Dropbox no longer works on my Macs. My local storage is full.

[WicklowMan]

I moved from iCloud to Dropbox because I could select which folders I could store locally and keep the majority of my files on Dropbox. 

Whatever has happened between the two companies Dropbox is no longer an option for a Mac user. 

I have had 4 new Macs in the past few months and each time I connect it to Dropbox, Dropbox maxs out my local hard drive. I pay Dropbox a fee to use their storage not duplicate everything. Chat support sent me in circles. The agent advised me to NOT update to the latest version of Dropbox, Dropbox STRONGLY ADVISES me with pop-up messages to update, I did and guess what, my hard drive has maxed out again. 

What I can't understand is why Dropbox does not actively communicate with their Mac customer base about this problem?

Sonoma 14.4 on iMac 27, 2020 with 500GB SSD. 

[Megan]

Hi there, @WicklowMan, let's jump right into this! 

I'd love to check your ticket number reference, from your communication with our Support, in order for me to have an idea of what was suggested there. 

As for what you mentioned about the app duplicating the content you have in your Dropbox account, I'm afraid this is how the app works. 

However, if you're on a paid account, you should be able to make files or folders online-only, just to free up some of your device's hard drive space. Have you tried that? 

Let me know more, and we'll take it from there! 

[WicklowMan]

Thank you for your reply Megan,

I am absolutely outraged at how Dropbox effectually kills Macs. Four times it has ruined my machines. Twice I had to reset the machines back to factory settings and rebuild them. This is my last involvement with Dropbox, rescue my 4 month old machine or I will go back to iCloud and actively campaign among the tech journalists to advise their readers to avoid Dropbox if they use Macs. 

https://www.dropbox.com/support/ticket/23323443

https://www.dropbox.com/support/ticket/23322612

[Megan]

Hey there @WicklowMan, thanks for the tickets! 

I was able to check some of the issues you brought up, however it's not entirely clear to me if you use selective sync to your machine, or if you've made some files online-only, in order for them to avoid taking up your hard drive space.

Additionally, keep in mind that your case with number #23321843 was escalated to our specialized agents, however I can see that you never got back to them, in order to look closely at the issue, and take it from there. 

Did you have the chance to check their response? 

[WicklowMan]

Megan,

My Mac had 171GB free yesterday, DB sent me a message 'strongly advising' me to update DB. I nervously did and it moved my files to a different location on my mac and left me with 1GB free and the machine ground to a snails pace. I went in and clicked all folders except one to go 'on-line only' and now my Mac will run slow for 3/4 days while it re-indexes itself. 

The reason I did not get back to your colleague is that I have invested 5/6 hours with DB support in recent weeks and I have learnt that these issues keep happening. 

I have lost trust in DB and will not be renewing. 

I was not looking for support when I posted, I know more about the Mac issues that your colleagues, I was warning other Mac users that DB does not work well with it.