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Is selective sync still an option for the desktop app for Windows?
Hello I recently got a new laptop (PC) and I would like to recreate my old dropbox setup. I used to have the option to See all my dropbox folders yet mark the ones (via right click) that I wanted to keep locally or online on my laptop. The ones that I selected to no longer keep locally would then change from the green check mark to a greyed out icon.
I first did this when I needed to free space on my laptop. I am aware of the Selective Sync option but when I select only certain folders it is problematic when the other folders disappear from the PC laptop and I am no longer able to see the totality of folders like I used to be able to (by name at least) even though they would be empty (and then able to quickly sync/download ones I need). Is this capability available? Maybe in an older version of the Dropbox application that I could download somewhere or be sent please?
Thank you!
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- Rich
Super User II
creativek wrote:
I used to have the option to See all my dropbox folders yet mark the ones (via right click) that I wanted to keep locally or online on my laptop.
That option still exists when you right-click a file or folder. You'll see it listed as Make online-only or Make available offline.
Thank so much great to hear. So I guess the problem is I am not seeing those options yet. Maybe the whole dropbox has to fully sync at least once?
The bad news there is that I have about 2TB of stuff in my dropbox and only 750 GB on my laptop. That's one of the reasons I am trying to straighten this out now. Any clue?- Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi creativek, thanks for contacting us!
When you first install the Dropbox desktop application, you get the option to mark the whole Dropbox folder as online-only before the installation completes.
Additionally, you can also use selective sync to prevent folders from appearing locally completely, again during the installation steps. Have you seen this option when installing the app?
This will help me to assist further!
- Hi Jay,
Thanks for those. The former sounds like closest to what I want. To clarify, will marking the whole Dropbox folder online-only allow me to see the name of all the folders and sub-folders (even though no contents).
And how can I do this in retrospect? I either didn't see this option or didn't pursue it because when I completed a selective sync on a user that had all the folders and subfolders synced (name only no contents) - all the folders and subfolders were removed after the selective sync, which prompted this question!
Thank you! - Jay
Marking the whole folder as online-only will allow you to see the structure of your Dropbox folder without it taking up space on your machine.
If you check all the folders in the selective sync window, they'll automatically become online-only folders. You can make sure of this by right clicking them and choosing this option when they begin to sync on your machine.
