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Forum Discussion
Size of files on dropbox harddrive and dropbox.com not corresponding
Why is the size of a folder on my dropbox drive different to the size it is on dropbox website?
- Nancy
Dropbox Staff
Hey annapretorius! Welcome to our forum.
If you don’t mind, I’d like you to send me a couple of screenshots of what you see on your end (both on the Dropbox website and the desktop app).
This way, we can compare both and take it from there.
Thanks!
Thanks I will send some screenshots. I am working on a mac. I dont know if this is the issue with size calculation?
 This is the file size as shown on my Mac.
Why does the file size on my dropbox harddrive, and the file size of the same folder on dropbox differ?
Hi annapretorius,
Haha...😀 Very fundamental question... and there are many different thoughts about. There are 2 main/basic different measure conceptions for multiplication. One of them is, like most others measure units - SI based, multiple by 10 (i.e. 1kB = 1000B, etc.); the other is using power of 2 conception and as closed as possible to the SI standard (i.e. 1kB = 1024B, etc.). Of course many different "hybrid" forms can be seen. The difference you have seen comes from different measure unit concepts in use, most probably. The same file, on the same physical place, can be seen as different sized if observed through different file browsers that use different conceptions. I just made a test:
Here is the same file, as seen from different local file browsers. And here is the same file as appear on Dropbox web:
It's easy to see where what conception is in use. You can decide what's more correct to yourself. 😉 Just keep in mind the possible differences. In all cases the actual file size is the same!
Hope this clarifies matter.
