My Dropbox files take up hard drive space from my Mac device.

[Essa2]

I have a shared storage space with colleagues at work, and the problem is that the space takes up the device’s space. I tried all the methods on the Internet to solve this problem and it did not work, knowing that my device is an Apple MacBook Pro.

[ashleyjoeann]

I've tried twice. Nothing's changed. Maybe the problem is not the application. I used the same application to log in to my old account, and it works fine.

[Nancy]

Hey again, @ashleyjoeann! What I’d like you to do next is to go to the Account tab of your desktop app preferences and send me a screenshot of what you see there (while hiding your email address).

I'll be able to investigate further after that.

[ashleyjoeann]

Hi, here you go.

[ashleyjoeann]

Hi @Nancy, any updates to this issue? Thanks.

[Mark]

Hi @ashleyjoeann 

As you are not on a paid account (the Lenovo one is a free one) and you are signing in and out are you moving the Dropbox directory to a different place on the Mac each time? I suspect that is why it isnt working as the cloud only sync needs to be in the specific place for it to work (Cloud Storage location). That would be why it works for one and not the other. 

Dropbox as a program isnt intended or designed to be signing in and out of all the time. 

[ashleyjoeann]

Hi @Mark,

Thank you for your input.

The Lenovo, although I'm on the 90-day free trial, it will start charging after the trial. But that's not the main point here, as online-only is available on the free plan as well.

I understand the Dropbox folder must be in the cloud storage location for online-only to work. There should be an option to update the Dropbox location to the cloud storage here:

"Learn more" should be the button "Update now" as I've seen it before.

I am curious as to why this new account does not have this option. Is it due to this account being created with the Lenovo ID and signed into Dropbox via Single Sign-On?

I do not intend to sign in and out all the time, but I had to do this to check due to this issue.

[Mark]

You can link two accounts together if one is a paid business one via https://help.dropbox.com/account-access/link-unlink-two-accounts

Note that it has to be a paid BUSINESS one (i.e. a minimum 3 user licence) to apply to that. 

Paid accounts dont. 

My suspicion is that as its not in the default Dropbox location its not working as it should. The software itself is working as its letting you do it on the default install one.

[ashleyjoeann]

Hi all,

Thank you for trying to help. I truly appreciate it, as I was really frustrated.

I seemed to have solved the problem. I suspected that my account was new and that the updates (Dropbox for macOS on File Provider) had not yet been rolled out to my account. This is just my suspicion.

So I went to Dropbox web > Settings > General > Preference and turned on 'Early access'. Then, I proceeded to quit and relaunch my Dropbox desktop application. To my surprise, the option to update the Dropbox folder actually showed up. After going through the updating process, my Dropbox folder is successfully transferred to the cloud storage location. 

Here's the latest screenshot of my Dropbox application 'Sync' tab.

 Now, I finally have the option to make my files online-only.

Thank you.