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Re: seleIncomplete syncing. Cloud icon in my local dropbox folder

seleIncomplete syncing. Cloud icon in my local dropbox folder

daniel9
New member | Level 2
Go to solution

Hello.

  I recently downloaded dropbox to personal computer and am in the process of syncing files to this local hard drive. However, after linking my account and setting a few folders to not sync via "select sync", the syncing stopped (I now have a full green check on my desktop icon). When I go into my local dropbox folder (on my computer), all the folders and files have a small cloud icon on them suggesting that they are available (but only when I'm online). How do I change the settings to have these files accessible on my local hard drive even when not online?... To be clear, I'm hoping to have access not to the unselected files in the selective sync option... Rather, I'm tryign to have offline access to the files which WERE selected in the selective sync process.

 

thanks

dan

 

1 Accepted Solution

Accepted Solutions

Zed
Dropbox Staff
Go to solution

Hello @daniel9,

 

Thank you for the detailed description - It seems that you are in a Team and the Admin may have enabled Smart Sync for you.

 

With Smart Sync, users can see and seamlessly access all the content they have in their Dropbox, right from their desktops, without worrying about local hard drive space. Files and folders take up practically no space on the local device until they’re needed, and they can be accessed with a simple click. 

 

With Smart Sync, content on your computer is available as either online-only, local, or in mixed state folders: 

Online-only content icon

Online-only content

Online-only content shows in your local Dropbox folder, but doesn’t use the full amount of space that the file would. In your file explorer, you can see the file, but the content isn’t fully downloaded until you need it. Only information about the file, such as the file name, location, and date the file was updated, is downloaded.

Local content icon

Local content

Local content is downloaded and saved on the hard drive of your computer. You can directly edit these files from applications on your computer.

Mixed state folder icon

Mixed state folders

Mixed state folders contain both local and online-only content.

 

To sync files or folders locally:

 

  1. Open your work Dropbox folder on your computer.
    1. Click the Dropbox icon from the system tray.
    2. Click the folder icon.
    3. Choose Open [Your team name] folder.
  2. Locate the content that you want to make available locally
  3. Right-click the file or folder.
  4. Choose Smart sync.
  5. Choose Local.

 

You can also change the default setting for your new content:

 

  1. Click the Dropbox icon from the system tray.
  2. Click the gear icon and select Preferences... from the menu.
  3. Click the Account tab.
  4. Choose your work Dropbox account.
  5. Change the selection for Smart Sync Default:
    • Admin default: the default setting chosen by your team admin.
    • Local: all new content downloads to your computer.
    • Online-only: manually download files to your computer when you need them.

 

You can read more here

 

To summarize everything in one sentence, in order to have all your content available to your computer, you need to select your folders and mark them as "Local" from the Smart Sync settings.


Thanks!




Zed
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
https://dropbox.com/support


Heart Did this post help you? If so please mark it for some Kudos below. 
:white_check_mark: Did this post fix your issue/answer your question? If so please press the 'Accept as Solution' button to help others find it.
:arrows_counterclockwise: Still stuck? Ask me a question! (
Questions asked in the community will likely receive an answer within 4 hours!)

View solution in original post

2 Replies 2

Zed
Dropbox Staff
Go to solution

Hello @daniel9,

 

Thank you for the detailed description - It seems that you are in a Team and the Admin may have enabled Smart Sync for you.

 

With Smart Sync, users can see and seamlessly access all the content they have in their Dropbox, right from their desktops, without worrying about local hard drive space. Files and folders take up practically no space on the local device until they’re needed, and they can be accessed with a simple click. 

 

With Smart Sync, content on your computer is available as either online-only, local, or in mixed state folders: 

Online-only content icon

Online-only content

Online-only content shows in your local Dropbox folder, but doesn’t use the full amount of space that the file would. In your file explorer, you can see the file, but the content isn’t fully downloaded until you need it. Only information about the file, such as the file name, location, and date the file was updated, is downloaded.

Local content icon

Local content

Local content is downloaded and saved on the hard drive of your computer. You can directly edit these files from applications on your computer.

Mixed state folder icon

Mixed state folders

Mixed state folders contain both local and online-only content.

 

To sync files or folders locally:

 

  1. Open your work Dropbox folder on your computer.
    1. Click the Dropbox icon from the system tray.
    2. Click the folder icon.
    3. Choose Open [Your team name] folder.
  2. Locate the content that you want to make available locally
  3. Right-click the file or folder.
  4. Choose Smart sync.
  5. Choose Local.

 

You can also change the default setting for your new content:

 

  1. Click the Dropbox icon from the system tray.
  2. Click the gear icon and select Preferences... from the menu.
  3. Click the Account tab.
  4. Choose your work Dropbox account.
  5. Change the selection for Smart Sync Default:
    • Admin default: the default setting chosen by your team admin.
    • Local: all new content downloads to your computer.
    • Online-only: manually download files to your computer when you need them.

 

You can read more here

 

To summarize everything in one sentence, in order to have all your content available to your computer, you need to select your folders and mark them as "Local" from the Smart Sync settings.


Thanks!




Zed
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
https://dropbox.com/support


Heart Did this post help you? If so please mark it for some Kudos below. 
:white_check_mark: Did this post fix your issue/answer your question? If so please press the 'Accept as Solution' button to help others find it.
:arrows_counterclockwise: Still stuck? Ask me a question! (
Questions asked in the community will likely receive an answer within 4 hours!)

Jeff_
New member | Level 2
Go to solution

This really angers me.  When I got the new version of dropbox, I selected not to enable smart sync.  Later, when I noticed that I had to download files to access them I went back and checked the setting, which was set to "off" but with new content not set to "local".  That pisses me off.  Also lots of content that was very old (was not new) was synced to cloud.  I don't understand how that setting was so screwed up and how so much of my content was not on my hard drive.  I certainly hope if I had uninstalled dropbox that I would not have unknowingly lost all those files.  I'm now working on transfering over to Microsoft One Drive as a result of this "feature" which had a forced implementation.

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