Forum Discussion

metric's avatar
metric
Explorer | Level 3
6 years ago
Solved

Can I remove files from my computer but not delete them?

How can I remove files/folders from my pc but leave them on the web to be accessable from my pc and othe devices? metric

  • Selective sync is under the Sync tab in the Preferences on the dropbox pc app.
    You can't get to it from the right click menu in a file browser.

    In your preferences you can untick any folders you want to not synch to this computer.
    This allows them to not be downloaded to your current computer to save space but they are still available online and on any other computers you have that sync them.

  • Lusil's avatar
    Lusil
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    Hey there metric
     
    If you want to remove content from your Dropbox folder but not from your account or other connected devices, you can selectively sync it. You can find more info on this here
     
    Hope this helped!
    • metric's avatar
      metric
      Explorer | Level 3

      Thank you Lusll, but where do I find selective sync?

      • Kyrre's avatar
        Kyrre
        New member | Level 2

        Selective sync is under the Sync tab in the Preferences on the dropbox pc app.
        You can't get to it from the right click menu in a file browser.

        In your preferences you can untick any folders you want to not synch to this computer.
        This allows them to not be downloaded to your current computer to save space but they are still available online and on any other computers you have that sync them.

  • mfbranden's avatar
    mfbranden
    New member | Level 2

    Cleaning off my computer to sell. All files backed up to Dropbox but my files on my computer hard drive still indicate that they are in drop box. How do I erase them on my computer but keep them in Drop box? Do I take Drop box off the computer before deleting the files? 

  • skyhunter's avatar
    skyhunter
    New member | Level 2

    Recently I got this alert from Dropbox that it's experiencing some issues and that before I open online-only files, I need to right click on those and make them available offline. Which I did whenever I needed a specific file. At some point, I disabled Dropbox on startup and would need to manually open it to sync files. A few days later, syncing started from 1GB to 100GB of file sizes and I had to pause that. I asked the team if anyone had been getting such a huge amount of files and seems no one was. I then left it to resume syncing only to get the alert "Can't sync. Not enough free disk space." And checking my drive, it's red and left with only 1GB. How can I successfully clear the space without deleting any file?

    • Hannah's avatar
      Hannah
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

      Hey skyhunter, sorry to hear about this situation.

       

      Have you tried to make the fully synced files online-only ever since this happened?

       

      You should also be able to right-click the entire Dropbox folder and make it online-only.

       

      Let me know how it goes.

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