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Peter Marigold's avatar
Peter Marigold
Explorer | Level 3
2 years ago

Online only files still taking up space on hard drive!

I'm trying desperately to clear out my hard drive (so Photoshop can open!) and have made tons of folders and files 'online only' sometime ago.   However, when I inspect the the folders and files ...
desktop
Nancy's avatar
Nancy
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
2 years ago

Thanks for all the screenshots, @Peter Marigold! If you don’t mind, I’d like to ask for one more screenshot of the syncing icon you see next to the “LONDON MET” folder, as showing in your last screenshot. 

 

Besides that, I’d also like you to right click on the folder, go to Properties, and send me a screenshot of the next window you’ll see.

Peter Marigold's avatar
Peter Marigold
Explorer | Level 3
2 years ago

So this is the icon - whited out tick (indicates online only):   

 

 

and right click on folder > properties > says 12gb 😞  

 

 

 

but double checking inside that folder - all icons are greyed out (online only):

 

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

    HI @Peter Marigold, could you check that the entire folder to be sure that all files are online-only, since it seems that there is 236 KB of data in that folder.

     

    Additionally, have you enabled the visibility of hidden files in Explorer, to see if there is a file or folder that isn't visible and is taking up space?

  • Peter Marigold's avatar
    Peter Marigold
    Explorer | Level 3
    2 years ago

    Hi Jay, 

    afraid it's going to be a bit clunky... I'll focus on one folder to start as there are loads in there!

     

    So looking at the LONDON MET folder called '2.PROSPECT' it says there is 2.9GB inside...  

     

     

     

    Inside that is a folder called 'PROSPECT HM' - showing 1.89GB:

     

    Inside that folder is a list of films. The Foldersize app I'm using indicates that those films are taking up space on the hard drive:

     

    however when I open the same folder using the windows file explorer it shows all the same files with the grey cloud icon:

     

    Also, just to be thorough, the 'Prospect HM' folder also has the grey cloud icon in file explorer if I go up a level:

     

    Also, if I click on the properties of that folder, it shows that it is using 1.88GB

     

     

    Thanks for your help!

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

    Hey @Peter Marigold, I hope you don't mind if I join the discussion!

     

    I wanted to point out something very important about the size of your files.

     

    If you go to the Dropbox folder in your file explorer and right click on an "online-only" folder and choose "properties", you will see the size of the folder, but if you take a closer look, right under "size", you'll see "size on disk"; that's the actual size of the folder on your hard drive.

     

    And that is because you made the folder online-only.

     

    If you were to right click on the same folder, choose to make it available offline, and follow the same steps, the "size on disk" number should show the same info as the "size" one. Can you confirm that's the case?

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