I uninstalled Dropbox from my computer, but the Dropbox folder still takes up space on my hard drive

[dups2788]

I use to have a dropbox account (using company email credentials) from a company I have worked for before and now after leaving the company and unistalling dropbox, my Win10 is still saying I have around 28GB on that work folder.

Another thing. When I go and right click on the dropbox folder and go to properties, its saying:

Size: 800GB

Size on disk: 28.4

Why do I have 2 different folder sizes?
And, how do I delete everything dropbox in my PC (Dropbox already uninstalled, I do not see it in apps)

[Hannah · Accepted solution]

Hey @dups2788, thanks for joining our Community and happy Monday!

Uninstalling the Dropbox application, won't actually free up the space the Dropbox folder is taking up.

But if your computer has been unlinked from the account and Dropbox is uninstalled, you can delete the Dropbox folder from your computer, to free up that space.

The discrepancy is probably because you used to have most files set to online-only in your Dropbox folder.

That would turn them into placeholder files, with no physical size.

I hope this helps, but let me know if you have any questions.

[dups2788]

Thanks Hannah. 

Is there a way to move this folder from to another drive while keeping all its contents?

Its currently in my C drive, and when I try transferring it to my other hard drive, its transfering the whole 800GB instead of the "placeholder" file of 28GB.

If I can transfer it, does the 800 GB transfer or the 28GB placeholder file?

[Rich]

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@dups2788 wrote:

Its currently in my C drive, and when I try transferring it to my other hard drive, its transfering the whole 800GB instead of the "placeholder" file of 28GB.

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It can only transfer the 28GB of data that's actually on your drive. The transfer window will still show 800GB because Windows knows that's the size of the files in the folder, but their not taking up that much space on your drive because they were marked as online-only. Also note that any files that were marked as online-only will be inaccessible now that Dropbox has been uninstalled.

[Jay]

Hi @dups2788, as @Rich states, Windows knows the actual size of the files, and the size it should be.

When the desktop app is uninstalled, moving the folder wouldn't download the full 800 GB of files, only the files currently local on the machine.

[dups2788]

Thank you, that makes sense. 

[dups2788]

Thank you, great help.