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simonraybould's avatar
simonraybould
New member | Level 2
2 years ago
Solved

Can I unsync folders with selective sync, but keep their names in the Dropbox folder?

Hi all.

I'm short of space on my hard drive so obviously I'm going to use selective sync to reduce the folders/files that are stored on there. My understanding is that folders I chose to keep on my hard drive exist in two places - on the harddrive and on the dropbox servers so I'm radically hacking away at the folders I want to keep on my computer and leaving the rest only on Dropbox's servers.

 

So far so good.

 

However, that seems to mean I can only access files that aren't selected for syncing but going to dropbox.com. What I'd ideally like is a way of storing the files/folders on dropbox's servers but keeping a 'shadow' of them on my hard drive, to navigate via Finder (I'm on a Mac) as though they were on my hard drive, so that I can access them by clicking on them and they'd (download and) open as though they were on my drive.

Have a missed something obvious 'cos I can't see a way!

desktop
Storage space
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  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    2 years ago

    Hi simonraybould, when you edit a file that is online-only, the file would sync to your computer so that you can view or edit it. 

     

    Once you save the file, like a normal local file, it would sync those changes to the site.

     

    If you have any further queries, feel free to message back.

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  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
    2 years ago
    @simonraybould wrote:

    However, that seems to mean I can only access files that aren't selected for syncing but going to dropbox.com.

    That is correct. When you uncheck a folder in Selective Sync, it's removed from the local drive.

     

    What I'd ideally like is a way of storing the files/folders on dropbox's servers but keeping a 'shadow' of them on my hard drive ...

    What you're looking for is the ability to mark files or folders as Online-only.

     

  • simonraybould's avatar
    simonraybould
    New member | Level 2
    2 years ago

    Cheers!  I did wonder if that was it. Obviously when I access those files they're downloaded and take up space (d'oh!) for the duration of time I'm editing them etc. Can I confirm that when I've finished editing them (and close? delete?) the syncing means that the new version is stored online?

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    2 years ago

    Hi simonraybould, when you edit a file that is online-only, the file would sync to your computer so that you can view or edit it. 

     

    Once you save the file, like a normal local file, it would sync those changes to the site.

     

    If you have any further queries, feel free to message back.

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