How to stop the cache from reappearing? (Mac)

[ihatethecache]

I'm at my wit's end with DropBox. 

One of the machines I sync to is a bit older, with only 128 GB on the HD. I have selective sync enabled and have only around 8 GB synced. But the .dropbox.cache folder is bigger than 8 GB and in fact is so big that it causes my HD to be completely full - to the point that things like Mail and iMessage crash from lack of resources.

I know how to delete the .dropbox.cache folder (make it un-hidden and delete!) but the second i click "empty trash" it comes right back within minutes and crashed my programs all over again. 

Support seems flummoxed by my question.  Surely there is a way to disable this cache from reappearing? Whether by DropBox official support or by brute force.

Has anyone figured this out and stuck around to tell the rest of us?

[Rich · Accepted solution]

There is no way to prevent the cache from being created or used. It's a required part of Dropbox's operation. As files sync, the cache is used to store the file chunks that are syncing. It also holds a temporary copy of files or folders that are deleted on other devices or the Dropbox website.

[ihatethecache]

So you’re saying that the intended design is that if a user doesn’t have enough room for ~ 9GB of cache (and by the way there isn’t 9 GB of recently deleted files on any of my linked machines so I have no idea what is taking so much space) then the only other option is to not use DropBox? And there’s no workaround?

[Rich]

I can't speak to the intended design. I just know that the cache is required for Dropbox to operate and if you delete it, Dropbox will just recreate it. Side note: if you do delete the cache, don't delete the folder; only the content within.

If your files are up-to-date and you haven't deleted anything on other devices recently, then the cache shouldn't have much data in it. My 80GB+ Dropbox only has 108MB in the cache.

[ihatethecache]

My issue seems to be that the cache is exceeding 9 GB despite the total files synced to the machine being less than that. And the cache should be dealing only with recently deleted items of which there are none.

Meanwhile, I had been deleting only the files but then a DropBox support tech told me to delete the entire folder itself (show hidden folders / delete) so I hope they didn’t make the problem even worse ...

[coldorange]

I have also been having this problem and hope there is a solution that shows up for real.... it's been days and days of deleting the cache only to have 45GB of cache show back up again and lock up my computer.

[davidferleger]

I don't know where the dropbox cache is (where is it?)

I DO KNOW that in Mac Mail (MacOS Monterey 12.5), EVERY email I've deleted from my inbox (100s of emails) since the Dropbox Beta - keeps reappearing in my inbox.  

This is the same cache issue? or ANOTHER cache issue?

Thanks