Online-Only Not Working?

Thank you for confirming.

This has indeed now finished uploading, four days later...

We plan on using Dropbox to store all our files and work on everything using Dropbox as our main storage source with everything set to 'Online-only'.

Since it's taken so long just to upload these files, can we expect this sort of speed day to day when working on them? While I understand there are restrictions in terms of upload speeds etc, this could throw a spanner in the works in terms of our working processes.

Glad to hear that and thanks for the update KeyBlue! 

Now, in regards to your concern, note that syncing your files can take time if you have many or large files. Just because the files have been placed into the Dropbox folder doesn't mean the syncing has completed. You need to be patient and let the files sync -exactly as you did!

Moreover, kindly note that the Dropbox servers do not set caps on the upload or download speeds from the Desktop client, but file sync is a complicated process that includes more than just the transfer of the data as each file is divided and compressed into hashed components, transferred via secure data transfer, and then encrypted and stored on our servers. During an upload, the transfer speeds are also dependent upon how quickly your computer can process and compress the components of the files to make them available for upload.

The Dropbox client will also batch upload smaller files into batches of 800 files. If you have 800 * 1 kB files the effective batch that's sent to Dropbox will be 800 kB in size. You may commonly see this behavior when Dropbox first starts syncing as the client starts with smallest files first and then progresses to larger files.

Thus, the initial sync of your data is going to be the most time and resource intensive period. However, the more you use Dropbox the more efficient syncing becomes:

• Once you upload a file to Dropbox, you never need to upload it again.
• When editing large files, the Dropbox app attempts to sync only the blocks of the file that have changed.

Bear in mind that the actual sync speed you see may not match these speeds directly as we are including the hash, compression, and encryption process in our aggregate kB/s speed (that is kiloBYTEs not kilobits per second).

I hope this information clarifies matters further and I remain at your disposal should you have any more questions! 

Hi @Walter

I can see this happening now . v e r y   s l o w l y . 

As both KeyBlue and I are raising this an issue caused by migration between computers and I note that other comments elsewhere are also experiencing this level of uncertainty in either an adoption or migration scenario....may I suggest a feature request?

• At the very basic level why not have a "Pending" icon that lets your users know that something is actually happening and that we have to wait
• At a more sophisticated level perhaps a more detailed reporting interface that details the queue. 
• Or maybe something more innovative that the the DropBox developers can come up with.

Thanks

Yaron

Following on from my question... Say two users are working on a project together. User one finishes working on a file so that user two can work on it next, how does user two know when the file has finished syncing and is ready for them to begin work?

Another issue I have found is how long Dropbox takes to start... I've been online 30 minutes now and it still says 'starting'. Well I'm ready to start now, I can't wait for Dropbox to catch up.

EDIT: One and a half hours, still 'Starting'...

Thanks for your updates and happy Monday fellas!

farmeron  : Thanks for your feedback on this one - I'm passing it on to our dev team for future consideration. 

KeyBlue : The syncing of your edits should be instant in this case (assuming that your desktop app is working properly that is) so this shouldn't be an issue.

As per your desktop app, as you mentioned it's stuck at starting, could you see if there's an antivirus, a firewall or even a VPN/proxy setting that might be preventing our app from connecting to the internet normally? 

Let me know of any updates!

Thanks for your reply Walter. No antivirus, firewall or VPN, just a clean Mac connected at 200mbps.

Thanks

Another day another problem... The main Mac we were using to upload the data has finished uploading, syncronising has stopped, yet the hard drive says '750GB free' yet also shows nearly the whole hard drive as full? I thought when files have finished syncronising with 'online-only' selected they're removed?

This is a fresh Mac, not much else on it, no weird third-party file management software, what's going on?

(I have tried uploading a jpg screenshot but I get the message 'An Unexpected Error has occurred.').

Thanks for letting me know about this KeyBlue  - could you try attaching the screenshot from the 'Photos' button directly above your reply (as you write it)? Alternatively, you could upload them to your Dropbox account and share a link to it (or them). 

In the meantime, note that there are various places to see the size of a file in Finder. Some of these locations will display the logical size, others the physical size. A Smart Sync placeholder takes up approximately 0kb, this is the pysical size. The logical size of the file is the actual size of the file, if it were downloaded to the device.

To see both the logical and physical file size:
- Right click on a file/folder
- Select 'Get info'
- In the properties window you will see the original file size, followed by the actual on-disk size

For example:428,510 bytes (0 KB on disk)

It is important to be able to view both sizes, not just to reassure you that the file is not taking up space, but also to understand the space and speed implications of returning the file(s).

