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lloyddwright's avatar
lloyddwright
Helpful | Level 6
22 days ago
Solved

I made a folder online-only, but if I delete it from my computer, it gets removed from Dropbox.

I have reviewed the discussion questions and didn't see what is needed. My laptop storage is almost depleted. I have marked a folder (using File Explorer) as Online Only.  When I tried to delete the folder from my laptop using file explorer, I received a message saying it would also be deleted from my Dropbox Account. 

How can I make sure the folder does not delete from the online Dropbox system.

Thanks

Lloyd

 

 

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  • lloyddwright's avatar
    lloyddwright
    19 days ago

    Thanks for your help Nancy. I was not looking at the "Size on this Disk" field. All is well!

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  • Nancy's avatar
    Nancy
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    22 days ago

    Hey lloyddwright, thanks for your post. 

    Making a folder online-only on your Dropbox app should be enough so that it doesn’t take up hard drive space from your computer (what’s left after making it online-only is its placeholder and the original folder can be found on www.dropbox.com). 

    If you delete a file/folder from your desktop app instead, it’s expected that this action will also sync to your web account and the files will be removed from there, as well.

    Can you please check how much actual space the folder is taking now on your computer and send me a screenshot of what you see? 

    Keep me posted.

    • lloyddwright's avatar
      lloyddwright
      Helpful | Level 6
      21 days ago

      I have set the PHOTOS folder as Online Only. The screenshot shows it is still taking 40gb

       

      • Nancy's avatar
        Nancy
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
        21 days ago

        Thanks for the screenshot! While 40.3GB seems to be the folder’s original size indeed, it should be taking up 176KB of actual hard drive space on your device after making it online-only; so the feature seems to be working. 

        Have you made any other folders online-only and there’s no difference between their original size and the actual size they take up on your hard drive?

  • Mark's avatar
    Mark
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
    22 days ago
    lloyddwright wrote:

    My laptop storage is almost depleted. I have marked a folder (using File Explorer) as Online Only

    Dropbox has a hidden cache. It takes time for that to empty - usually a few days. 

    Have a look at this article to see how to empty it which should clear some space for you :)

     

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