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Re: Dropbox iOS app taking up 1.3GB of local app data storage but no offline files?

Dropbox iOS app taking up 1.3GB of local app data storage but no offline files?

thelwang
Helpful | Level 7
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clip.png

 

As you can see in the screenshot, the Dropbox iOS app is taking up 1.37GB of space in app storage alone. But I have no offline files.

Things I've done: 

  • Made sure that I have ZERO files marked as "Make available offline". So no files are being explicitly stored.
  • Explored the settings menu deeply. No where can I find a way to clear the local cache or set a limit.
  • Searched this forum and the best solution I found, which I know will work, is to completely the delete the app, re-install it, and log in again. But that's such a hack.

Here's a screenshot where the app even says it has no cached files...

tmp-clip-smaller.png

What's going on? What's in this mysterious 1.37GB of stored data?

Also, is deleting the app completely and re-installing it still the only option to resolve this?  If that's still my only option this situation is a bit absurd.  Is there local app data just constantly growing no matter what? Also for reference I use Camera Uploads regularly and I'm pretty I had to do the same thing about a year ago to clear up space. So all this junk filling up my phone accumulated in a year or so.

Cheers

 

 

 

1 Accepted Solution

Accepted Solutions

Nancy
Dropbox Staff
Go to solution

Thanks for bringing this to our attention, @andherand

 

From what I understand, it’s the Dropbox cache that keeps taking up space from your device, even after the upload is complete, correct? 

 

In this case, here’s what I’d like you to try as a test; clear the app’s cache via the app settings (just make sure there are no files uploading before that), uninstall the Dropbox app, restart your device and then, reinstall Dropbox. 

 

After that, please try to upload a few files to the app and let me know if you’re still having the same issue.


Nancy
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


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View solution in original post

16 Replies 16

Hannah
Dropbox Staff
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Hey @thelwang, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

 

If you open your Dropbox app, tap on 'account', then on the gear icon and then on 'clear cache' at the bottom, does that help?

 

Keep me posted.


Hannah
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


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thelwang
Helpful | Level 7
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Thanks for the reply @Hannah.

 

I should have mentioned in my post that I had already tried that. I tried it again and can confirm that it did nothing.  I still see 1.36GB of "Documents & Data" being used by the Dropbox app. It had no effect.

 

thelwang_0-1664307067262.png

What exactly is it supposed to do?  If the cache it clears is the same storage shown under "Space Used", it makes sense it does nothing because that's already showing Zero KB of space being used.

thelwang_1-1664307161430.png


Any other ideas?



 

thelwang
Helpful | Level 7
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I noticed that my Dropbox app was out of date so I just updated it.  In this new version I then tried "Clear Cache" again. It also did nothing. But somehow in the process the Dropbox app's "Documents & Data" storage has increased from 1.36GB to 1.37GB... it really seems like it's just going to keep growing forever with no way to clear the space. My guess is it's something like the Camera Uploads image thumbnail cache never being cleared. It constantly increases since I'm constantly uploading more photos.

 

thelwang_0-1664307653409.png

 


Is there any other solution I could try? (besides deleting and re-install the app) If not, could you confirm that this is a known issuing affecting some users like me? Thanks

Lpotter66
New member | Level 2
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Has there been a solution to this issue? I am having the exact same problem. My settings are identical, but mine is taking up 23 GB of memory.

thelwang
Helpful | Level 7
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@Lpotter66

Wow that's way worse than me! And nope, I haven't found a proper solution. Have you tried tapping the "Clear Cache" button in settings and are you sure the space isn't being taken up by offline files? If so, then you're in the same situation as me.  Also out of curiosity, are you a big Camera Uploads user too? I wonder if that's related.

You can definitely clear up the space by completing deleting the Dropbox app and then re-installing it.  That should work. And make sure you delete the app and its data entirely, not just "off load" the app. Full deletion is necessary to recover all this space. Of course, that's a horrible solution. (forces me to re-download the app, re-login, and requires the Dropbox app to re-scan all my Camera Uploads...)

I'm 95% sure there's just no proper solution to this. Though it would be great to hear Dropbox acknowledge that this is a known issue.

Walter
Dropbox Staff
Go to solution

Hi all, thanks for your patience while we looked into this internally. 

 

When it comes to your observations, note that it seems that there is some file storage that's temporarily used for the Camera uploads functionality on your device, which should occasionally be cleaned out by the OS. 

 

However, there are 2 ways to manually do this which is to:
1. Try clearing the cache of the mobile app
3. Reinstall the app to clear the storage used completely.


Having said that, thank you all for your feedback on this and please let us know if you have anything else to add or ask. 


Walter
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


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spiritFed
New member | Level 2
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I’m having the same issue in addition to slow uploads from my iPad compared to using a desktop computer. Clearing cache did not work for me either, hoping this is fixed soon. Best

Walter
Dropbox Staff
Go to solution

Hi there @spiritFed, sorry to hear about this.

 

Can you please let us know the exact version of your device's OS and the version of the Dropbox app installed there as well? 

 

Apart from clearing the app's cache, have you tried completely uninstalling the Dropbox mobile app from your iPad and reinstalling it anew? 

 

When it comes to the slow uploads issue, have you maybe tried another wifi network or cellular data to see if that makes any difference?


Walter
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


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YeeM
Explorer | Level 3
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Yes i am having the same issue. 10 gig. wish there was a fix for this
Need more support?