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I'm a photographer and was hoping that upgrading to Dropbox Pro would help my workflow but it's been a nightmare and I'm wondering if anyone can help.
I am using lightroom and I have one catalogue for 2018 but then I create folders with the raw files in them based on sessions/shoots. Previously when I hadn't upgraded I would use selective sync to unsync the raw folder after I was finished with them to save space.
Since I upgraded to 'smart sync' I've basically done the same thing but it's like they won't stay 'online only' and keep downloading the raw files every time I scroll through my lightroom catalogue. As such, my hard drive is completely full and I can't do anything - like nothing for the past two days as my harddrive is full. I checked my mac storage and the largest files taking up space are from 2016 in a file that I have selected to be online only.
I've gone in to finder MULTIPLE times selected these folders and selected 'online only' but then whenever I go back to lightroom it starts downloading the files again. Any suggestions? I'm losing my mind and really wanting to drop back down to the previous version as it seems even with smart sync I can only have the one file I'm using t be local.
Ironically I keep getting a pop up message from dropbox saying 'your harddrive is full, use smart sync to free up space' - I'M TRYING!!
Thanks for any help or workflow suggestions
Lusil
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support
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Lusil
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support
Did this post help you? If so, please give it a Like below.
Still stuck? Ask me a question!
Tips & Tricks Find new ways to stay in flow or share your tips on how you work smarter with Dropbox.
@blueeyes2 wrote:
Since I upgraded it's like they won't stay 'online only' and keep downloading the raw files every time I scroll through my lightroom catalogue.
What you're seeing is expected behavior.
Smart Sync works by removing a file that you've marked as Online-only from your hard drive, and leaving a reference file in its place. When that reference file is accessed, either by you opening it or another program trying to perform some action on it, Dropbox downloads it back to your computer and marks it as Local.
As you scroll through the files in your catalog, Lightroom is likely accessing each file so it can obtain a thumbnail or other file information. When this happens, Dropbox is re-downloading the file so Lightroom can access it.
This same thing can happen with virus scans, backups or any other program or utility that attempts to access the file, and is the expected behavior. Online-only files aren't accessed directly online. They're re-downloaded first.
Thanks Lusil. I am sure what you are describing is true, Lightroom is calling those files as previews when I scroll but the issue now is that when I go in to my Mac storage settings to see what is taking up so much space, there are files listed from 2016 that I am not using and are marked as online. Now my synching has stopped because my hard drive is full so I can't tell it to stop syncing these files from 2016.
I have no idea how to fix it other than figure out how to uninstall and revert back to the non pro version because then at least when I unsynched a file it remained unsynched and didn't cause this issue.
Thanks so much Rich
I guess then I dont' understand how 'Smart sync' is meant to save hard drive space if merely scrolling past a file downloads a 25mg file locally, I feel like I've been terribly missold this upgrade which is meant to solve my space issue.
I totally understand why it is doing it but I preferred it in the previous version when it only accessed the files I had selected to sync as I never ran in to this issue. I now just need to figure out how to make it stop as dropbox has ceased syncing due to lack of space and there is literally nothing else I can delete from my harddrive.
Lusil
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support
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Thanks Lusil but my dropbox has totally stopped syncing due to my hard drive being out of space so even applying new selective sync settings won't wor. I have deselected everything to stop it from syncing but there are huge TIFF files from 2016 showing up when I go to my storage settings on my Mac which are the reason things have stopped syncing
What I can't figure out how to get these off my computer to then have dropbox apply my new sync settings. I've uninstalled the dropbox app but the folder still shows up in finder and the files still show up in the storage management screen.
Lusil
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support
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@Lusil - Using Smart Previews in Lightroom and then setting the original photo files to 'Online Only', is there a way for Dropbox to only look at the Smart Preview of the photo instead of trying to access to original file, i.e. to look at the original file as being
disconnected' - as described here: https://helpx.adobe.com/dk/lightroom-classic/help/lightroom-smart-previews.html
"Continue to work with your Smart Preview files even when the device containing your original photographs is disconnected. You can perform all edits that you would perform on the original file."
I'm wondering if this is actually a question for the Adobe community...?
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