Forum Discussion

donoharm's avatar
donoharm
Explorer | Level 3
2 years ago

How do I stop Dropbox from auto moving files to online-only?

Last night, I accidentally caused my disk free space to go below 5GB. Dropbox decided to silently move all files to cloud and deleted all local copies, keeping just "links" (names a cloud+downward ar...
desktop
Mac
sync
Walter's avatar
Walter
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
2 years ago

The default setting is the policy that will be followed for your files in the Dropbox folder donoharm 

 

The part that says it won't affect new files is referring to the online only option.

 

For more information about the version of the desktop app you're using, you can have a look here.

 

I hope this helps!

donoharm's avatar
donoharm
Explorer | Level 3
2 years ago

What do you recommend I change then?

That "How do you want to store new files?" I don't think it works. I immediately changed that setting after discovering the problem, but dropbox was still removing the files in front of my eyes. I clicked download, dropbox removed it a bit later. That's why I concluded that setting was the one.

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

    donoharm, can you clarify how much available space there is currently on your hard drive?

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

      It shouldn't matter. Dropbox shouldn't auto-remove files from your hard drive. In my case I have 100+ GB available but even so I when i re-visit old files I see I have to redownload them which is very frustrating to the point I may cancel my subscription.

      • GenghisDaniel's avatar
        GenghisDaniel
        New member | Level 2
        7 months ago

        I agree with dgoomany, I ended up discovering that Dropbox was deleting files that were supposed to be stored on my computer when I was short on disk space. Even if the default option selected in the preferences was the locally stored option.

        I do not know if it happened after a update of the app, provoking the app to lose the option.

        But it does not matter, I agree with dgoomany, Dropbox should never be allowed to delete files on my computer even if I have only 1 mb left on it. I want to be the only one to decide which files to delete when my hard drive is full.

        So please reassure us that you will make changes that will prevent it from happening, because you did not really respond to dgoomany remark.

About Create, upload, and share

Find help to solve issues with creating, uploading, and sharing files and folders in Dropbox. Get support and advice from the Dropbox Community.

The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X, Facebook or Instagram.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!