Keeping Online-Only files at DropBox Due to Insufficient Local Storage

[khinkeh]

Please point out where I have gone wrong:

1. At Setting/General, Online-only files on Mac set to “ON” as per appendix 1
2. At Finder (Mac), Open the Dropbox folder, Right-click the file or folder you'd like to set to online-only, expect to click on “Make online-only” but no such option at my desktop (MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6). Not sure why!
3. The Local Hard disk is still clogged-up with DropBox files that I want to convert to online-only, as per Appendix 2. Please advise the steps required to clear out the files. Do I need to carry out file deletion?
4. Next, I tried to transfer more files into DropBox (from an external drive) expecting no local hard disk space would be used since the new files are online-only. However, the same error message, as per Appendix 3, appears.

Questions:

1. What other settings are needed in addition to setting to ON for “Online-only files on Mac”?
2. Why is there no option at my right-click on DropBox folders or files to pick “Make online only”
3. What additional steps are need to read/paly my online-only files, apart from being connected to Internet.
4. Do I need to delete the existing files at the Local Disk to free up the occupied space after my files become online only?

[Walter · Accepted solution]

Hey @khinkeh, thanks for posting on our Community and sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

Can you please confirm that you've set your files to be online only on your machine following these steps? You could also tell by taking a look at the syncing icons of the files inside your Dropbox folder.

If you have already set them to be online only and the desktop app is 'up to date' in your menu bar and not still syncing, you could also try clearing the cache folder.

Let me know of any updates!

[khinkeh]

Thank you so much for your excellent guide.

I have been successful in changing all my uploaded DropBox files at the local storage to online-only. As soon as the the syncing is completed, I will clear the cache files to vacate the hard disk space

[Walter]

Glad I could help @khinkeh

See you around the Community and have a lovely weekend!