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Dropbox cache maybe not emptying and I can't find the Dropbox cache folder on Mac
UPDATE: I rewrote the post as I gathered more information. I'm a MacBook Pro 2019 user, OS Sonoma 14.2.1. I don't know where to retrive my Dropbox version, but it should be up to date as I alway...
Here I report the solution I have come up with.
I found out this similar post, then I installed CleanMyMac and tried a Space Lens scan. I found the most of the weight was located at this path:
Library -> Group Containers folder -> G7HH3F8CAK.com.getdropbox.dropbox.sync
and further down till the file_clones folder. I searched for what is this on the net and I found this other post. I still don't fully understand what this folder contains, but I deleted its content. The used space immediately plummeted from 222 GB to 123 GB, and all run smoothly since.
Now, while this seems to work, there are many things that puzzle me:
1. What this folder is? What does it contains?
2. CleanMyMac quantified its content as 379 GB. Indeed, in manually deleting its content I counted dozens and dozens and dozens of GB. But how can this folder contain such a huge amount of files if my hard disk has a total size of 250 GB?
3. Why doesn't this folder empty automatically? This sounds like a bug to me.
Thanks,
Vanni
Also, I would like to know how to manage the Dropbox cache.
Hannah
Dropbox Community Moderator
Dropbox Community ModeratorHey vrovera, can you give us some clarifications as to how you'd like to manage your Dropbox cache?
Hi Hannah, in general I would like to manage it some way. I mean, until not long ago I could locate the cache folder and empty it if necessary, a useful thing I did a few times in the past. If this is no longer possible, a useful alternative would be to fix an upper limit to the cache volume, so that it can grow too much large; but I can no longer find the 'limit my cache' option in the Dropbox settings. Another useful feature would be the chance to know how much space the cache is taking on my hard disk.
All in all I don't have a precise request about this topic, I just would like to manage the cache in the way Dropbox regards as the most suitable. But there must be a way. The point is that in this moment I can't neither manage nor even monitor the cache in any way. I think this is not desirable, and even disfunctional.
- Hannah
Hi again, vrovera!
There is actually a way to clear the Dropbox cache.
You can do it by following the steps in this article.
However, keep in mind that if you're on a macOS computer with the Dropbox for macOS on File Provider app, the folder named “.dropbox.cache” will not appear.
I hope this clarifies things.
Hi Hannah,
I already read the article you provided, but it doesn't clarify me how to empty the cache. It explains how to locate the cache folder, which is the same way I cited in the question above, but then it specifies that the folder will not appear. And so one can't locate the folder. The article contradicts itself. So I don't know how to do.
