Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨💻? Find out how to check here.
Forum Discussion
Re: Best way to stop my Dropbox desktop app from removing local files?
I think they stay there. That was never a problem before. I’ll watch to see what happens.
They do sync from other devices.
I’m still curious whether I should have Dropbox system extension turned off? There seems to be some redundancy that I don’t quite understand.
8 Replies
Replies have been turned off for this discussion
- Nancy
Dropbox Community Moderator
For now, I'd suggest leaving the extension enabled, as is.
In case your files return back to online-only though, without you taking any actions on your end, please let us know and we’ll be happy to look into this further.
I have the extension turned off now.
Is there a good reason to leave the desktop extension enabled? I can’t see the use case.
- Megan
Hi TomMunch!
Essentially, the Dropbox system extension is required in order to make your files and folders online-only.
Being opted-out of the system extension may also mean that if you have existing placeholder files (files with the grey cloud icon) and try to open them by double-clicking the file, you may see an error. You can ultimately open these files by right-clicking on them and choosing 'Make Available Offline'.
To use online-only files, you will need to enable installation of the system extension. You can see more about that here.
For macOS 11 (Big Sur) or above, you no longer need to install the system extension.
If you need something else, please let me know and I will be more than happy to help every step of the way.
Okay, I'm macOS Tahoe, so I don't need it turned on anyway? How does that change the behavior of Dropbox then?
- Nancy
Since you’re using macOS Tahoe, then the system extension isn’t applicable to you indeed, as mentioned in the Help Center article Megan linked above.
If your sync preferences are set to make files available offline by default, as demonstrated here, then you should be all set.
Great! Thanks for the clarification!
About View, download, and export
Need support with viewing, downloading, and exporting files and folders from your Dropbox account? Find help from the Dropbox Community.
