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lloyddwright's avatar
lloyddwright
Helpful | Level 6
9 months 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 ...
Delete
desktop
Storage space
  • lloyddwright's avatar
    lloyddwright
    9 months ago

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

Nancy's avatar
Nancy
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
9 months 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
    9 months 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 Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
      9 months 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?

      • lloyddwright's avatar
        lloyddwright
        Helpful | Level 6
        9 months ago

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

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