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Dropbox data space on Android
Hi everybody,
Dropbox app is actually taking 3gb on my phone (Samsung S7).
In dropbox online guide they suggest to free space deleting cache memory, but on my phone dropbox cache memory is only 32 mb at the moment, the apk is 160mb (more or less) while the 3 gb is dropbox user data!
I suppose if I delete all user data from Samsung Maintenance software I will lose also my dropbox account settings and in the worst chance also the data i loaded from the phone and now availables for other users.
If I delete single files from dropbox app, they are no more available on the account so... The question is:
How to free space on the phone deleting the files only on the local phone memory and not from the cloud? (please don't answer to delete cache memory :D)
Dropbox app is actually taking 3gb on my phone (Samsung S7).
In dropbox online guide they suggest to free space deleting cache memory, but on my phone dropbox cache memory is only 32 mb at the moment, the apk is 160mb (more or less) while the 3 gb is dropbox user data!
I suppose if I delete all user data from Samsung Maintenance software I will lose also my dropbox account settings and in the worst chance also the data i loaded from the phone and now availables for other users.
If I delete single files from dropbox app, they are no more available on the account so... The question is:
How to free space on the phone deleting the files only on the local phone memory and not from the cloud? (please don't answer to delete cache memory :D)
25 Replies
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- Lusil
Dropbox Staff
- Hi Lusil and tks for your answer.
I'm not running out of dropbox space. I'm running out of device space, but the problem is that I have not made available offline any file!
If I select one ore more of those files in dropbox app, in the menu I can choose to moka them available offline so it seems like the app thinks they are not on the device but they are and if I delete them, they will be removed also from the cloud. Reinstalling the mobile app maybe will temporally solve the problem, but I will lose all my settings and in few weeks the problem will appear again... - Rich
Super User II
Nic11 wrote:
Reinstalling the mobile app maybe will temporally solve the problem, but I will lose all my settings and in few weeks the problem will appear again...You're referring to the cached files that Dropbox will temporarily store during the normal use of the app.
When you view or open a file in the Dropbox app, it needs to be downloaded to your device before it can be opened. Dropbox downloads these files to a cache and stores them temporarily. In the iOS version of the app there's a Clear Cache button in Settings, though I've never had much luck with it actually clearing anything. Typically, only uninstalling and reinstall the app would clear the cached files, but that will also clear any files you've marked as available offline.
- Hi Rich,
In android to there is a clear cache button, but as I said in my first post, the problem was (and it will be again) that it is not cache memory that increase during time, but user data app memory.
Anyway, uninstalling and reinstalling the app solved the problem, but probably I will have to do it again in some months since there's not a user data clear button... - Lusil
Hi. I have the same issue. My Samsung Android is taking 26G of space. I cleared cache, but that didn't do anything Cache is zero. But it says data is 26G. Can I simply 'clear data' on my phone? Will it leave all in cloud in tact and not delete any files? (I suppose I could uninstall and reinstall dropbox app...but if clear data works, I probably should just do that).
thanks!
-Karen
- Lusil
- An alternative might be to open Dropbox on your laptop if you have one and perhaps you can download your files to your hard drive before you try any of these other suggestions, just to feel safe about your files
I'm having the same issue with my Pixel3. Dropbox is the largest storage consumer at 14GB! but I have nothing available offline. I also tried the suggested cache clear but that was only about 500MB, the rest is under user data as the OP mentioned. Is reinstalling the app the only solution? Really!?
