Forum Discussion

Dan T.2's avatar
Dan T.2
New member | Level 2
2 years ago

Online-Only Sync is filling my hard drive

I've been trying to set all of my Dropbox folders on my Mac to Online-only.

 

Dropbox app starts to sync - admittedly a lot of files and folder so reports up to 2+ days remaining - but it very quickly runs down my 100gb+ free hard drive space, tells me I'm out of room and pauses the sync, leaving me stuck with a full hard drive and unable to do anything except quit the Dropbox app.

 

If I try and move folders from my Dropbox folder to an external storage, they have to sync so I restart the app, the sync starts again and I'm back where I started. 

 

Can anyone tell me how to break out of this loop please? As some of my folders were online and some offline, it's hard to move things from Dropbox without the sync running and the sync is killing my hard drive space! :^\

 

Any help or advice greatly appreciated. Thanks

  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

    Hey Dan T.2, thanks for letting us know about this.

     

    Making your offline files online-only should free up space on your hard drive, not fill it up.

     

    Have you tried to make the files online-only in batches instead of all of them at the same time?

     

    Also, is the 'online-only files on Mac' option enabled on this page?

     

    Let me know how it goes.

    • Dan T.2's avatar
      Dan T.2
      New member | Level 2

      Thanks for your reply Hannah.

       

      I have enabled the 'online-only files on Mac' option earlier today. 

      Could you tell me how to cancel the 'all files' sync that I currently have running, to allow me to start afresh with a batch sync?

       

      Thanks!

      • Hannah's avatar
        Hannah
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

        Hey Dan!

         

        I'm afraid you can't really cancel syncing once it starts.

         

        If you enabled the online-only option in your settings just recently, I would suggest allowing the app to see if it gets up to date at some point.

         

        What's the sync status now, when you hover over your Dropbox icon?