Can I limit what is synced to my iPhone? Dropbox is clogging up space on my phone.

[Annette L.3]

I use the Dropbox App on my iPhone. But have had to delete it as it was taking up most of the storage on the phone and most of that was photos (over 1600). But I really need to see documents and only some photos like recent ones taken. I don't need to see everything all the time.
Is there any way to selectively sync only certain folders with my phone? I can only see help on selectively syncing Dropbox to a PC.

[Kaz · Accepted solution]

The Dropbox App does not have the functionality to sync files from your Dropbox account to your mobile device. The features that the application has are:

• File uploads
• File downloads
• Option to open files with a specific application (if the application supports that file type)
• Move/Delete/Rename files and manipulate the folder structure of your Dropbox folder.
• Share links
• Share using other applications (if the application supports sharing)

This has the advantages of not requiring unnecessary space on your mobile device or using up large amounts of bandwidth, which are large concerns for mobile application development.

However if you wish there are 3rd party apps that provide this functionality. Dropbox does not play favourites so I cannot provide any specific app names but you should be able to find some with a quick Google Search.

[Mister A.]

So does this mean that the only files from my dropbox that end up on my mobile are ones I manually download?

[Mariedb]

Yes, that's exact. Only if you choose to save a file or favorite a file in the app will it take place on your mobile storage space. 

Hope that clears things!

[Felicity M.]

I have got dropbox on my mac book air, its clogging up my hardrive and its becoming very problematic. I have an Iphone and an Ipad, and then I use a SLR camera with a  memory card. Can I delete the Dropbox app off my computer, im starting to get very confused with what I can and cant delete and my computer at the moment will not function. 

Ive just gone up to a terra bite package so I would liek to upload more older photos etc from other harddrives that I have.

Please can you help. 

[Felicity M.]

oh, and also loads of my files are showing deleted, is there a way they can all be automatically restored as I didnt delete any of these? 

[Mariedb]

Hi there! 

Dropbox syncs all the files on your computer, all other connected devices and the web version to make sure that you are always up to date. However, if you find that Dropbox is taking up too much space on your hard drive, then you can choose which folders you would like to sync locally on your computer by activating Selective Sync: 

https://www.dropbox.com/help/4456

If you have missing files on your account, then please refer to this Help Centre article: 

  https://www.dropbox.com/help/969

Thanks! 

[Barry R.3]

Felicity, I am using Documents by Readdle to do a selective synch of my Dropbox files to my iPad and iPhone. I set up a two folders on Dropbox to selectively synch to Readdle Documents. 

Folder A is for photos on my computer I want to have copies of on my iPad. ie download from my computer to my iPad for mobile use.

Folder B is for new photos I take with my camera and sort into subfolders, ready to upload to my computer when I am online. Once they upload to the computer, I can then move the photos into my main computer based photo archive folder hierarchy. 

This way I can organize my photos offline on my iPad into folders and have them all synch to my computer when I am online, so that I don't use up unnecessary bandwidth while I am traveling.

It's a big pain, because you have to copy photos from iPad Photos to Documents, and then Synch it to Dropbox which is a cumbersome process. However if you want to use Dropbox to organize your photos into folders, as I do, then as far as I can work out there is no other option. I have spent weeks researching all the other tools and this is the only workable option I can find.

It makes no sense to me why Dropbox is not providing a selective synch function for mobile apps thereby forcing its users to use other third-party applications for something Dropbox could easily do.

[This thread is now closed by moderators due to inactivity. If you're experiencing a similar behavior, feel free to start a new discussion in the Dropbox Community here.]