We are aware of the issue with the badge emails resending to everyone, we apologise for the inconvenience - learn more here.

Forum Discussion

dazdagen's avatar
dazdagen
Explorer | Level 3
4 years ago

How long does it take to switch a file from Local to Online-only?

I uploaded a file that was 140Go by simply copying into my Dropbox folder and waiting for it to sync. It took about 5 days as I have 100Mbs on the download but 10Mbs on the upload only with my Spectrum connection.

 

Now I wanted to save space on my computer and switched it to "Online-only" but it's been two days and it still says "Downloading filename"... 

 

How long am I supposed to wait? If I knew I would have to do the same thing twice, I would have selected "Always upload online-only" from the beginning... I thought that once it is synced on the Dropbox folder, it wouldn't take too long to switch to Online-only...

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thank you for your help.

  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    Hey dazdagen, thanks for your post and happy Monday!

    Switching a file from local to online-only shouldn't take that long.

    What's the sync status on the Dropbox app now? You can see that, if you hover your mouse over the Dropbox icon in your system tray/menu bar.

    Can you also try restarting your computer to see if that helps?

    Let me know what you find!
    • dazdagen's avatar
      dazdagen
      Explorer | Level 3

      Hi there, 

      Thanks for your reply. It STILL says "Downloading the file"... And it's been five days nonstop!

      Now this has taken more time than when I was uploading the file... At least before it said where it was at like "120 Gb left etc..." but now it doesn't say anything.

       

      Restarting my computer?? Wouldn't that ruin the progress and start everything from scratch?

      If you confirm that it won't, then I'll go ahead and try that right now!

      Thanks for your help

About View, download, and export

Need support with viewing, downloading, and exporting files and folders from your Dropbox account? Find help from the Dropbox Community.

Need more support

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!