Is it possible to have some files as online-only and others as available offline?

[xmontero]

Hi all

• I use a Plus account (2TB dropbox space)
• I am currently syncing the desktop app on a 1TB drive.
• It seems that currently all of my dropbox files are synced on top of the hard disk. consuming too much space.

I want to move only part of my content to "online-mode" (infrequently accessed files) and keep the daily-access files on the physical disk.

Given this structure:

Dropbox/folder-a - 1 GB

Dropbox/folder-b - 2 GB

Dropbox/folder-c - 4 GB

Dropbox/folder-d - 8 GB

Is it possible to have for example a and c accessible off-line (consuming disk space) while b and d are "not stored locally" so the total space consumed in Dropbox is 15 GB but the space actually consumed in the hard drive is 5 GB?

[Jay]

Hi @xmontero, thanks for contacting us!

Yes, this would be possible using two methods:

• You can mark entire folders as online-only, which means they don't take up space on your machine, but you can still see the folder structure.
• Another method is using selective sync, which will remove the folders entirely from your computer, so, they aren't visible in your structure, but they are still accessible from the site. 

Both features can be used at the same time, and serve different functions depending on your requirements.

If you need any further assistance, please let me know!

[xmontero]

Hi, Jay!

Thanks, I see this behaviour:

• I select a folder (say Cold Storage) and I right-click and select "Online only".
• The folder icon changes from the green check-mark into a gray cloud.
  • 
• Inside it I have placed a video, it's also marked as cloud:
  • 
• In git-bash, I navigate to the Drobox main folder, and I do an `ls -l` and it works normally:
  • 
• I then list the contents of that folder, also from gitbash. It "hangs" for a few seconds and it shows that Drobox starts syncronizing:
  • 
• After a few seconds, the bash command ends up writing the output and the file starts occupying the hard disk space again, according to its icon:
  • 

Questions are:

1. How is it possible that making an "ls" starts a download?
2. Even if `ls` forced a download for any extrange reason (which it should not), why it "switches my setting" instead of using the local copy temporarily instead of keeping the flag set?

I mean... it's undesirable that if I plan to store say 1 million files in the "cold storage", by doing an `ls -lR` to get the index of what's in there but actually not reading the files at all forces me to download the full "online-only folder" as well as having to "mark it again off-line" once the `ls -lR` finishes.

How can I have a "cold storage" that is "online only", for which I can list contents from the command line in windows, and without having to "set it over and over and over again" to "online-only"?

[Rich]

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@xmontero wrote:
How is it possible that making an "ls" starts a download?

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If an external program tries to access a file that's marked as Online-only, it could cause Dropbox to download it again. Dropbox has no control over this. It just knows that some program is trying to access a file, so it has to sync it so the file back local again.

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Even if `ls` forced a download for any extrange reason (which it should not), why it "switches my setting" instead of using the local copy temporarily instead of keeping the flag set?

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It does set it temporarily, sort of. The file doesn't get set back to Available Offline (solid green, white check). It's simply marked as Available (green outline, green check). This indicates a file that has been opened locally and been made available on the drive again. If you run low on drive space, Dropbox can make these files Online-only again to save space.

If doing an ls -lR in looking to display any information about a file that isn't stored locally, Dropbox will need to download the file so that data can be retrieved. There's no way around that.