Dropbox uses a ton of hard drive space despite most files being online only

Hi Megan,

I had also tried the following from the Help Center on the Dropbox website:

But I don't see the New files default option either:

Hi again! On one of the screenshots you sent to Megan, I can see that your Dropbox folder contains about 360K files (in general, the performance of the app may decline above ~300K files).

Besides making your files online-only, there’s also the selective sync feature (showing on your last screenshot), which totally removes some folders from your Dropbox app and you can then access them online. Can you please give it a go for one or two folders and let me know if you see any difference at all?

Hi Jay,

I encountered exactly the same issue - the dropbox take me 500GB hardrive space where the actual local file size is 200GB. I tried all the methods that you mentioned as above but it only free 12 GB which basically means nothing. 

This issue has been 1 year actually. I did all online research, keep dropbox and OS version up to date, but there isn't any improvement at all. 
Could you please your let your team look at this issue? I believe it's dropbox sofeware problem because I can see many users have the exactly same problem that cannot be solve. This is significantly affect the user experience. There is no point to use a cloud drive that take 3 times file size of the local drive. 

Thank you 

Sorry to see that you're having this issue, Unknown abstracts.

What is your computer's OS and version?

Also, what's the version of the Dropbox app and the sync status at the moment?

You can see this info by hovering over your Dropbox icon.

Hi Hannah,

Thanks for replying. My computer OS is macOS ventura 13.5.2. The dropbox syncing is up to date.

Thanks, Unknown abstracts.

And the Dropbox version?

Also, is the "online-only files on Mac" setting enabled here?

The dropbox version is v211.4.6008. and Online-only is enabled.

Hi from me too, Unknown abstracts! Just to clarify, did you set your entire Dropbox folder as online-only? 

Can you right-click on the Dropbox folder now, go to “Get info” and send me a screenshot of the next window you’ll get?

Hi Nancy,

Thank you for following up 

Please find those screenshots below

Hi Unknown abstracts, could you attach a screenshot showing the files and folders in your Dropbox folders with the sync icons visible?