In other views of Finder, the operating system will report the logical size. For this reason you shouldn't be concerned if it initially appears that the placeholder is taking up space. To confirm the file or folder is not taking up space, please check via the above steps. Files that are not taking up space on disk will have an icon overlay that changes from the usual green tick to the grey cloud icon, denoting that the file isn't locally present.

Please note that third party disk management software may not read the physical size of a Smart Sync placeholder, therefore that software may not correctly report disk usage.

I hope this information helps to some extent while I'll also wait for your screenshot(s) so we can have a further view into this. 

Hi Walter

I get it now and indeed the Online Only files do show a physical size of ZERO. However when checking available capacity of my 500gb drive under About this Mac, Storage and then drilling down to storage management the Mac OS shows over 50% of the drive is filled with "Documents". Many of these are Online Only files with a Physical Size of Zero, probably about 50Gb in total.

This is very misleading but also begs the question as to how the MacOS will handle its available storage logic when I start adding to the drive?

Thanks for the follow up farmeron  - I appreciate it. 

This has been extensively discussed on the thread I'm linking below so feel free to take a look there as well for more information:

https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Syncing-and-uploads/Smart-Sync-still-taking-up-local-space/td-p/284499/page/11

Let me know if there's anything else I can do from my end to help too!

Still no luck on uploading images unfortunately.

The latest error I have is - All folders are set to 'online-only' in preferences, but I am still finding some folders with the green tick saying 'Local'.

Why si this happening?

Probably for the reasons mentioned in my second reply here on this thread KeyBlue!

Can you not right click on them to set them to be "Online only"? 

Any additional information will be much appreciated.  

Hi Walter,

I can right click and make them online-only, but I want them online-only all the time?

What if I am working on a file that says 'local' while another team member opens that same file on Dropbox before I've right clicked and chosen 'online-only'?

Surely then we'll have two different versions of the same file locally?

Is there a way for the other user to know I am working on a file which I have locally?

In that case, I think you'd be interested in the Dropbox Badge  as you're correct to think that the flow you described would possibly generate conflicted files KeyBlue.

If you are sharing the data between computers you must NOT run the application on more than one computer at a time as this will generate file conflicts and other problems.

Thus, the pattern needs to be:

1. Let files sync
2. Start application
3. Save files
4. Quit application
5. Repeat on different computers.

One workaround that can be used to prevent conflicted copies is to move the file out of the Dropbox folder while editing it. Doing this causes the file to appear as deleted and doesn't allow other users to edit the file. Once you're done editing, you can move the file back into its original location in the Dropbox folder. It will reappear with your edits for all users who have access to that file.

The other option would be to move it to a second folder designated for "In Use" files. Other members of the shared folder can still access it if they need to, but will know not to make changes.

Let me know if this helps!

PS: If you're working on Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, or Excel files and you'd like to turn the Badge on, take a look below :wink:

https://www.dropbox.com/help/business/badge-on-off

Thanks for your reply. That's really not an ideal workflow for a company of our size.

Dropbox was supposed to take over from our current workflow of using physical servers where all files are stored in just one place and there's no copying and pasting locally or turning apps on and off.

Is there another way?

Could this thread also be turned back to 'Unsolved' as none of my issues mentioned are currently fixed.

Thanks for the follow up KeyBlue  - I've gone aheead and un-accepted the solution on this thread and I'll leave it up to you moving forward. 

Now, as I'd like to look into your current setup to provide further assistance on this, may I reach out via email to your Dropbox associated address so we can work on this together? 

Let me know here and we'll take it from there. Thank you. 

Ha, Having the same problem good to see sort of a resolution to this issue 

Sorry to hear about this and apologies for the late reply dfloring.

Now, so as to have a better view of the matter at hand, could you elaborate on the problem you're having by providing information about your setup (device's OS, version of our app etc.)?

Thanks in advance!

Hi, 

I'm having issues wih this, my computer is now completely full even though I started with 'online only' from the beginning. I have manually set everything to online only again, and now my computer wont even sync because the dropbox took up all of my disk space. 

Help? I really need the space and need my files to be "online only", and it seems like the dropbox app doesn't want to work that way. 

Hi DianaWilliams; sorry to hear about this.

Can you let me know your computer's exact OS and where you've spotted the discrepancy you mentioned? If possible, please send me a screenshot as well.

While at it, what's the desktop app's exact status as shown within your computer's system tray/menu bar? 

Let me know what you find and we'll take it from there Diana!