Forum Discussion

Kookoo2's avatar
Kookoo2
New member | Level 2
2 years ago

My hard drive is full, will marking files as online-only free remove them from the hard drive?

My hard drive is full. So, I have marked several folders to be On-line only. Will they automatically be removed from my hard drive or, do I need to take some additional steps to free up hard drive sp...
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Storage space
7ererer's avatar
7ererer
Explorer | Level 3
2 years ago

I actually think I have a problem with this too, my macbook (MacBook Pro 15 inch, 2019)  says it has around 620 gb of system Data. When I went looking for what takes up that space it was the File "Cloud Storage", which in my case only contains the file Dropbox. So I took a look at my Dropbox and it has all in all about 1.38 TB of Data. But most of my Files on Dropbox are online only. I'm really confused as to why it takes up so much space?

Also after reading another post about this problem I checked the box in the settings for it only to show the filesize of the files which are actually on my computer. But it still shows all the filesizes. Could that be the problem?

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

Hey 7ererer - sorry to hear you're having issues with this. 

 

If you made sure that the app is 'up to date' and not still syncing in your menu bar, could you check your cache folder and let us know what you find?

  • 7ererer's avatar
    7ererer
    Explorer | Level 3
    2 years ago

    Hey @Walter

    The app is up to date, this has been an issue for me for several months, but now it's getting critical. 
    I tried to find an erase the cache before, but could only find this greyed out folder if I follow the instruction. And its only 42 Byte, don't know what I'm doing wrong.

     



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

      Hey 7ererer, I see in your screenshots that some of the folders in your Dropbox folder are marked as "available offline" (green circle with white check mark).

       

      Can you right/control click on  a few of them and choose "make online-only" to see if that frees up any hard drive space?

      • 7ererer's avatar
        7ererer
        Explorer | Level 3
        2 years ago

        Yes it does, but not the amount it should. And also most of the files I have not yet made online are small ones, like textfiles. I tried it with one bigger file and it didn't nearly free up as much space as it should have.

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