You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.
Dropbox uses a ton of hard drive space despite most files being online only
So, I've put ALL my files on online-only because my Mac was running out of space. In my Mac settings, Dropbox takes up 108 GB currently. Once I actually look at what folders are taking up space it's less than 2 GB (you can see in the screenshot what I mean). What is taking up all this space?
Online-only files still taking up space on hard drive and Dropbox cache doesn't exist
Hi, Im referring to a Mac (OS 14.5 Sonoma) I have 600GB of files that are supposed to be online only, they have the cloud icon and arrow next to them, but still take up the same amount of space as if they were stored locally. They dont seem to be local though as if I want to open a file it starts downloading. I have also noticed that if I remove a file from drop box and delete, and empty trash the amount of storage stays they same, like its still there. I have tried following instructions on here to delete drop box cache but the folder doesnt appear . The only hidden file that is revealed is 41kb file called .dropbox. I would add screenshots but there doesn't seem to be an obvious way. Anybody able to help ??
MacOS Dropbox folder location change and free disk space discrepancy
Apparently Apple started requiring File Providers like Dropbox to move their folders to ~user/library/cloudstorage, leaving only a folder alias at the original location. This caused problems in the beginning with file searches but these finally got sorted out. What is strange is that I recently replaced my laptop and after reinstalling Dropbox, the new default folder location is where it originally was, not in library/cloudstorage, and it's no longer an alias. I'd like to change this on my [older] home computer but I'm not sure if this is wise or even supported. I should mention that I'm running the newest Dropbox beta release, and the Dropbox helpdesk is encouraging me to reinstall Dropbox using the latest 'stable' build and not the beta. Does anyone have any experience with this? Second issue is a question of free disk space. I use PathFinder instead of the Mac Finder but these two utilities give different values for the remaining free space on disk. When determining the amount of free space, the Mac Finder seems to ignore the Dropbox folder entirely wherever it might be whereas PathFinder does include it. In other words, the Mac Finder [erroneously] lists an additional amount of free space equivalent to the size of the Dropbox folder. The Mac Disk Utility agrees with PathFinder's assessment of the amount of free space. Does anyone understand why this happens?
Can I have the same files on two different computers with different hard drive sizes?
I should be really grateful for some foolproof advice please - that is, so I cannot mess it up. My iMac has a nice big 2TB hard drive and every file sits on it within the Dropbox folder in Finder. My MacBook has only a relatively small hard drive and I have been too nervous to install the Dropbox app. So instead, I have to download from the Dropbox webpage whatever I need to work on and then upload it back when I have finished - all very time consuming. I'd very much like to install Dropbox on my MacBook in such a way that a few selected folders which I need regularly automatically sync - they would then be on the MacBook's hard drive and if I amend them, that change would automatically happen online too. And to have the rest of the folders visible in Finder even though not on the MacBook's hard drive so that I can easily open them when I need (provided that I have internet access at the time) I think this is possible and, if so, I'd be really grateful for a step by step instruction in simple language ! Thanks so much
Mac Finder continues to show large size of Dropbox Folder despite everything being online-only
Hi, everyone. Thanks in advance for your help, wisdom, and support. I have a problem several others have experienced, but none of the solutions I found here seem to be working. Simply put, I have around 300 GB in my Dropbox folder and have everything set to be online only (or so I assume?) Mac finder is still showing this 300 GB as being used, and it is affecting other uses that require a lot of space (video editing, audio sample packages, etc.) I do need that space back. "Space Lens" in CleanMyMac shows the proper amount of space used ( a bit under 500 GB of my 1TB built-in drive on my MacBook Pro M1. Here are the specs: Macbook Pro M1; 16GB RAM; 1Tb drive OS: Sonoma 14.5 Dropbox Desktop Version: 204.4.5420 I have searched the Dropbox folder for the ".dropbox.cache" file, but it does not exist. Here is a screenshot of the only files that appear after invoking "shift-command-.": Here is a screenshot (blurred for privacy concerns) of what the folder's directory looks like. Unless I'm mistaken, shouldn't all of these files be online only?: The Dropbox directory resides in the "Cloudstorage" in the Library, which is precisely where I believe it should be. Any help or insight the community can offer would be tremendously appreciated. Many thanks in advance! JS
