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How long can Smart Sync take to free up space when marking files as Online Only?
how long does it take to sync files to online only vs my hard drive? Approx 247 GB
Walter
Dropbox Community Moderator
Dropbox Community ModeratorThanks for the extra details there Etwhalen9090.
I'm afraid you lost me now :scream_cat:
Can you take a look at the Dropbox icon in your taskbar (Windows) or menu bar (Mac) and see if it is done syncing?
When Dropbox is fully synced then you should see a tick followed by the words “Up to date” on the menu. If you do not see this then can you please let me know what the message being displayed reads?
In addition, as I'm still unsure about this, could you send me screenshot of the following so I can have a visual to better advise as to what the next steps should be?
Etwhalen9090 wrote:
It looks like I have the green check marks, but that's only showing the last 30 days. When I look at the files actually on my DB folder on my laptop, they are all still there, which is my main concern, and those I have to upload to the cloud manually at this point.
Thanks!
- Walter
Thanks for those Etwhalen9090 - they're really helpful!
If you're on a plan that offers Smart Sync, just right (or control) click on the folders you'd like to mark as Online Only and set them as such.
If, on the other hand, you'd like to utilize the selective sync feature which helps free up space on a computer, you'll need to mark the folders you'd like to remove from your computer's hard drive (in this case you won't see them at all on your computer, in your Dropbox Folder - they'd only be accessible through the website) to be removed from within the desktop app's preferences and, specifically, through the Sync tab.
After you're done with this, make sure to give enough time to our app to perform those changes until it reports to be 'Up to date'.
Let me know how it goes!
Hello again. I do have Dropbox Plus, so I can use the selective sync feature. I am doing it on one laptop at the moment, and it seemed to be finished really fast. How can I make sure the files are all online before I delete from the hard drive? Then I can repeat the process on my other laptop.
Thanks for all your help.
- Daphne
Thanks for getting back to us here Etwhalen9090!
Before removing the folder with Selective Sync, if the desktop app is showing "Up to date" then syncing should be complete and everything should be available online.
If you'd just like to double check, you can go to the folder and make sure that it's showing the :white_check_mark: icon too.
When you apply Selective Sync it should remove the folder locally automatically.
If you're referring to Smart Sync, the files will show a grey cloud icon to show they are not taking space on your hard drive. In this case, you don't need to delete the file from your Dropbox folder as doing so would remove it from your account.
I hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions - cheers!
