HELP! Dropbox is loading up my computer memory!

[Presto2024]

Hello everyone,

I am hoping someone can help me out of this nightmare that was supposed to be storage relief. I upgraded my free subscription to 3TB. and started uploading my video files from my SD Card to Dropbox.

Apparently, Dropbox is syncing with my other devices. I have no way of confirming nor changing it in my online profile, and my computer is now frozen with Dropbox files monopolizing my computer disk space.

Deleting my Dropbox files are not an option because I already deleted them from the SD card, so these are the only files I have left (deleting them from the SD Card corrupted my Recycle Bin, so I chose the Empty Bin option. They're gone now.). I can't get anything done on my computer, which completely defeats the purpose of online storage. I already submitted a report to Dropbox, but have no idea how long they take to respond.

Hopefully, someone in the community can assist me with getting Dropbox files off my computers (un-sync) so I can use them again. 

Thank you very much for any assistance you can offer.

[Nancy]

Thanks for reaching out to the Community, @Presto2024!

What I’d suggest, if you want to completely remove folders from your local Dropbox folder and only have them accessible on the Dropbox website, is to use selective sync. 

This way, you can pick which folders you want to locally sync, and have the rest not take up hard drive space. 

I’ll be here, if you need more help.

[Presto2024]

Hello Nancy,

Thank you for the prompt reply. Yes, I read about the selective sync. The problem is that I cannot access anything on my desktop because my memory has been maxed out on two computers now.

My computers are basically frozen, so anything that I would do locally cannot be done.

The ideal would be having the option to control Selective Sync from either the web platform and local devices so people that learn about this after the fact still have a remedy to undo the damage.

[Presto2024]

There should be a note in your FAQ suggesting users with my problem go into Safe Mode on their desktop to gain access to Dropbox Desktop. That was the only way I was able to get to the instructions you provided. I think the problem has been resolved. Thank you.

[Presto2024]

Hello,

When creating a new folder on the desktop app, Dropbox should generate a prompt that let's the user choose, "Store on Hard Drive?" or "Online Only?" then provide both options for the user to select the option they prefer.

As a new user uploading 2TB of data, it has been a very arduous and long process because I didn't realize that each new desktop folder automatically saves to the hard drive. In my effort to move this data from own local WD MyCloudEX2 Ultra to Dropbox, it filled my computer hard drive with 200GB of data!

Twice!! I didn't realize this until the computer got bogged down and started rejecting additional "uploads" to Dropbox because it was backing everything up on my computer hard drive as well. What a disaster!

Now, this might seem like an obvious thing to someone who does frequent saves to Dropbox, or uploads small files that can easily be corrected, but finding this out through trial and error with 2TB of data has been a tremendous waste of my time. Especially being up against deadlines for several other priorities. First time, shame on you. Second time, shame on me. A waste of time either way knowing there is an easy "ounce of prevention" available with a simple prompt notification.

Keep in mind, once the hard drive is full, the Desktop is not even accessible to Manage Hard Drive Space. I found this out the hard (pun intended) way during the first upload and ultimately had to enter Safe Mode on my computer to actually get to it.

Thinking my problems were over, the next day I setup a new folder for bigger uploads having forgotten the simple step that would have avoided the first mishap: Notification to select online-only upon creation of the folder.

Meanwhile, I can't move any significant amount of files because of the system update underway while Dropbox removes he remaining 100GB from my computer. ("Guess I'll write a suggestion while I wait for this update to complete!") "Onsie-twosie" file uploads while Dropbox updates to free up hard drive space is like picking up a spilt box of dropped toothpicks one-by-one: counterproductive and no good!

Very frustrating for the second time! A prompt at the beginning of creating a new file is a simple ask that would assist users who are multitasking because waiting for large files to transfer is the tech equivalent of watching paint dry. Naturally, we are going to find other things to do and a simple oversight of not going into Manage Hard Drive Space can set someone back for days worth or productivity. Totally avoidable problem to have!

This same issue complicates even further because there is no option to delete the files from their hard drive location once they have been uploaded to Dropbox website directly and bypassing the desktop app. 

Note: Uploading from the desktop to the website doesn't allow cut and paste at all. Maybe the user wants to keep it and is only using Dropbox as backup, but at least give us the option to choose from the outset of the upload. Giving the option in the beginning of an upload to the website would be helpful because otherwise it has to be manually deleted, which is redundant work on the backend. 

What little bit of info the Getting Started guide provided, it failed to provide more basic instructions that would save users hours and make the process so much smoother to complete. I did learn that the circular arrows mean "updating", but again, this was after the fact. It was reassuring to know that it symbolized the files were being removed from the desktop in conjunction with my storage settings indicating the reduction of Dropbox storage on the hard drive. However, this was too little too late as I undo this problem into the wee hours of the night.

Adding the feature to choose online-only at the first creation of a new file on desktop, allowing the desktop option of managing hard drive space to also be available online, cut and paste to the website, and Safe Mode instructions for troubleshooting when hard drive is full would go a long way to make Dropbox a better product an easier for onboarding new users.

I truly hope these ideas get implemented and this forum is more than a soundboard for disgruntled users.

Thank you for your consideration of these suggestions.

[Nancy]

Thanks for sharing this detailed feedback, @Presto2024! I’ve shared it with our team as well, to have a look. 

Other than that, since I can see you have a few ideas outlined here, I’d recommend posting them separately in our Ideas section in the future, as it’s easier for our team to keep track of them, and our users to vote, as well. Here are some tips on how to do this.