Smart Sync can't sync b/c not enough disk storage

[ErnieDee]

My main computer, an iMac, is being repaired, so I'm trying to use an ancient MacBook Pro running El Capitan for a few days.

Here's the problem: only 655 MB of 120 GB storage is open. Most of the 120 GB is Dropbox data that's synced locally on the laptop, so I picked some bigger files and used Smart Sync to mark them as online only.

It seemed to work, and available storage was soon up to 1.07 GB. But then Dropbox stopped syncing and gave me the error message: "Can't sync (not enough free disk space)." How can I free up disk space by syncing if I don't have enough disk space to sync?

I'm also getting "Your startup disk is almost full" messages and "Your hard drive space is low: Dropbox can't sync until you free some disk space on your computer."

I'm not a sophisticated computer user, so please make the explanation as simple as possible! Thank you.

[Daphne]

Hey there @ErnieDee, I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble with this!

In this case, I'd suggest using selective sync to stop some folders syncing locally, so that the rest of the files can complete syncing and/or be changed to "online only" with Smart sync.

You can check out how to use selective sync here.

Through selective sync, you can uncheck a few folders that you don't need to use immediately, so that they won't sync down to your computer.

Let me know if that does the trick!

[ErnieDee]

Thanks for your reply, Daphne.

Because I was in a hurry to make the laptop usable, I removed Dropbox from the laptop and restarted. 

Not the ideal solution, but it worked for my purposes.

[Daphne]

Thanks for the update @ErnieDee, I'm just glad to hear the issue is resolved for you.

If you need anything else, I'd be more than happy to help out. 😀

Hope you have a great rest of your day!