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Forum Discussion
Why when I open an online-only file it turns the whole folder into available offline?
I've online only as the default for all my files, when I open a file in one of my folder all of the other files in that folder became offline only, I have to manually turn the folder into online only everytime I finished viewing a file which is tedious, why can't I turn all of my files to be permanently online only?
4 Replies
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- Mark
Super User II
why can't I turn all of my files to be permanently online only?
Because as you open a file it has to download to be viewed locally by whatever program you are using to view it.
Unfortunately then it doesnt manually go back to online only at present. It may be worth suggesting that as a feature via Ideas | The Dropbox Community.
- Rich
Anytime an online-only file is accessed, Dropbox needs to download it back to the computer so it can be opened. When it does this the file will be marked as Available. This isn't just when you open a file, but when anything attempts to access a file. It could be a virus scan, backup process, your OS loading thumbnails, etc. If something tries to access a file, Dropbox is instructed to download it.
why does when I open something in a folder all of the other file also get downloaded? I thought it should only apply to the file I'm viewing. So the only thing I can do is turn the files into only again after I view it every single time?
- Mark
It shouldnt apply to the whole folder just the individual file. Unless Windows is trying to do something to the files and say updating the Meta data of last modified etc. - any changes to a file causes it to download.
I cant test anything as Im on a Mac, but, thats how it should work.
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