Hard drive full of system data on macOS, how can I change it?

[1839744]

Dropbox eats up computer memory in the form of system data, although all folders are not set to "offline available", but can only be viewed online. How do I fix the problem?

The computer has 500 GB of hard disk space, 78 GB are my documents, 53 GB are apps, macOS 20 GB and 340 GB (!) of system data.

The computer's memory is actually full, and the memory for system data keeps growing as soon as I delete files. Some new files cannot be saved (simple text documents) because there is supposedly not enough memory.

I hope someone can help me…!

[Jay]

Hi @1839744, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Could you confirm the exact version of the Dropbox desktop application and Mac OS that you're running?

Have you already tried rebooting the machine entirely?

This will help me to assist further!

[1839744]

Hello, thank you for your reply. I use MacOS 14.5 and Dropbox was installed 21. Februar 2023, but and the version number is 199.4.6287

[Hannah]

Thanks, @1839744, can you confirm that you've rebooted your computer, like Jay suggested, to see if that helps?

[1839744]

Yes, I rebooted the computer several times, and unfortunately I have this problems since a week!

[VirageSonore]

I have the exact same thing. Talked to someone on the support, for hours, checking the files and, in the end, they are going to see with a "dropbox specialist" and I'm waiting for them to get back to me.
In our case, we have 361Gb of system data taken on our 500Gb hard drive. We are working with videos and it's becoming impossible to even have videos on our hard drive.

Back then, I heard there was a dropbox cache that people could delete, but since there a new "File Provider".... My feeling is that now, whatever was in the cache is not accessible.... If anyone knows what to do, I'll be happy to hear about it. 

[1839744]

That sounds like the same case. I also had at least 200 GB of data in my Dropbox. If these and the backup files and cashes are stored in the system data, this explains the approx. 350 GB of "system data", which are actually Dropbox cashes. As a normal user, I can't delete anything in the system data. Now the question is how to delete these cashes. Please write when you have made progress in your case.

[Hannah]

Hey again, @1839744, are you also using the File Provider version of the Dropbox app?

And @VirageSonore, can you give us the ticket number for your communication with our support team, so we can check it out?

[1839744]

@Hannah @Hannah

yes, I think so. If I click on the sidebar in the Finder window, there appears a file with "Agencyname Dropbox". I can use it like a normal file, but if I need files, I have to make them "offline avaiable" first.

[Nancy]

@1839744, sorry for jumping in.

Can you please double check what Hannah asked above about being on File Provider and let me know if that’s indeed the case? 

You can verify this via the Sync tab of your app preferences. What’s the Dropbox folder location you see?

Keep me posted.