Longterm solution for sigstore.dbx, filecache.dbx and checker.dbx?

[vfxmonster]

First off here is my setup:

• Business Dropbox account
• Actual dropbox folder is set to an external raid connected via USB as NAS is not allowed with business accounts
• Most projects are set to Online Only, with only our current projects set to sync.
• We have a total of ~56TB on dropbox currently
• Locally I have a 500GB NVME boot drive.
• Using Windows 10

Now the issue I'm having is as time progesses and we utilize dropbox as a longterm cloud backup of projects the local cache files (sigstore.dbx, filecache.dbx and checker.dbx) are growing in size.  Currently they're at a total of 50.2GB which is utilizing over 10% of my boot drive.  Very soon this will turn into a critical problem as programs utilize most of the boot drive. I've already had to dump a lot of data off to the network due to space issues on my c drive.

Is there a solution to reduce the size of these cache files, such as removing folders from online only and setting their folders to not sync or be visible locally?  Or will my dropbox folder have to be moved to a slower computer with a larger c drive specifically to handle this data and then share the dropbox drive through the network?  If I do utilize the latter method, what issues can you see arising from a network shared dropbox drive (I'm the only user on this network)?

Thank you for your time

[Daphne]

Hi there @vfxmonster,

Perhaps you can try manually clearing the Dropbox cache folder. I'd only recommend doing this when you desktop app isn't trying to sync, as the cache folder holds the temporary files and may slow down the syncing that's in progress.

Let me know if this helps - thanks!

[vfxmonster]

Thank you for the suggestion.  Where would I find that folder as my dropbox is not on the c drive, but external raid and there's no cache folder in the root of my dropbox folder?  I have hidden files/folders set to visible.

[Daphne]

Hey @vfxmonster,

That sounds strange indeed! Could you try pasting the following code: 

%HOMEPATH%\Dropbox\.dropbox.cache

Into your location bar within the File Explorer like so:

Perhaps that might help you to locate the cache folder. The current location of the Dropbox folder shouldn't affect where the cache folder is located but this should hopefully provide some clarity.

Please just note that if you have 2 accounts connected to your desktop app, then the name of the Dropbox folder is appended with (Company name) or (Personal) and so the code about would look something like : %HOMEPATH%\Dropbox (Company)\.dropbox.cache

Let me know how it goes - thanks!

[Rich]

The sigstore.dbx, filecache.dbx and checker.dbx files are not stored in cache. They're part of the user profile, located in AppData\Local\Dropbox\instance1. Clearing the cache will do nothing to reduce their size.

The files can be deleted (when Dropbox isn't running), but Dropbox will simply re-index your data and recreate those files the next time it runs.

If you have a large Dropbox folder, in terms of file size OR file quantity, the re-index process could take a long time.

Those files are a required part of the Dropbox process and are best left alone.

[vfxmonster]

Hi Rich,

Thanks for the insight.  That's what my research was pointing to as well and unfortunately it seems the only option.  I was really hoping dropbox had some hidden way to relocate those files and redirect any calls to them to a new location.  If they can't be moved then I'll have to move this dropbox account to a dedicated machine with a higher capacity/slower sata drive as the boot drive.  Which leads me back to my original question, is it possible to share the dropbox folder across a network as a shared drive and are there any complications of this methodolgy?

[Rich]

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@vfxmonster wrote:

... is it possible to share the dropbox folder across a network as a shared drive and are there any complications of this methodolgy?

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The Dropbox folder is just a folder like any other. You can share it using whatever means are available in your OS, but it's not suggested to do so.