"Smart" sync keeps downloading Online Only Files

[adamschoales]

I am growing increasingly frustrated with this so called "smart sync" feature Dropbox has recently introduced (or rather forced upon me).

I have a number of files I've brought over to Dropbox using the finder on my Mac, that I have then marked as online only, in hopes that it would upload the files and then remove them from my local storage, which is limited. However Dropbox keeps randomly re-downloading the files to my system even after telling it that I want the files to be online only. 

This feature is supposed to "save hard disk space", which it does seem to do temporarily before it just starts downoading things again. It seems as though the only safe way to keep files from my drive is the old fashioned selective sync from preferences, but this is a backward way of working, especially when I want to have the folder show up on my local drive so I can bring files into it, but I may want those files to only live online.

Has anyone found a solution to this abnormal behaviour (that, once again I might add, was forced on us as justification to increase the price of the paid service)?

[WDPandP]

Thank you for your help.

That makes sense now 🙂

I hope everyone else sorts the thread issue.

Regards,

Will

[bigc200]

Here is the original thread where MacPaw admits there is a bug with CleanMyMac and Dropbox Smart Sync:

https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-files-folders/Clean-My-Mac-update-caused-TOTAL-FILE-RESYNC/m...

I have contacted their support to see if this has been fixed yet (since 2017) and they tell me it has resurfaced and they are working on it. In the meantime, turn off or quite the CleanMyMac menu (from the Mac toolbar) restart your Mac and it should stop Dropbox downloading all your Keynote files. Until MacPaw fix this, you can't really use the menu bar. Not sure about the main app though.

Hope tht helps.

[mchamoun12]

Hi, 

My Dropbox is doing the same thing - i.e. filling itself even after I designate files as "online-only". 

You said that Dropbox will automatically start re-downloading when you, or a third-party app, accesses the files, correct? If my collaborators that have shared access to these files attempt to access them, would that explain why they download locally to my computer again?

I'm just trying to make sense of this because my hard drive fills itself every day and my computer starts burning up and it is driving me crazy. Even after I re-designate the files as "online-only", they don't disappear from my storage for a few tense minutes in which I can see my hard drive's capacity trickling from GB to MB...

Thanks. 

[Rich]

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@mchamoun12 wrote:

If my collaborators that have shared access to these files attempt to access them, would that explain why they download locally to my computer again?

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If you mean shared through Dropbox using shared folders or links, then no, not at all. The comments above are referring to any process or application local to your computer that attempts to access the files within your local Dropbox folder. Think file previews, antivirus or malware scans, backup processes, etc. If it touches the files on your local computer, it can cause Dropbox to download them.

Now, if you're sharing access to your computer with other people and they access those same files, then yes, they will be downloaded, because it would be no different from you accessing the files.

[Chris C]

Lets say I have a folder with 4 video files in it. I have versions 1-3 set to "Online only" via the smart sync dropdown menu in Mac OS. When I open v4 (which does reside on my hard drive) in quicktime to view it, one (or more) of the other versions in that folder begins to download. 

These are only a few hundred MB, but I do have folders containing gigabytes of information and if several of those files download it could cause a problem on my computer.

I do not have any antivirus software running and no I have one app connected (vimeo) that I don't think has any bearing on this issue. It seems directly related to opening a file in Quicktime.

[Daphne]

Thanks for joining us here @Chris C!

Can you just clarify, are you opening the file by navigating to the file in the Dropbox folder and opening it from there?

Or are you opening Quicktime and then opening the file through the app?

[Chris83]

Hi Daphne – I'm double clicking the actual file in the finder.

[Daphne]

Do you have the same issue if you simply launch the Quicktime app?

Sometimes, the recents lists for apps can trigger the download of Smart Synced files as they can request data from the file.

[Chris83]

No, I just tested it and launching Quicktime does not trigger any downloads in dropbox.

[Jay]

Hi @Chris83, it sounds like something is triggering the download of the other files in that folder. Are these versions of the videos actually linked to each other in some way within the app, or are they completely separate, saved, individual files?

I'd recommend checking this article to see if the app you're loading it in is recalling those other files, and what can be done to prevent this (such as the 'recently access files').