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BrightDarkness's avatar
BrightDarkness
Explorer | Level 4
4 months ago

Do NTFS hardlinks within the Dropbox folder increase storage?

Dropbox Plan Plus Operating System/Browser (if using the web) Windows 11 Question or Issue I need a certain structure in Dropbox. I have a folder called "Library", with lots of music i...
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Mark's avatar
Mark
Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
4 months ago
BrightDarkness wrote:

But how does Dropbox deal with it when uploaded?

Dropbox will probably ignore it I'm afraid. 

Dropbox only sync's what is actually inside of the Dropbox folder and ignores any links. While I'm sure it wont do it, previously when links did work, Dropbox did follow them and uploaded them - so using 100gb of space. 

https://help.dropbox.com/sync/symlinks 

BrightDarkness's avatar
BrightDarkness
Explorer | Level 4
4 months ago

Hey, thanks for the answer. I was testing out a bunch of stuff. I am not using any symlinks. I'm using hardlinks. Two hardlinks point to the exact same location on the physical disc; and it seems the storage does go up as Dropbox sees them as two different files. šŸ˜•

  • Megan's avatar
    Megan
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    4 months ago

    Hey BrightDarknessā€‹, thanks for posting here today! 

    I am afraid hardlinks are not directly supported by Dropbox, but you can still use them if they work for you.

    As for the storage, I'd have to confirm what you already mentioned. Dropbox will individually count them as individual files. 

    If you have any questions, don't hesitate to let me know. 

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