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Dropbox is taking up all of the space on my harddrive
Dropbox is killing me. I have 2TB of space on my laptop, Dropbox is taking up almost 700gb of it, despite all of my files being set to Online Only. I've also followed the steps suggested by other users to toggle "Online Only files on Mac" which appears to have done nothing.
I finally resorted to deleting the Dropbox app with the intent of re-downloading it, hoping that that would clear out whatever data it is supposedly storing, but when I deleted the dropbox app, the folder in the finder window still stayed there, and is STILL showing 700gb of storage being taken up. I can't seem to get rid of it. Can anyone give me any advice?
Thanks for your reply, rls3800!
Phone support is currently only available to our Business users, but let's see how we can sort this out from here.
So, indeed, any files that were previously added to your account, and were available offline, wouldn't have been affected by the setting that makes new files online-only.
If you want to make all your Dropbox files online-only, to stop them from taking up space on your hard drive, you'll need to locate the folder named "Dropbox" in your File Explorer, right-click on it and choose "make online-only".
Once you do that, the app will start clearing up your hard drive space, without any additional actions from you.
That means that you don't have to manually delete anything; deleting the files will actually delete them from your account.
You'll just need to let them app do its work and keep an eye on the sync status (the message you see when you hover over the Dropbox icon in your system tray).
Once it shows "up to date", it should have cleared up your hard drive space.
I hope this helps!
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- Walter
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey kalebseaton, sorry to hear you're having issues with this.
If you've ensured that the app is up to date and not still syncing in your menu bar, could you try clearing your cache and let us know if it improves matters for you?
Thanks!
I have completed deleted the Dropbox app. It's no longer there. But the folder for Dropbox is still in my finder, and still shows that it's taking up 700gb of space
- Walter
If you've deleted the app, then this is a local copy of your Dropbox folder that's taking up the space on your computer kalebseaton
You should be safe to delete it without affecting your files in Dropbox.
Once you reinstall the app, you'll be able to select which folders you'd like to be synced locally on your computer through the advanced options.
So 2 follow up questions.
1) How do I delete the local folder? It just shows up under my "favorites" when I open up the finder. There is no Dropbox folder on my desktop or anything like that. I'll attach a screenshot. If I right click, it just says to remove from sidebar
2) I'm confused as to how it is still taking up space even after deleting dropbox. If I click on each individual file that's located in this folder, it says zero kb. Not a single file or folder located in this dropbox folder shows that it's taking up space. But if I right click on the dropbox folder in the side bar and click get info, it says it's taking up 770GB.
- Jay
Hi kalebseaton, given the location that appeared for the Dropbox folder, it should be in your home folder. Have you tried searching there in order to delete the Dropbox folder entirely?
dude, the same thing is happening to me but I'm too scared to delete the app. especially if I now have to worry about this happening too. lmk if you ever found an answer please dude I'm desperate
Any updated on this thread? Going down the rabbit hole to find out if there is an answer other than delete cache
- Megan
Hi GiftofGaby, welcome to our Community!
It sounds like you're facing something similar to the OP of this thread, am I right? Would you be able to let me know a bit more info on this, please?
What is the OS you're using, along with the Dropbox version there? What is the exact issue you're going through?
Keep me posted!
Hello Megan! Thanks for checking in so quickly.
Dropbox Version: 183.4.7058
iMac
27-inch 2019
Mac OS 13.5.2
I noticed that my space was dwindling. When I would check the storage space in System settings - and then ask for more information it would point to files in my dropbox folder. But when I would go to where they lived - they showed the icon that they were offline. When clicking on more info to see which files are taking up spaceFrom System settingswhen going into dropbox
- Jay
Hi GiftofGaby, have you enabled the 'Online-only files on Mac' option on this page, which will show online-only files as taking up no space on your machine?
