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Forum Discussion
Cannot find my selective sync settings
I have looked everywhere on my Dropbox.com account and cannot find sync anywhere. I have found preferences and there is nothing about sync there. I have a colleagues whose screen shows sync under thi...
Rich
Super User II
Super User II
Gala_4 wrote:
Here's what I see under preferences ... But this is in the list under Settings... Here's the top part of that page... and there's no sync and it's also not in Manage settingsâ
You're on the Dropbox website, not the Dropbox application on your computer. Refer to my earlier reply and the link to the help article that shows you how to access Preferences in the Dropbox application.
I did go to the article and have been there several times before. Something is odd or there is something I don't get...
I go to the Dropbox on my computer and here's the screen I get to... and I'm able to select folders I don't want to sync...
But I can't find /Users/gale/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox. So maybe my problem is with my Mac... I have Libraries with other applications, and I have an iCloud Drive but nothing in Users/Gale and no area called Cloud Storage. But my real problem may lie elsewhere.
I am only just learning how many flavours of Dropbox one works with at a time... but this screen capture is from the icon on the top menu bar of my Mac --If I don't select a folder to sync then it won't take up space on my hard drive -correct? But it seems it will still take up space in my Dropbox - is that correct? It's the mental model I'm struggling with. So perhaps my question should be how do I minimise the amount of shared space in Dropbox... can I turn off shared files there? Thanks... and apologies for my confusion.
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- Nancy
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey Gala_4! I hope youâre doing well.
Letâs take a step back; first off, what you mention about selective sync is correct. If you donât select a folder from the list, then this folder shouldnât show/sync to your desktop app, so it wonât take up hard drive space.
However, this folder will still show on www.dropbox.com and itâs saved in our servers, so yes, it will still be taking up space from your Dropbox account (which isnât related to your hard drive space).
You mention though that you canât find /Users/gale/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox. Do you mean that you canât locate this path when opening your Finder, or that you canât see some folders to unsync when opening your selective sync preferences?
Finally, is your goal to free up space from your Dropbox account instead of your hard drive space perhaps?
Thank you Nancy - your message is very helpful. I've been getting lost in the various apps and location of files.
You mention though that you canât find /Users/gale/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox. Do you mean that you canât locate this path when opening your Finder, or that you canât see some folders to unsync when opening your selective sync preferences? The former -- and I expect this is not something you can help me with. However, I can see my folders to unsync
Finally, is your goal to free up space from your Dropbox account instead of your hard drive space perhaps?
Yes, at the end of the day this is what I am trying to achieve. I am the member of a volunteer association and I occasionally need to work on shared documents. All has been well until recently but the owner of the shared masterfolder took out a subscription to Dropbox and now the files take 6 GB of space in Dropbox. So I can't join as I have only ~ 5.6 GB. I think he has to ship me some of the folders and not the whole master folder. It's a procedure manual we're creating. He, also, is not especially Dropbox savvy and we've been trying to sort this out together. I have now concluded that he has to make the changes on his end. I may be wrong. In any case, he's not there yet! He did send me 1 folder yesterday that I requested which I could open as it's a few MB. I think our procedure manual would be less than 2 GB.
Am I on the right track? Other members of the Board are starting to have similar issues and receiving messages that their DropBox is full.
Thank you for this community support service... it's been amazing... I have a new appreciation of Dropbox and also more aware of the complexity. I've been using it since 2008 but only for personal photo and files so I've not had to dig deeper into it -- it just worked! I look forward to your response and curious if I'm on the right track now..
- Nancy
Alright; letâs take a look.
As per the first part, please feel free to check the last userâs reply here, and see if you can locate your local Dropbox folder after that.
Regarding the shared folders that you mention, they will take up space indeed from your Dropbox account, if you choose to add them and make edits.
However, there may be a few workarounds here; one is to add more space for free to your Dropbox account via referrals. If the folders youâre usually adding are not too large in size, this may be enough.
Otherwise, the sender can create a shared link to a folder instead, send it to you so that you may download it to your device, make your edits and then, you can upload it directly to their own Dropbox account via a file request instead.
Hope that helps a bit!
