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Forum Discussion
Copy files from an Online-Only folder to an external HD without sync to local HD first
Is there a way to copy folders from an Online-Only folder to an external HD without syncing to my computers local drive?
When I try to copy the files, it looks like Dropbox will first sync the file to my local hard drive then copy it to the external drive, effectively taking up space on both hard drives. Is there a way to alternatively do this opposed to filling up both hard drives with duplicate files?
Sweetser Post wrote:
Is there a way to copy folders from an Online-Only folder to an external HD without syncing to my computers local drive?
Download the files from the Dropbox website and specify your external drive as the Save location. Beyond that, no. In order to copy Online-only files to another location, Dropbox must first download them to your local drive.
- Rich
Super User II
Sweetser Post wrote:
Is there a way to copy folders from an Online-Only folder to an external HD without syncing to my computers local drive?
Download the files from the Dropbox website and specify your external drive as the Save location. Beyond that, no. In order to copy Online-only files to another location, Dropbox must first download them to your local drive.
Understood, thanks for the response! Thought I could find a way around it 🙂
Wish there was a better solution as it requires 2 times the space available on the target drive to download files either way. With Dropbox syncing locally then copying the files, I would have to keep writing then deleting from my local drive multiple times to do the complete download.The solution unfortunately effectively does the same I suppose. Requiring space for both the ZIP file and the unzipped files and requiring writing/deleting multiple times from the hard drive.
