Egad! Dropbox is Filling Up Our Computers!
My husband just did an experiment while I wasn't on a computer. He turned off our wifi and then went to Dropbox from his computer. Using File Explorer on Windows, he went into the Dropbox listings and opened all sorts of files that we aren't using these days... old files from books I've written and a variety of other things. But he knew he wasn't actually online as his gmail wasn't working, nor was the music streaming that we often have going from Radiotunes.
We thought these Dropbox files were in the cloud only (hence the picture) , but somehow they are also cluttering up our SSD drives. Hmmm, what to do? Well, it seemed like a good thing to toss out here to the rest of you. Is it simply a setting we need to change so that the Dropbox files will only be in the cloud? Or WHAT?
UPDATE: Yes, there are settings within Dropbox, and I'm still studying them But I will leave this post here for anyone else who might need it. And here are the help files I am studying now:
https://help.dropbox.com/guide/individual/how-to-sync-files-...
Recent Comments
7
Rosana that Dropbox keep everything , the name say it all it's a box where everything drop into , so it actually store a lot of files , you will definitely sort it out
Richard advised is wonderful , thanks for sharing , because I didn't know that so much file were store in the Dropbox
The kind of Dropbox you use (free or one of various paid choices--we use Plus) affects how you can sync. From their site:
Dropbox offers two different features that help you save hard drive space while still ensuring all your files are safely backed up to Dropbox. Smart Sync is available to Dropbox Plus, Family, Professional, and Business users. Selective sync is available to all users.
Hi Rosana
In Dropbox, you can set a file or folder to online-only or local (which is the word they use to mean on your computer).
To set a file or folder to online-only manually, using Smart Sync:
Open File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac).
Open the Dropbox folder.
Right-click the file or folder you’d like to set to online-only.
Hover over Smart Sync.
Click Online Only. If you’d like to save your file back to your computer’s hard drive again, click Local.
I think that should do it although I haven't tried it myself.
:-)
Richard
Wow, I have used drop box for a while and never knew this. I suppose because it was provided freely. Thanks for the info, Richard,
Learning something new everyday, indeed!!!
Hi Rosana
I believe it is designed so that you can work on files offline when necessary and so that all copies are automatically updated/synced when you go back online.
:-)
Richard
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Indeed, Dropbox will sync to your machine and keep a backup in the cloud. I use it as an offsite backup and it works quite well.
It also works well as a sharing site to share files that you want others to have access to.
When it gets full then I delete some files, but as long as there is space, I keep both.
Alex