data are being stored in System Data as there is nowhere else it could be. Note that I am using the beta of the new Mac version (version numbers given above). The Dropbox data is all local and Dropbox is now working well although it took a few days to download it all and involved restarting Dropbox a few times. Based on your reply, it seems I should be worried it is in System Data. Is there anything I should do? As it now appears to be working well I am reluctant to do anything major as 1TB takes days to download.

[Hannah · Accepted solution]

Hey @Laurence S.4, indeed, since the update of the app to the new Dropbox for macOS on File Provider and since the Dropbox folder is now located in your CloudStorage, it's expected for the files to be stored in System Data.

If you have any more questions about this, let us know.

[drewsta]

how would you clear old cache data?

currently my system appears to be hiding 1.5 TB of data. I've already deselected the dropbox folder sync settings, and instructed it to sync NO folders, keep all folders online only.

[Walter]

Hey @drewsta - thanks for joining the discussion here.

You can find and delete your Dropbox cache folder as outlined here, but could you send us a screenshot of where you're spotting the discrepancy so that we can have a visual too?

Another one showing the properties of your Dropbox folder would also help!