Hard drive space nearly full

[Martin3787]

Why do files continue to take up hard drive space when I have used Smart Sync to save on line only?

[Mark]

You will still be using up the cache of files you've downloaded and opened. You may also need to reset some files/folders to online only if you've used them as this isnt automatic

[Martin3787]

Mark, thank you for replying so quickly! As a 'user' my technical knowledge is a little limited, so bare with me!  

I use a MacBook and  Safari, and I have cleared the cache (Safari menu: develop/clear cache) which gave me 2GB back. Stubbornly the vast majority of the storage is shown (via About this Mac) as being used by the Dropbox file path. This is shown as 'Documents' - 106 GB of my 121 GB hard drive. All the files and folders in Drop box have been set to 'online only' and I have adopted the habit of fairly regularly resetting them to online after I have opened and finished with the files.  

Am I correctly clearing the cache?

[Mark · Accepted solution]

Hi @Martin3787 

Sorry about that spam you just got 😞

That is the cache of your browser which doesnt impact Dropbox. To clear the Dropbox cache you need to follow https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/desktop/cache-folder

[Martin3787]

Mark,

Thanks for the reply and the link. I followed the instructions but no change. The contents of the folder ( 5 x sub folders) did not delete as I expected and the folders reappeared. However of the 5 sub folders  only one has any content with numerous types of 'placeholder' files, the entire content of this folder only being 92KB. The other folders are empty. I rebooted my MacBook and the available storage has dropped to 6GB. 

Martin

[Martin3787]

Spoiler

Mark

After my last post a thread appeared alongside these messages concerning the activation of the 'Smart Sync update for Mac' in the settings. I have done this which has removed the storage of documents. HOWEVER, I now have 79GB now taking hard drive under 'Other' (Which is unhelpful!). I still now have only 6GB available. Frustrating to say the least LOL.

Martin 

[Daphne]

Hey there @Martin3787!

Can you let me know if you've restarted your device since changing this setting?

It seems, since the space is now showing in "Other", that the space was successfully freed from the files being "online only", but the device may need to take a new snapshot of the space which can take some time.

Let me know though, and we can take it from there - thanks!

[Martin3787]

Hi,

Thanks for the response I freed the space by deleting the Cache. All good now👍

Martin

[Daphne]

I'm glad to hear that @Martin3787, and thanks for sharing the steps you took too!

If there's anything else I can help with, don't hesitate to give me a nudge here. 😀

I hope you have a great week ahead Martin!

[embhannah]

Hello! I am trying to free up some space on my laptop. I have changed the settings to smart sync, but thus far haven't seen any changes in my hard drive storage. I wanted to check, when I delete the cache of the Dropbox files saved to my laptop, that doesn't delete them from online, right? I don't want to delete my entire team's work! 

Thanks for the help!