Forum Discussion

Keith R.'s avatar
Keith R.
Explorer | Level 3
11 months ago

Why doesn't online-only work normally on my account?

This has been an ongoing issue. The DB tech support rep I talked to was utterly useless and keep telling me to use selective sync instead, which not only doesn't solve my problem (I WANT the file to ...
sync
Keith R.'s avatar
Keith R.
Explorer | Level 3
11 months ago

He doesn't believe me. :P

I explained when the issue happens:

1. On computer A, I put a large file (F) in my Dropbox through Win Explorer
2. On computer B, which has "online only" setting turned on, F will still get downloaded

Sure, I can right click on a folder and make it online-only. That is not the issue I'm having.

Jay's avatar
Jay
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
11 months ago

Is the file in a folder which is specifically marked to be available offline manually from the Dropbox folder in Explorer? 

This overrides the setting in the Dropbox desktop application.

  • Keith R.'s avatar
    Keith R.
    Explorer | Level 3
    11 months ago

    Well, its not "specifically marked" that. It just is that, because that's the default state for folders and files that get added to Dropbox from Win Explorer.

    So Dropbox must think, "File F is available offline on computer A. Therefore, it should be offline on computer B as well."

    That basically means that "online only" is only relevant to files added through the browser. It doesn't consider whether a file will be newly added to the current device. That is bad design, I have to say.

    • Rich's avatar
      Rich
      Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
      11 months ago
      Keith R. wrote:

      So Dropbox must think, "File F is available offline on computer A. Therefore, it should be offline on computer B as well."

      No. More like "File F is syncing to a folder on computer B that's available offline, therefore the file within that folder should be available offline as well."

      Set the folder to be Online-only on computer B and then add a file to that same folder on computer A and see if you get the same results.

      • Keith R.'s avatar
        Keith R.
        Explorer | Level 3
        11 months ago

        Same difference. The point is that 1) File F is new on computer B, 2) File F is still syncing despite "online only" being checked. Therefore, the setting is meaningless outside of files added directly to dropbox.com through the browser or mobile, apparently.

        I can't run that test because Dropbox doesn't display RMB context menus on my computer B. Tried to fix it countless times and nothing has worked. Super frustrating.

        But, yeah, I understand that if those menus were actually available, I'd be able to set it to Online only to prevent syncing.

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!