Dropbox keeps forgetting online-only settings

[buzzbear]

I'm a very long time user of dropbox and I'm ready to quit. I have some very large folders - 30GB or more that I keep setting to online-only. Then a few days later I'm out of disk space and I find that the files are taking up actual disk again. I change the folders to online only and the space clears for a few days, then the cycle starts again. During this time Dropbox is also working continuously. Is there a solution?

[Walter]

HI there @buzzbear - sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

Could you please clarify your device's OS version and the version and status of the Dropbox desktop app as shown in your menu bar/system tray?

Also, are you working on the files you're making online-only or maybe you have a 3rd party app monitoring them somehow?

Let us know more and we'll take it from there. 

[buzzbear]

The problem mainly happens on a win 10 box. current ver. 207.4.5821. I do have sync pref set for default state for new files to online only. The problem is with static files that are not being modified, but for some reason switch themselves from online only to offline.

[Megan]

Hey @buzzbear!

There are some processes on your computer that could be looking at and downloading these files without you manually opening them.

This could be some kind of backup service you might have, an antivirus, recently used file lists or third party apps that monitor files in general.

Could this be the case here? And can you temporarily disable these features (if any), to see if you get a different behavior?

[buzzbear]

Not likely. They are primarily on two folders - old photos in my pictures folder, and old database backups in a folder only dropbox uses. that's why I set them to online only. I've pushed them all back to online only in the last two days, will see what happens.

[Megan]

Do you notice this behavior only with these two specific folders @buzzbear?

If the same thing happens after a while, let me know and I'll open a ticket on my end for you. 

[buzzbear]

Dropbox has continuously reverted two of my large folders to offline, filling up my hard disk. It's ridiculous.

[Megan]

I just sent you an email @buzzbear, we'll take it from there!