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Does Dropbox take up hard drive space on my computer?

Does Dropbox take up hard drive space on my computer?

magnum33
Explorer | Level 3
Go to solution

Why does Dropbox store all of its files in my "User" folder on my hard drive? The whole point of using Dropbox was to keep my hard drive free of  all the files. I'm now out of disk space due to the Dropbox files.

1 Accepted Solution

Accepted Solutions

Rich
Super User II
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You've misunderstood the purpose of Dropbox and how it works. Dropbox not a cloud-based folder or drive where your files are only stored online. It's a file synchronization service, meant to keep a copy of the files that you save on your local drive in-sync with the copy in your account and on any other linked computer. The Dropbox folder on your computer is a folder like any other and it takes up space on your drive.

 

If you want to save space on your local drive then you can use Selective Sync to remove the local copy of certain folders. Just know that you'll only be able to access those folders through the Dropbox website if you remove them from your computer. Also, make sure that a folder is completely synced (green check mark) before you remove it with Selective Sync.

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3 Replies 3

Rich
Super User II
Go to solution

You've misunderstood the purpose of Dropbox and how it works. Dropbox not a cloud-based folder or drive where your files are only stored online. It's a file synchronization service, meant to keep a copy of the files that you save on your local drive in-sync with the copy in your account and on any other linked computer. The Dropbox folder on your computer is a folder like any other and it takes up space on your drive.

 

If you want to save space on your local drive then you can use Selective Sync to remove the local copy of certain folders. Just know that you'll only be able to access those folders through the Dropbox website if you remove them from your computer. Also, make sure that a folder is completely synced (green check mark) before you remove it with Selective Sync.

Ed
Dropbox Staff
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[This thread is now closed. If you have a similar or new question, you can ask here: https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/forums/postpage/category-id/101001000]



Ed G
Community Manager @ Dropbox
https://dropbox.com/support


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farrahouz
New member | Level 2
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then no point of paying every month for just sync service
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    farrahouz New member | Level 2
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    Ed Dropbox Staff
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    Rich Super User II
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