Mac seems to think HD is full of DropBox files?

[alanS]

I'm using a Mac and have about 100Gb of DropBox folders, many are local on my HD as well (I have DropBox Plus 2Tb plan).

I went through and changed all files to online only (grey icon) and now my DropBox folder says I have maybe 1GB...but in the finder when I look at overall space on the computer it's still showing HD is almost full!

I have "Online only files on Mac" set to ON.

I don't understand how DropBox deletes files because I had so much data locally stored and when I changed to online only I never saw anything show up in the Trash on my Mac...so I don't know how the files are deleted from my computer?

How can I fix this so my computer doesn't think the HD is almost full?

Thanks,

Alan.

[Nancy]

Hi @alanS, thanks for posting about this on the Community. 

As a first step, can you send me a few screenshots of what you see on your end? 

More specifically, I’d like a screenshot of your hard drive’s space, one of the files within your local Dropbox folder and a last one of the storage taken up by your Dropbox folder (after right clicking on it and selecting “Get Info” from the dropdown menu). 

Let me know when you’ve got more details!

[alanS]

Thanks Nancy,

Essentially I'm trying to make more space on my Mac HD...yesterday it said I had over 100Gb of DropBox files on my Mac (I'm a photographer so that would make sense as I deliver work to clients this way a lot). After I moved all the files (apart from a few) to online only, my Mac still shows no decrease in space being used...?

Here are some screenshots you asked for (showing Documents folder w 300gb but Finder shows it as only 900Mb etc).

Appreciate any help you can offer!

Alan.

[Jay]

Hi @alanS, it looks like  Dropbox is correctly showing the size of the files on disk, being only 308.9 MB for the Dropbox folder, when the full folder would've been 9.48 GB. It seems the OS isn't displaying the correct sizeof the files in the system.

Could you check if the 'Online-only files on Mac' for Mac is enabled here?

Regarding the Documents folder, is it located in the Dropbox folder itself? The last image showing 'Documents' means literally any kind of document located on your machine, not just files in the Documents folder. 

[alanS]

Jay,

Yes, I do have 'Online-only files on Mac' turned to ON (see first message).

You're correct about the issue...my Mac is not displaying the correct storage amount. A few days ago it said I have over 100Gb of DropBox files and only about 15Gb of free space. Now, two days after I've moved all my DropBox files online it's still showing only about 15Gb of available storage.....not possible if I've moved all the DropBox files to online only....why don't I see over 100Gb's of free space on the hard drive?

Thanks,

Alan.

[Walter · Accepted solution]

Hey @alanS, sorry to jump in here, but I just wanted to mention that this space might be taken up by the cache folder that Dropbox creates on your computer.

If the desktop app has finished syncing and it's 'up to date' in your menu bar, you could try deleting it to free up some hard drive space.

Let me know if this helps, Alan.

[alanS]

Thanks for all the replies...in fact the confusion may have been on my end...I have a large Lightroom preview folder which is using a huge amount of space but I think the initial problem was not having the "Online only files on Mac" unchecked..giving me the impression that DropBox was using a lot more space than it was.

Thank you all!

Alan.

[rproco]

I seem to be having the same issue but can't really understand if I've been able to delete the cache. I transferred a large file from an external hd straight to dropbox that is online-only and my system data jumped filling all the space on my hd. I now can't even transfer any file from an external hd to dropbox as it say I need to free up space to do the transfer. I've used the shortcut SHIFT COMMAND (.)period for deleting cache which brought up a greyed out dropbox file but it wasn't labeled cache in any way. I deleted it anyway but didn't solve my problem. Any help would be appreciated as this makes my 2tb dropbox storage pretty useless if I can't even transfer files from and external hd. I did find somewhat of a workaround using dropbox.com and transferring that way but takes forever.

[Hannah]

Hey @rproco, thanks for posting here!

Just wanted to clarify that when you add a file to your Dropbox on a computer, the file will need space to do the initial sync, so even if you've set new files to sync as online-only, you will first need space to sync the file.

After syncing is finished, you can go ahead and switch it to online-only, to free up the space.

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

[rproco]

Hi Hannah,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, this is what I assumed but my hd never frees up after the transfer has completed, even after setting to online-only. Also, to clarify, will the sync need to allocate space on the hd as the same size of the file? I am transferring files generally 70gb and up.