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Disk space full with online only syncing

Disk space full with online only syncing

paigewilliamson
New member | Level 2
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Everything in my dropbox folder is set as online only for syncing. However I can no longer save a file to the drop box as it is saying my disc space is full.

 

I thought online only with smart sync means nothing is stored on your computors hard drive. Where am I going wrong?

1 Accepted Solution

Accepted Solutions

Chris_J
Super User
Go to solution

Hello paigewilliamson

Thanks for reaching out to us.  First off, are you sure it is talking about HardDrive space instead of Dropbox account?  if so, Dropbox still needs to place a placeholder for you to view your files.

 

Can you check to see how much space it says your Dropbox folder is?  If on PC, right click on Dropbox folder and select Properties.  If on Mac, use get info in finder.  Als,o check to see if you still have space in your Dropbox account.   Was your Harddrive close to full before Dropbox?

 

Hopes this helps


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if this works and it was a solution, please click on Accept as Solution.  Also clicking on Likes would be super.  Thanks!

View solution in original post

10 Replies 10

Chris_J
Super User
Go to solution

Hello paigewilliamson

Thanks for reaching out to us.  First off, are you sure it is talking about HardDrive space instead of Dropbox account?  if so, Dropbox still needs to place a placeholder for you to view your files.

 

Can you check to see how much space it says your Dropbox folder is?  If on PC, right click on Dropbox folder and select Properties.  If on Mac, use get info in finder.  Als,o check to see if you still have space in your Dropbox account.   Was your Harddrive close to full before Dropbox?

 

Hopes this helps


-------------------------


if this works and it was a solution, please click on Accept as Solution.  Also clicking on Likes would be super.  Thanks!

wagneragency
New member | Level 2
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I have the exact same problem as the other person. Even on online-only, Dropbox is trying to download all of the files.

Chris_J
Super User
Go to solution

Hellow wagneragency

Thanks for reaching out to us.  If the files are online-only, it will still need to have a placeholder, to signify there is something online.  So if you added something at work and you made them online-only then it will not change the setting on the home computer if its different than work.  To change the default settings for Smart Sync, please go to your preferences by clicking on Dropbox icon, then click on Gear icon, then preferences, see the settings in the Sync Tab.  But once its set the same as your Work computer, it should just download a placeholder.  Which has a different icon on the file  See this https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/smart-sync

 

If you are added to a Business Account, then it's possible that the Admin changes this behavior and then you need to contact him/her

 

Hopes this helps


-------------------------


if this works and it was a solution, please click on Accept as Solution.  Also clicking on Likes would be super.  Thanks!

wagneragency
New member | Level 2
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I have the admin rights. With 100 GB of available space, I shouldn't be running out just for the placeholder files which are probably very small.

Chris_J
Super User
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Are you a member of a Business Team?  Are you sharing any folders?  How much quota are you allowed in your Dropbox Account?  https://www.dropbox.com/account/plan  


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if this works and it was a solution, please click on Accept as Solution.  Also clicking on Likes would be super.  Thanks!

ejroihkn
Explorer | Level 4
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I am the adminstrator of a dropbox business team, we have 8 TB of space for files on our Dropbox account. Our team uses iMacs with 3 TB hard drives and our dropbox files were taking up over 2 TB. I decided to set some older files to "online only" and left my computer for the weekend. When I came back I discovered that ALL my dropbox files were resyncing (hundreds of thousands of files) and that my free HD space was rapidly disappearing. Now my HD is full and I can no longer sync new files. Before I enabled smart sync I had nearly 500 GB of free storage space. What could be going on here?

Editrix
New member | Level 2
Go to solution

Whatever happened with this?

The same thing is happening to me. I went through and changed a bunch of my folders to Online-Only, but when I re-click on them, they're still set to Local and now ALL my folders are syncing!

Chris_J
Super User
Go to solution

Hello Editrix

What happened is whats its supposed to do.  When you click on a file, it will return to local only since its  has to be local to show your the file.  


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if this works and it was a solution, please click on Accept as Solution.  Also clicking on Likes would be super.  Thanks!

Editrix1
New member | Level 2
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Sorry, I should have been more precise—I'm right-clicking on the file to check that it is still set to Online Only. Are you saying that even that action will then reactivate it to being Local, so I will never be able to see a confirming little checkmark next to Online Only when I right-click a file?

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