I am not the administrator of my office's Dropbox account, and I also use the Dropbox desktop app. My C drive is now full and no longer syncing. I purchased an external hard drive and need to move my desktop app to the external drive. Can you tell me if there's any way to do that when I am not the administrator? The admin of our Dropbox account is not available, so I can't ask them. It took me about 4 minutes to type this because my C drive is so full, I can only type about one character at a time.

Hey MChat1, I'd be happy to help with that! Based on what you described, it sounds like you're part of a Business Team, am I right on this? Now, keep in mind that even if this is the case, and even if you're just a member in this Team, then that wouldn't stop you from having your desktop app, wherever you want to. With that being said, we don't advise that you move your content on an external hard drive. You can read more about this here, and also see the steps to do it here. If you have any questions, let me know!

Thanks, but that doesn't work. Because I'm not the admin, whenever I hover over my dropbox icon in my menu bar, it only shows the avatars of team members, and when I click on my initials, it just shows the name of our company. I cannot get to preferrences.

First, I am not the admin of my firm's dropbox account so I cannot get to preferences. I downloaded the dropbox desktop app and now have EVERYTHING on the account on my C drive and now my C drive is full. Without having admin abilities, how can I unsync certain files?

Since I'm not the admin, I can't get to preferences. I'd like to simply remove the dropbox desktop files that I don't want and leave the folders that I need on there. Please tell me how I can do that because my C drive is now full and I can't do anything at all!

MChat1 wrote: I downloaded the dropbox desktop app and now have EVERYTHING on the account on my C drive and now my C drive is full. Without having admin abilities, how can I unsync certain files? You can use Selective Sync to remove the local copy of the folders you specify. https://help.dropbox.com/sync/sync-choose-folders-to-sync

Moving Dropbox app to external hard drive when I am not the administrator of the account.

28 Replies

Megan
Dropbox Community Moderator
3 years ago
Hey MChat1, I'd be happy to help with that!

Based on what you described, it sounds like you're part of a Business Team, am I right on this?

Now, keep in mind that even if this is the case, and even if you're just a member in this Team, then that wouldn't stop you from having your desktop app, wherever you want to.

With that being said, we don't advise that you move your content on an external hard drive. You can read more about this here, and also see the steps to do it here.

If you have any questions, let me know!
MChat1
Helpful | Level 5
3 years ago
Thanks, but that doesn't work. Because I'm not the admin, whenever I hover over my dropbox icon in my menu bar, it only shows the avatars of team members, and when I click on my initials, it just shows the name of our company. I cannot get to preferrences.
MChat1
Helpful | Level 5
3 years ago
First, I am not the admin of my firm's dropbox account so I cannot get to preferences. I downloaded the dropbox desktop app and now have EVERYTHING on the account on my C drive and now my C drive is full. Without having admin abilities, how can I unsync certain files?
MChat1
Helpful | Level 5
3 years ago
Since I'm not the admin, I can't get to preferences. I'd like to simply remove the dropbox desktop files that I don't want and leave the folders that I need on there. Please tell me how I can do that because my C drive is now full and I can't do anything at all!
Rich
Super User II
3 years ago
MChat1 wrote:

I downloaded the dropbox desktop app and now have EVERYTHING on the account on my C drive and now my C drive is full. Without having admin abilities, how can I unsync certain files?

You can use Selective Sync to remove the local copy of the folders you specify.

https://help.dropbox.com/sync/sync-choose-folders-to-sync
MChat1
Helpful | Level 5
3 years ago
I have said this several times now ... I am NOT the admin and I cannot get to preferences.
Rich
Super User II
3 years ago
MChat1 wrote:

I have said this several times now ... I am NOT the admin and I cannot get to preferences.

You don't need to be the team admin to change your own Selective Sync settings. There are team Selective Sync options that the admin can set, but your preferences in the local Dropbox application actually override those set by the admin.
MChat1
Helpful | Level 5
3 years ago
And I how do I get to preferences?
Rich
Super User II
3 years ago
MChat1 wrote:

And I how do I get to preferences?

https://help.dropbox.com/account-settings/view-preferences
Hannah
Dropbox Community Moderator
3 years ago
Hey MChat1, since you have the Dropbox application installed, you should be able to find the application preferences, by hovering over the Dropbox icon in your system tray.

If that's not what you see on your end, please send us a screenshot with the options available to you, so we can check it out.