You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.

Forum Discussion

jgaddy's avatar
jgaddy
New member | Level 2
8 years ago

Removing Downloaded Dropbox files from Computer

Hi,

 

I am currenlty running into a problem where all of my dropbox files are being held in both dropbox.com and on my computer. As of now i have it set up where i can do to my documents and select dropbox and ADD or Remove files there as well as edit. It functions just as any folder.

 

I am wanting to know how I can choose what is stored on my computer and what is stored in the cloud. My family photos are taking up 30GB's of space on my computer and are also in dropbox. Is there are way to have them only be thumbnails on my computer unless I clikc on them?

 

Thanks

  • The new Professional plan offers the Smart Sync feature which allows you to specify that files and folders are only stored on the cloud, but still accessible on the computer.

     

    If you have Basic or Plus, you can use Selective Sync to remove the local copy of a folder from your computer, leaving it in your account online, but it would only be accessible through the Dropbox website at that point.

  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II

    The new Professional plan offers the Smart Sync feature which allows you to specify that files and folders are only stored on the cloud, but still accessible on the computer.

     

    If you have Basic or Plus, you can use Selective Sync to remove the local copy of a folder from your computer, leaving it in your account online, but it would only be accessible through the Dropbox website at that point.

    • MaxH42's avatar
      MaxH42
      Helpful | Level 6

      But I've seen other users state that if you use Selective Sync you will not be able to view thumbnails of your images. Can anyone verify that? I would upgrade from Plus to Pro in a second if I could get thumbnails. My huge folders of images are my biggest issue that I hoped Selective Sync could solve, but without thumbnails I might as well browse my unsynced folders on the web. Or better yet, browse my photos on Flickr, since you get 1TB of uploads for free.

      • Mark's avatar
        Mark
        Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
        Selective Sync removes everything from the local machine - so that folder and directory will not exist on it at all. So, no, you wont be able to view thumbnails.