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Forum Discussion
Solved
Online-only files taking up space on my hard drive on Windows 11
I deleted the cache.
I checked the manage hard drive space via the dropbox menu and it also confirms that a ton of space is being used on the drive BUT there are no files listed that I could change...
Does the small files kept on the disk when it's set to online only have some kind of attributes that these file size programs are mistakenly thinking that the files are on the disk?
Look at the Properties window for one of the files and check the Size on disk attribute. This is the true size of the file on your local drive. For example, here's a 679 MB Zip file showing that it takes up 0 bytes on the disk.
Likewise, here's the properties of the entire Test folder, where the Zip file is located, showing that the folder is 691 MB but only takes up 11 MB on the disk.
If these values don't match what you're seeing in the third-party programs, then they may not be looking at the Size on disk attribute for the files.
Tried WizTree also - same results - it sees the dropbox files as the largest even though they are set to "online only"
It looks as if the actual space is NOT being allocated on the C drive BUT it's impossible to use these programs to find large files for cleaning up because they keep thinking the dropbox files are the largest. Can you change the setting somehow so it doesn't count these files and their actual size?
Rich
Super User II
Super User II... it's impossible to use these programs to find large files for cleaning up because they keep thinking the dropbox files are the largest. Can you change the setting somehow so it doesn't count these files and their actual size?
There are no settings in Dropbox for this. It's working as it's supposed to, and your operating system sees it correctly as well. You'd have to go to the developers of the third-party programs and ask them to support online-only files.
The good news is that you can easily filter out Dropbox from the largest files analysis
