Smart Sync El capitan is not freeing storage space

[Luca_winemaker]

Hi:

I have a Mac wit little storage space. I suscribed to smart sync to enable having access to files only as connected. It changed nothing. Big files still appear to use storage space, no changes, and I still payed for smart sync.

I am using OSX El Capitan 10.11.6.

Thanks for your help, 

cheers, 

[Jay]

Hi Luca, are all the files on your desktop marked as online-only? When upgrading to Dropbox Professional or Business, it doesn’t automatically make your local files online-only, though it is enabled for any files in future.

Try Ctrl-clicking the Dropbox folder and make it online-only. This will replace the files with placeholders, which are tiny in comparison. This change can take some time depending on the number of files on your account.

Let me know how it goes.

[Luca_winemaker]

Hi Jay,

Yes they are marked all as online only.

Still no changes. When I filter the biggest files in my Mac all pictures and movies of dropbox seem to take the physical space in my Mac.

[almorry]

I have this same issue. Dropbox how can this be fixed?! I only upgraded for this feature!

[Jay · Accepted solution]

Do the icons have a cloud icon next to them?

If so, the files are definitely online-only, and should only take up a fraction of the space.

You should be able to confirm this by viewing the ‘Get info’ window and then the ‘size on disk’, which should be much smaller than the reported space.

If this is true, then it’s simply that the Mac OS is unable to see that the files are in fact much smaller, and is saying that you’re low on space.

Let me know if this helps!

[Luca_winemaker]

Hi Jay, 

Attached a secreeshot of the 'get info' on one of the biggest files I have.

For the biggest files I checked and all seem to say the same: zero bytes on disk. Which I guess means it is working. But actually it isn't since my Mac does not recognezie they are online. So even if they are online, my Mac cannot work properly with low storage. 

How do I ensure that my Mac 'knows' they are online. Smart Sync is still not fulfilling It's main purpose!

thanks

[Luca_winemaker]

Could not load the screeshot, but you get the idea right?

[Jay]

Thanks for the details, since it confirms that the file is 0 bytes, but the Mac cannot detect this, I’d recommend contacting Apple for further assistance on how to get the Mac to recalculate the space, as Smart Sync is working as it should.