What happens when I delete files and folders?

Hi newtonprints, thanks for messaging the Community!

If you delete a file from your Dropbox folder, this deletion will sync to the site, and also remove the file from other computers and devices. 

If you need to free up space, you could mark files as available online-only, or by using selective sync.

If you need any further assistance, please let me know!

so how do people get to have complete backups done?

I have a 2TB dropbox, but my computer is only 1TB, I want everything backed up (phone #1 500GB, phone #2 250GB, computer  1TB, etc) but my computer can't handle all of that, obviously.

Are you able to tell / show / diagram the steps that once I have what I want to keep on the computer, the rest can be kept and accesible on the dropbox?

Could you clarify what you mean by backing up your phone? Are you referring to camera uploads? 

Are you also looking to backup your entire computer, or just the files in the Dropbox folder?

Yes, I have my phone's pics backed up to the dropbox, not just the camera uploads, but I also make many folders which separate the photos by category, event, dates or what have you.

On the computer I have just certain folders backing up, but it's put a copy of everything on my actual computer in the dropbox folder.

I'm relatively new to dropbox as I found out iCloud was a waste of time and money, because if I deleted off the phone, it deleted from the cloud as well. Now I can free up my phone space by backing up to dropbox and deleting from phone, but now that has moved the storage problem from the phones to my computer.

So I want to know how to delete folders from the dropbox computer location and still have them in the cloud and accessible when I need them, whether it's via the phone or computer.

Have you tried using this feature to mark files on your computer as available online-only, so they don't take up space on your machine?

I cannot see where to mark folders as online only or offline

And if I switch to online only, will it automatically delete it from my hard drive?

The files will still appear in Explorer, but they won't take up any space on your device.

What Dropbox options do you see when you right click a file or folder in the Dropbox folder?

Oh! I found that option!

Once I do that, does it automatically come off my hard drive?

Sorry to jump in here, newtonprints.

Indeed, when you set a file to "online-only", it stops taking up space on your hard drive.

It doesn't get completely removed, you'll still see it if you're connected to the internet, but it will just be a placeholder file, with no physical space.

I hope this helps!

OK I did that to all the folders that I needed to, restarted my computer but the space on the computer did not change