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Forum Discussion

Ben44's avatar
Ben44
Explorer | Level 4
2 years ago

I updated the Dropbox app on my Mac and now it's trying to re-download all of my online files

Hey, so I recently updated dropbox, and now it's seemingly trying to redownload all of my online only files.   Obviously I don't have that much storage, and I don't even have the option to m...
desktop
Mac
Storage space
sync
Ben44's avatar
Ben44
Explorer | Level 4
2 years ago
I want it to stop trying to backup my computer because I don’t have enough storage to hold everything. I want it to go back to before the backup started so I can access online only files. Thank you
Megan's avatar
Megan
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
2 years ago

Hey Ben44, did you get an error when trying out the steps that Nancy provided in her previous response, in order to disable your Backup? 

  • Ben44's avatar
    Ben44
    Explorer | Level 4
    2 years ago

    Hi, thank you for helping me. I disabled and deleted my backup, but it's still saying that it's unable to 'sync' because I don't have enough space on my computer. I restarted dropbox, and it keeps saying the same thing. And I still can't make things online only. I don't want it to keep downloading things, and I don't want to delete my files because I want them to be on dropbox

    • Nancy's avatar
      Nancy
      Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
      2 years ago

      Are you seeing your previously backed up files locally on your hard drive now? Are they all local? 

       

      If yes, and they’re the ones taking up most of your computer’s hard drive space, you can try moving them to your external drive, like you suggested above. 

       

      Another option, if you’re not accessing all of your Dropbox folders frequently on your computer, is to remove the largest from your hard drive via selective sync and only access them on www.dropbox.com. This way, syncing should also resume.

      • Ben44's avatar
        Ben44
        Explorer | Level 4
        2 years ago

        I am not seeing a backup, because I've never backed up before. I have a ton of files on my computer because of my work, but I keep them online only normally. And I can't just move my big files to an external drive because they're in folders with other audio that hasn't synced yet. I work on podcasts and it won't let me move the unsynced audio

         

        As I mentioned originally, I've already messed with selective sync and that didn't help at all. As you can see below, I've deselected everything, including all the folders you can't see because of the scroll bar. It's still trying to sync all of my old files.

         

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