zero bytes when copying

[Laurie P.4]

When I copy "online only" files to my mac or external drive, they SEEM to copy but they do not.  So I have hundreds of "ghosts" on my mac drives. I need to search and destroy them because it's beyond frustrating to open what LOOKS like a real file to discover that it is ZERO BYTES and doesn't in fact exist.  What I'm trying to do is copy files from dropbox into an external drive keeping the dropbox files as backups. It isn't working. Copying isn't taking place. How can I copy files from dropbox without removing them??????????????   I saw an online answer that referred to a gear and "permissions." There is no gear and no permissions when I open dropbox on my mac. 

[Jay]

Hi @Laurie P.4, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

When you move the files to the external drive, do you give enough time for the Dropbox desktop application to download those files in full?

Does this occur for all files, or only those with a cloud icon on them in Finder?

This will help me to assist further!