Re: Files automatically shifting to cloud only

Hi TimUnleashed, let's jump right into this! 

Can you clarify which version of the Dropbox app you're using, along with its syncing status? 

You should be able to locate both, by hovering your mouse over the little Dropbox icon, next to your WiFi on your task bar. 

Do you recall when this behavior started happening maybe?

Keep me posted!

Hey Megan,

Thanks!

Sure, the version is v185.4.6054 and the status is Up to Date.

This is a new PC so it's only been happening for a few days, since I installed.

I'm thinking that perhaps it might be constructive to uninstall Dropbox, delete all the files, then reinstall Dropbox and see if I end up with the same issue again. What do you think?

Hey TimUnleashed, thanks for letting me know.

It's interesting, because it's usually the other way around, and not folders/files becoming online-only. 

One more thing to check: if you open and check the folders that turn from available offline, to online-only what is the state of the files in them? How are they syncing? 

Hey Megan,

I should clarify. It's not that they have gone from being available offline, to not being available offline.

It's simply that they started out (on this install of Dropbox on this new PC) as being not available offline (because that appears to be the default settings when you install the app nowadays, I think?) and so I thought that going into settings and changing the default settings to what you see in my earlier screenshot, that this would trigger Dropbox to start making everything available offline.

When it didn't (and everything still appeared to be cloud-only), I then (in Windows Explorer) selected everything, right-clicked and told it to make available offline. It responds by starting to synch, but it then tells me it's done and it's only synched a few things.

So, when I go into a folder that looks like it's cloud-only, all the contents are also cloud-only, ie unchanged since the initial installation.

I should add that I've been a Dropbox user since back in the very early days, within a year or two of its creation I reckon, so very experienced with it, and this behaviour definitely just seems buggy.

Anything else you'd like me to do or check before I uninstall, delete files, reinstall, screenshot the default settings that appear when I install and screenshot the default file structure (cloud/offline) as it happens?

Oh, I see thank you for clarifying TimUnleashed! 

Let me clarify: the save hard drive space automatically feature, only applies to files and folders you haven't opened in quite some time, or with files that you add online, and that they sync locally to the device. 

As for you right clicking, and selecting for files/folders to be available offline, that was the right way to go on about it. It's odd though, that some of them didn't change.

If you try it in smaller batches, does it work? Let's go with 20 folders/files each time, for instance. 

Thanks Megan,

Understood.

Yes, if I select a single folder and right click etc to make it available offline it works.

But if I select all of them it just does some of them.

And based on the settings I've set, I shouldn't have to be doing it with any of them, right? It should be automatically happening with all of them.

Thanks.

Also, I just selected seven folders, right clicked and asked it to make them available offline and it looks like it's successfully synched all 7. So your batching idea does work.

What we're left with is that I can manually solve the problem, but the settings in the app doesn't appear to be doing anything 🙂

Hey TimUnleashed, just to clarify another thing, apart from the 'save hard drive space automatically' setting, the 'new files default' setting refers to new files that you will add from now on, either through the website or other linked devices.

So that wouldn't affect the files already in your Dropbox folder.

I'm glad to see that batch-switching the files from online-only to offline worked, though.

You can also try right-clicking the Dropbox folder itself and switching it to available offline; that should work as well.

If you need anything else, please let us know!

Hey Hannah,

Thanks. Yep, I understand the setting about new files only.

The point is that at no point did all of my existing files synch, even though all I ever tried to do was make that happen.

I did them all batch by batch last night, so can't test any further.

But I think the key take-away here is that the current Dropbox settings don't do what they say on the box. Bug report?

I'm using Windows 10 and having a very similar problem.  Trying to sync files to new computer.  Of the folders I selected in selective sync, one downloaded without a problem.  But several are not downloading at all and are still marked with the cloud icon in Explorer.  

I just tried selecting all, including the folders I wanted to keep cloud-only.  Files from the added folders started to sync, and the blue syncing icon appeared in Windows Explorer.  But nothing happened with the originally selected folders  And now all the folders have stopped syncing and the cloud icon has reappeared.  Dropbox now says "up to date."  I have plenty of space on my computer and in my Dropbox.

I've also been using Dropbox for years and I have never had this problem before.

My version, installed about a week ago, is v186.4.6207

Hey Martha G, sorry to see that you're having this issue.

If you right-click the Dropbox folder itself, and choose "make available offline" for the whole thing, what do you see?

Thank you, that has made a big difference -- Dropbox has now started downloading a lot of files.  It still says "up to date" and not all the folders have syncing icons, but none of them have cloud only icons any more.  So it looks like the problem is fixed.  Much appreciated!

Awesome news Martha G!

If you need anything else, just give us a shout! 😎

I recently noticed this problem as well. Set up a new computer, installed Dropbox, set it to make everything available offline, and then it doesn't. Right clicking on the root folder and making everything available seems to work to resolve the problem as all of the files start downloading - but this is a regression from previous behavior. 

I have some computers where online only makes sense, and others where I want a complete sync to a dedicated Dropbox storage drive. Please make this feature behave as it did in the past, I shouldn't have to ask twice (the advanced install step should honor my choice), and risk not having files available when I need them.