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Why does the Dropbox Backup site show folder size as ">...." instead of the actual size?
Dropbox plus
Imac
Sequoia 15.4.1
Question or Issue
Various folders backed up using the desktop app. Verified that all my files had been properly backed up in my dropbox backup folders. Some of the folders show an actual size but some (most of them actually) show for example >6.47GB. In this very case the folder is 15.32GB on my own drive.
I checked and all the files are included in the dropbox folder. I understand that dropbox is telling me that the folder is greater than 6.47GB but this is very odd number to show instead of 15.32GB...
Another issue is that when I double checked the size of single files there is always a slight discrepancy between what my own drive says and what dropbox says. For example:
39.MB on my drive and 37.7 MB on dropbox backup. Why?
And on last thing while I am at it, why is a total size of a folder is not showing up on dropbox backup when that folder contains subfolder?
When you view the full backup on the site, what is the current status? Does it show up as Done, Error, or another option?
5 Replies
Screen shots to substantiate my original request. Note than all files are RAW photo files.
- Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi Florence Q., thanks for taking the time to message us.
It's possible that the Dropbox Backup feature doesn't calculate the size of all the subfolders if there are a lot of them, hence why it doesn't show the full number.
Regarding the file size between the website and computer, this difference in disk usage is due is how different vendors calculate a "MB", meaning that it would be either it is 1000 KB or 1024 KB (and this is similar for GB and TB). In both cases, the file would still be syncing normally, it's just how the OS displays the full file size.
If you have any further queries, feel free to message back.
Thanks very much Jay for you quick reaction. Just to clarify:
When you say it's possible that Dropbox backup doesn't calculate the size of of all subfolders, is that a known issue from other users and Dropbox is working on fixing it or is it just your assumption. I guess I find it a bit unsettling not knowing the exact size of a folder. With that I feel unsure that all my files have been backed up and I am going to want to go in check all the folders and subfolders to make sure they are all there which quite inefficient.
Noted on the file size differences, thanks for the explanation.
Thanks in advance,
Florence
- Jay
When you view the full backup on the site, what is the current status? Does it show up as Done, Error, or another option?
It shows up as done. I guess I am just being extra cautious and these files sizes not showing made me a little nervous. So maybe I don't need to be.
I still find it very strange that the file size would be mentioned as greater than 6.47GB when the folder is 15.32GB. If it said greater than 1GB or greater than 10GB it would make more sense to me. And again why not give the full size of the folder....
Thanks
Florence
