Forum Discussion

creativek's avatar
creativek
Explorer | Level 4
2 years ago

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 ...
desktop
Install
Setting up the apps
sync
windows
creativek's avatar
creativek
Explorer | Level 4
2 years ago

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

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!

  • creativek's avatar
    creativek
    Explorer | Level 4
    2 years ago
    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's avatar
      Jay
      Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
      2 years ago

      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.

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