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nsbcmedia's avatar
nsbcmedia
Explorer | Level 4
8 years ago
Solved

Smart Sync Online Only Files still using disc space

I am using smart sync on multiple Macs, one running macos 10.12.6 and the other running macos 10.14, they both are showing my hard disks are almost full even though the majority of the files are set ...
sync
  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    8 years ago
    On the Smart Sync page, it states the following:
     
    “On APFS, the operating system takes snapshots of the file system and available hard drive space. These snapshots may not update after you've used Smart Sync to set Dropbox files as online only. This means that hard drive space you freed up with Smart Sync may not be immediately reflected or available if this snapshot hasn't updated.
     
    “This hard drive space should eventually be freed up by the OS, but the amount of time this will take can vary. This isn't a behavior specific to Dropbox, but instead the designed behavior of macOS.”
     
    If Apple didn’t suggest this possibility to you, then I’m not sure what else I can say. 
     
    Users have reported these issues in the past, however the problems went away, presumably because the snapshots of the hard drive changed, which are essentially Time Machine snapshots.
     
    This issue occurred even on older versions of macOS, and yet the issues stopped after some time.
     
    I can only recommend checking with Apple again, given this information.
ridgeway's avatar
ridgeway
Explorer | Level 4
8 years ago

If you're speaking to me, I have reached out, instructed me they couldn't help since I previously activated beta features - and to completely reinstall (wiped full reinstall as I've tried all of the above) on every device. Yes, I opted in for beta so I understand but opting back out and it being retroactive is kind of lame. Just hope this gets resolved soon. When I sync a new device I try to minimize even online-only files via selective sync, but even then it's happening just like the screencaps (very similar look on Windows 10 Pro latest build, and another macOS Sierra - not just Mojave). I do have nearly 125,000,000 files as it warns before doing selective sync (that anything greater than 500,000 will 'take a very long time to sync'). 

I did recently do a test on a fresh Windows 10 build which is very fast/brand new system designed for heavy CAD based workloads, and it took almost 24 hours just to index taking up quite a bit of resources given it was built to handle high IO and CPU usage - and that's also with a fiber connection and no other hardware bottlenecks that I'd be aware of aka 1Tb 970 M.2 with 16 core processor, more than enough RAM, etc. I'm going to start taking more detailed logs because I think it may be something to do with individual file/folder permissions as I've gotten some errors moving/deleting files regarding permissions (locally, not Dropbox - again I'm the main admin on our team).

Thanks in advance!

Jay's avatar
Jay
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
8 years ago
Are you referring to beta features on a Mac, like for a new version of Mojave? If so, this could also be a factor since the OS isn’t currently a fully tested or supported environment for the Dropbox desktop application.
 
Regardless, you have that many files, then it can take a bit of time for time for the files to index and sync down to your device, and the performance decreases as it needs to keep tabs on all those potential syncing files.
 
Let me know what you find out with the other issues you think could be the cause.
  • ridgeway's avatar
    ridgeway
    Explorer | Level 4
    8 years ago

    no, not mojave beta, jjust some of the business beta features (like smart sync, when it worked!). Among others like additional email which is cruical for me as I run the dropbox for technically 2 cascading companies / domains.

    • Jay's avatar
      Jay
      Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
      8 years ago
      Okay, I was under the impression you reached out to Apple directly since I referred to them in my reply.
       
      Keep me posted with any updates.
      • ridgeway's avatar
        ridgeway
        Explorer | Level 4
        8 years ago

        Did not mean to hijack this thread, but Apple actually replaced my whole logic board earlier this year (fully specced out late 2016 MBPtouchbar), and after the issue started coming up again just days after loading it on, discovered Dropbox sync was the issue with the kernal panics. However, I believe Dropbox and Apple pushed a fix for that issue. Still though, since then (as I'm getting close to being out of extened warranty) I have not reset/deleted whole dropbox directory after it stabalized. 

        Now, something I would consider (as I've helped other companies get setup with Dropbox Business) is getting the option to update to the new file system. It makes explaining how things work SO much better... and it's generally just better. Would even condsider moving everything to an on-prem server if the issue is that we're on legacy. Further, it would likely solve the issues I'm having.

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