Smart sync on all computers ??

Hi exx, is this in all folders in random locations, or for specific folders?

to all folders i set like only online

If the files are download as local, then there must be an app or service that is attempting to access the files.

Do you go into an app and then navigate to an online-only folder within that app to open a file?

nope...

just opened laptop and dropbox started to synconize ignorig all settings

Hey again, exx. 

Can you let me know what’s the current syncing status of your desktop app? If it’s not up to date, but still syncing, I’d like you to let it finish syncing first, and then try to make some of your files online-only once more, as a test. 

Does the setting work now or does the app download your files again automatically?

I am having the same issue with 2 of my computers. I set the files on computer to online only and in the admin cons. but it keep downloading ALL of drop box items to each computer maxing out my computers mem.

did you ever find a solution??

Can one of the experts please explain what to do from scratch in this common situation, where a person uses Dropbox alternatively between a desktop and a lower-memory laptop, or a home desktop and an office one?  I'll use my case as an example.  (The documentation is confusing, to say the least.)

I have been keeping video (ipso facto, large) files out of my Dropbox folder to keep them from syncing to my laptop; I used my iMac's Desktop instead.  Then I saw about Backup, which is device-specific, so no chance things will go afield.  Thus are the videos (and other things) more secure now, I'm happy to report.  But then I learned that you can't share items (with a URL link) from within a backed-up folder.  The stated reason is, to keep you from sharing something accidentally!  Nonsense.  Then why allow it from anywhere?  (Now, I suppose there might be people who welcome such a feature, for state secrets or such, but for them there should be a separate function.  Call it Lock and Key, or The Dungeon, or something, but not Backup!)  It seems to me that allowing sharing from folders within Backup would solve the problems that the original poster and other respondents have had, clean as a whistle.

Meanwhile, what do I do?  Say, I have just created a video on my desktop computer, one I want to be able to share by and by.  I do not want it to ever go on my Dropbox-enabled laptop.  But there are many files in my Dropbox folder I do want to sync on both devices.  That is to say, if I modify it on one device, the other will soon sync to that version.  Please talk to me like I'm seven years old.  Many thanks.      

Hi Norfolk VHF, I hope you’re doing well!

One option I can think of, in this scenario, is to go to the computer on which you don’t want your video file to sync and change your Dropbox app preferences, so that new files that are being added to it by the web/another device sync as online-only automatically. 

You can find the exact steps on how to do this here. 

After that, you can upload a copy of your video to your Dropbox account from your other device (outside of your backed up folders) and share it with the users you want. 

This way, you can share your file without having it take up space from your second computer.

I hope this helps, but let me know in case I misunderstood something.

Thanks.  Sequestering the oversized files (on my Desktop) the way I did was the best move.  I learned that I can share a given video with Dropbox outside of my Dropbox folder.  Thus will I work ad hoc.  I now have the URL I wanted and can share it with a specific person, who can even watch it right there on Dropbox's player!  I have my master copy of the video; it is backed up now for safety on DB's Backup; but I also now have the option of sharing it to a selected audience; all with no chance it can make its way into my laptop.  It's an extra step, though, and I still think they should make stuff in a Backup folder shareable directly.  

To answer Nancy:  except for oversized video or wav/aif audio files, I want everything on my desktop available on my laptop.  If I edit on one computer, it updates the same file on the other.  That is one of DB's most valuable features.  I believe that if I followed your suggestion, I would lose that functionality, at least with new files.  Please correct me if I am mistaken. 

As I have said in every posting here, if they just made Backup files shareable, all these issues would disappear, because it is device-specific. 

Hi Norfolk VHF, if the files are marked as online-only, then you'd see the name of the file in your Dropbox folder, but it physically wouldn't take up any space on your laptop. Local files however, would sync normally.

You could also use selective sync (which is device specific) to prevent entire folders to sync to your device, so if the large videos are there, you could use the desktop app to prevent them from syncing to your laptop.

Both respondents are linking to documentation which, as I said at the beginning, we find inscrutable.  And if so many people are having problems, it is doubtless because they failed to implement some necessary step correctly.  We need guidance as found in one of those YouTube how-to videos!