Delete Dropbox from hard drive

[chancier]

Can someone please help me figure out how to remove Dropbox from my hard drive (without deleting files from the folders) so I can just access it on the application?

Currently, I'm accessing my company dropbox through the mobile site. There is no Dropbox icon available on my Mac at the moment. I wrote in to Dropbox support and they said that I would need to download the newest version of Dropbox in order to get the icon, but my problem now is that I don't have enough disk space to do that! 

Any help would be much appreciated, thank you so much!

[Rich]

---

@chancier wrote:

Can someone please help me figure out how to remove Dropbox from my hard drive (without deleting files from the folders) so I can just access it on the application?

---

Do you mean that you want to have access to the files in Dropbox without those files being on your computer? If so, what you want is the feature called Smart Sync. It's available to Dropbox Professional accounts, and Busines accounts that have enabled it through Early Access (the Admin for your Business account would need to do this).

Smart Sync allows your files to appear on your computer without actually being there. Any file you access is downloaded to your computer automatically so you can open and edit it. Once done with a file, it remains on your computer unless you set it back to Online Only.

To use Smart Sync you need to download and install the Dropbox client on your computer. A Smart Sync menu will then be available on right-click of any file or folder. Setting a file or folder to Online-only will remove it from your local drive. During the install of Dropbox you'll have the option (if available to you) to specify that your entire account is online-only so that it doesn't need to download anything to your computer.

• https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/smart-sync

[chancier]

Hello Rich! Thank you for getting back to me.

Yes, SmartSync is the feature I'm trying to get to. My issue right now is that I'm not sure how to delete the files on my hard drive without deleting them permanently, becauase I need to free up space to even be able to update my Dropbox download. 

[Rich]

Not sure what you mean when you say "... update my Dropbox download."

Do you already have Dropbox installed and running? If you add a file to your Dropbox folder, does it sync to your account online? If so, you should be able to right-click on a file or folder in your Dropbox and select the Smart Sync menu, and set that item to Online-only.

If Dropbox isn't installed, then the files on your computer are not syncing to Dropbox and deleting them on your computer will not delete them in your account online.

You need to determine the current state of your local Dropbox folder, and whether or not you have Dropbox installed and working.

[chancier]

Thank you for your help. It looks like the files are not synced with my online account. I will delete them, and hopefully this will remedy the problem!!

[Jane]

 Hey chancier, I’m just checking back on progress here, has this been resolved for you? 

If so, please let us know in this discussion, in order to update the thread. Thanks in advance & I’ll be awaiting your next reply!