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Forum Discussion
Download files from dropbox to laptop as Cloud ONLY
We have dropbox professional- use it on two desktops- Our laptop got maxed out-1.7TB in the dropbox on our laptop- So we disconnected from dropbox on the laptop and deleted the 1.6TB of data-- Obviou...
Megan
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHi Robert C.91, let's jump right into this!
Upon downloading the Dropbox desktop app to your device, and during the set-up process, you will see the advanced settings on the bottom of the set-up screen.
If you click on these settings, it'll ask you how to wish to download content to your device. That way, you can choose to make them online-only. Of course, you can always change these settings later on.
I hope that clarifies!
In the process of installing Dropbox we received a "Selective Sync" prompt which says "Select folders to sync to this PC". "Deselected folders will be available only on dropbox.com."
There is no option for "advanced settings".
Are we to understand that if we select folders to sync with our PC, they will be downloaded in full (taking up space). Are we corrrect in assuming this? We have 1.6 TB of data in our Dropbox folders.
I thought if we got the "advanced settings" option ( which we did not) we would see all the names of folders on our laptop, but with just a bit of data, as one of the videos we looked at online said this was a option. When we wanted to use those folders/files, we would actually be going on line to work on the folder.
It sounds like if we do not select any folders, we will not see any of the folders on our computer. We would have to go to Dropbox.com and open them there?
Is this what working ON LINE ONLY means??
Sorry for seeming dumb, but like I said we never received an option to choose "On Line Only" or prehaps we did, just not the way we expected.
- Megan
Hi Robert C.91, there are two different features:
The first one is selective sync. With that option the folders you choose will be removed entirely from within your Dropbox folder, and you'd only be able to see them online. You can always change the settings, using the app's preferences.
And then there's the online-only feature, that allows you to use it on individual files and folders, instead of folders only. And you can see the content locally, but it uses zero hard drive space.
Did you see the option for files to start as online-only during the set-up process?
Hi Megan,
As I wrote before we only got the options of:
"""A "Selective Sync" prompt which says "Select folders to sync to this PC". "Deselected folders will be available only on dropbox.com."
There is no option for "advanced settings"."""
It also says we have over 500,000 files, and Selective Sync would take a very long time to download.
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To catch you up on pervious experice with the laptop- we had been using the Laptop, like we did on our 2 desktops. But the data maxed out the laptop ( over 1.6TB on the laptop) so it would not function. We uninstalled Dropbox from the Laptop several weeks ago, and removed all the files.
We downloaded the Desktop App- but we never got the option of choosing ON LINE ONLY--I was hoping to use the On Line Only Feature, where we could see the folders and files on the laptop.
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Here we are now, we deselected all the files, checked just one small folder-- and then apply.
We now have a dropbox folder on the laptop - with nothing in it-- not even the one folder that we had checked.
I was hoping we could then use preferences- but that does not seem to be available.
What do you suggest? It sounded so clear with your first responce where we could pick On Line Only-- but this had never been an option.
Sould we uninstall Dropbox again- the app just did not work the way we wanted.
Thanks for your help.
Robert
- Megan
Hi Robert C.91, thank you so much for all the details!
So, based on your unique situation, here is what I am going to suggest. You're currently using selective sync and this is why your Dropbox folder is empty.
You could sync back one folder at a time locally to the device, and once the folder is up-to-date and fully synced, you can then change it and make it offline-only. How does that sound?
However, you mentioned, that you can't use the app's preferences in order to sync folders back, can you let me know more about this?
What do you see when you try to navigate there?
