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?

[Martin3787]

Hi,

All I can say is that all my files earmarked as 'on line' remained in place. I had the same fear and it was a leap of faith in deleting them!

[Jay]

Hi @embhannah, the cache folder is a temporary staging ground for syncing files to and from the site.

Deleting the cache folder wouldn't affect any of the files in your Dropbox account or folder.

[PastorP]

Daphne, wonder if you can help me please. I tried the things mentioned in this thread but nothing works. I have nearly everything in dropbox synced to online only yet all my videos are showing as being on my hard drive in the dropbox folder!

Thanks,

Peter

[Daphne]

Thanks for nudging me here @PastorP!

Would you mind sending me a few screenshots showing the space discrepancy that you're seeing?

If you can right click a folder within Dropbox which is synced as 'online only', and choose "Get info/Properties...", what size do you see reported as being taken on the disk?

[PastorP]

Daphne,

Thank you so much! 2 Images attached, one of my system storage problem and one of the dropbox folder showing the status as online only yet showing also the file sizes on my hard drive!

Thanks,

Peter

[Daphne]

Thanks for getting back to me here @PastorP!

Can you right click one of those folders, choose "Get Info" and send me a screenshot of what is shows for the size there?

I'm curious to see what it shows for the size taken on disk, which is usually in brackets next to the logical size of the folder.

Also, from the storage screenshot, most of the data appears in the grey section. From what I understand, this should be the "Other" section rather than "Documents".

Can you click the "Manage" button there to check a more precise look at what's taking space, and let me know what you find there?

[jmilligandesign]

Same issue here. Third time in as many weeks. Gigs and gigs of information uploaded and earmarked online-only still taking up local disk space. Smart sync is on and applied to all files. Hard drive is still showing space used by dropbox. Restarted multiple times over multiple days waiting for space to catch up to the sync with no luck.

This issue is a serious one. As a new user coming from another platform without this issue, it's going to push me back to them.

[Daphne]

Thanks for joining the topic here @jmilligandesign!

Can you let me know what you find regarding the questions I asked just above your post, here? Cheers!

[jmilligandesign]

Sure thing (screengrabs below)

Everything "looks" right, however, all online-only files are still taking up space on the local drive.
 
Here is a get info screenshot of one directory:
 

 
Storage on the local drive is still used by dropbox but not shown as used in the actual directory in these two screenshots: 
– about this mac/storage screenshot:

– finder screenshot:

 

 

[Daphne]

Thanks for those screenshots @jmilligandesign!

Can you check out these steps to see if that does the trick?