Hi all, In my Smart Sync settings, I have the default set to online-only. i.e. new files should be set to online-only. However, whenever someone adds a new folder+files to my shared folder, it selectively syncs to the folder and all files. I thought that it would show in explorer, but only in online-only mode... Thanks!

Hey pbuckland, In short, when you disable Smart Sync, the Selective Sync settings will apply. When Smart Sync is enabled on an account, the default settings apply for new content only, so your existing files/folders are not affected unless the Smart Sync settings are manually changed. Since your users are finding it difficult to manage both features, I understand that you want to disable Smart Sync, and have them only work with Selective Sync. Another way to do this would be to have each user set their preferences to Local for new files, go in and change to local any online-only content that they have manually set on existing content, and then only use the Selective Sync settings to manage things. Alternatively, they could select to sync all folders from the Selective Sync settings, and then use Smart Sync to manage it all. Cheers

Smart Sync is default to online-only but not working

16 Replies

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Jane
Dropbox Staff
8 years ago
Hey pbuckland,

I’ll try my best to shed some light on your inquiries below & thanks for getting in touch on the Community!

In my Smart Sync settings, I have the default set to online-only. i.e. new files should be set to online-only.

You may bear in mind that, regardless of the default option set by the team admin (i.e. Start new files as online-only), your Selective Sync settings shouldn’t be affected, as the two features can work independently. That being said, if you’ve already Selectively synced your folders, this setting will not change, hence you’ll still be able to see the latest updates online, though these will not sync down to your device.

Of course, you can change the content you have available locally & switch between Selective Sync/ Smart Sync at any time by re-applying your Smart Sync & Selective settings, following these tips.

I hope my advice is helpful to you, though it’ll be my pleasure to follow-up with more details, just let me know your follow-up questions in your next post here. Happy Friday!
Rich
Super User II
8 years ago
Jane

Although pbuckland uses the phrase "selective sync" I don't believe he's referring to the actual Selective Sync feature within Dropbox. I believe his complaint is that even though he has his entire Dropbox set to Online Only, new folders that are added within a share are still being downloaded to his computer. I don't think Selective Sync is actually being used here.
Jane
Dropbox Staff
8 years ago
Could be so @Rich, though I'm curious as to whether my assumptions matched his experience, hence I focused more on what @pbuckland described initially. I may be wrong, so if this is the case, I hope I’ll be given the chance to modify my initial advice in my next reply below…
pbuckland
Helpful | Level 6
8 years ago
Hi,

Thanks for the replies. Let me try to clarify a little.

I have a shared folder, a sub-folder of this, and many many folders under this.

Something like this:

- Shared folder
- Sub folder
- Folder 1
- Folder 2
- Folder 3
- Folder 4
- ...
- Folder 195
- Folder 196
- Folder 197

Before Smart Sync started for us yesterday, I had selectively synced only Folder 1 and Folder 2, so only those two showed on my local PC.

When the Dropbox app set up Smart Sync for me, I selected the option to make all other non-selectively synced folders online-only. I then made all of "Shared folder" sync in the selective sync preferences, and the online-only folders now show without syncing locally. All is good in the world.

However, when another user creates a new folder, say "Folder 198", that folder is downloaded to my PC immediately. I would like any new folders like this one to show up, but in online-only mode. I don't want to have to manually set it to online-only once it has syced locally. I thought the setting would make any new folders online-only by default.

Cheers,
Paul
Minato
Dropbox Staff
8 years ago
Hey pbuckland,

Can you send us a screenshot of the the Sync tab and of the Selective Sync settings, so we can perform a more thorough investigation?

Both of the above are located on the Preferences of the app and to go there just click once on the System Tray icon, then click on the Gear icon and select Preferences option.

I hope to hear from you soon!
pbuckland
Helpful | Level 6
8 years ago
Hi,

Here are my settings:

If another user adds a folder under "projects - active only" (so another new black rectangle), that folder is selectively synced to my PC and all it's contents downloaded. I expected it to automatically be selectively synced - that's no problem - but I expected it to default to online-only, but it has defaulted to local instead, and all it's content has downloaded.

This is a problem for many of our employees, as these folders can be huge and unknowingly take up their hard drive space.

Thanks,

Paul
Norah
Dropbox Staff
8 years ago

Hey pbuckland, thanks for all the information provided!

As this is an issue that needs thorough investigation could you raise a ticket with our team here so that we can troubleshoot further for you?

Once you’ve raised the ticket please include the ID and I’ll make sure that a colleague handles your case asap.

Thanks in advance for your reply!
pbuckland
Helpful | Level 6
8 years ago
Many thanks, appreciate it.

My ticket number is #7804597, although I suspect it has been logged against my personal Dropbox account instead of my business one.

Cheers,

Paul
Norah
Dropbox Staff
8 years ago

Hey pbuckland!

I’ve located the ticket you created and we’ll handle your case from there.

Let me know if you need anything further!
pbuckland
Helpful | Level 6
8 years ago
Please change this post so that there is not an accepted solution - I think I've figured it out but would like confirmation (the people on this thread appear to understand a lot more than the support person I have been talking to).

The setting in preferences about new files being local or online-only when created only applies to new top-level folders. This means that any new sub folders will still always start as local mode and fully download to the HDD. My hope was that this was not the case, but it appears the functionality to have new folders not sync is still not available.

A big problem now, is that our users have two different systems to deal with - selective sync and smart sync. It's hard enough to get people to understand how selective sync works, but with smart sync as well, it will be a nightmare. Is there any way to disable Smart Sync for all our users? Or just some users?

Here's a reason it's terrible news for us. In my example above, I was synced to a few folders out of about 200 of them. When Smart Sync was introduced, all non-selectively synced folders/files were automatically set to online-only by Dropbox. This means that if I now want to sync to one of those folders, I have to turn selective sync on for that folders AS WELL AS turning the folder to local mode. This is going to cause all sorts of problems for us, and we urgently need to disable it.

Please advise.