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Mac
40 TopicsDropbox 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?Solved13KViews3likes51CommentsMac seems to think HD is full of DropBox files?
I'm using a Mac and have about 100Gb of DropBox folders, many are local on my HD as well (I have DropBox Plus 2Tb plan). I went through and changed all files to online only (grey icon) and now my DropBox folder says I have maybe 1GB...but in the finder when I look at overall space on the computer it's still showing HD is almost full! I have "Online only files on Mac" set to ON. I don't understand how DropBox deletes files because I had so much data locally stored and when I changed to online only I never saw anything show up in the Trash on my Mac...so I don't know how the files are deleted from my computer? How can I fix this so my computer doesn't think the HD is almost full? Thanks, Alan.Solved12KViews1like24CommentsDropbox cache maybe not emptying and I can't find the Dropbox cache folder on Mac
UPDATE: I rewrote the post as I gathered more information. I'm a MacBook Pro 2019 user, OS Sonoma 14.2.1. I don't know where to retrive my Dropbox version, but it should be up to date as I always do updates when prompted. I suspect my Dropbox cache is overloaded, and I guess it is not emptying itself for some reason. Unfortunately I have no way to verify this, as I can no longer find the cache folder. I tried with the usual Command+Shift+. in order to show hidden files, but I can't see any cache folder in the Dropbox folder, and I can't find it not even using the go-to-folder with the command~/Dropbox/.dropbox.cache. Also I can't find any longer the "limit my cache" option anywhere, so I can't test whether putting a limit can solve the problem. Here are the reasons why I suspect a cache problem. In the latest days Dropbox continuously reported me the "hard disk is almost full" warning. I have stored no huge files locally recently, but I have downloaded a lot of big files from the internet in the last 15 days or so. I guess a mean value of 10 GB per day. I stored them online only, and I know Dropbox cache should empty automatically after 3 days, so I don't expect these files to take more than a maximum of 30 GB of space (due to cache delay) on my local hard drive. Then yesterday morning Dropbox stopped syncing as reported my hard disk was full. I deleted some huge file I had locally and some useless software I had installed in order to make some room and allow Dropbox to continue syncing my files. ThenI checked the "Storage" option in System Preferences, which reports 218,2 GB used out of 250,69 total. I have no such a huge amount of files locally, I'm sure I always keep local files under 100 GB. The Mac "Storage" statistics confirmed this: summing app everything they report from Applications to Documents to iOS backup files etc I get a total of 56.44 GB used. But the total used space reports 218,2 GB. So I did a test: since yesterday I downloaded locally from Dropbox only some music albums I need in order to sync my iPhone with iTunes (my iTunes library is stored online only in Dropbox), I guess no more than 2-3 GB, so if the Dropbox cache was working well I expected today to find a total of 218,2 GB - 10 GB due to cache auto-emptying + 2-3 GB due to fresh downloads = 210,2-211,2 GB used. But it reports me 222,6 GB used. That is: it added the fresh downloads to the used space of the hard disk but it didn't delete anything from the cache. Also, I had a similar problem a couple of timesin the past, and I always solved it byemptying the Dropbox cache as described above, a thing that unfortunately I can no longer do as the cache folder doesn't show up. A further problem, possibly related: I noticed that files in some folder tend to go online-only automatically, a thing they never did before. I have no clue about the criteria with which Dropbox chooses which file to put online-only this way, but I guess it's happening mainly in those folders which I otherwise periodically set manually to online-only in order to keep my hard disk ordered. Indeed in many other folders which I always kept available offline none of this seems to be happening. So all in all I guess something is not working properly with the cache. Of course I can't be sure of this, but the point is that it seems I have no longer any means to verify this. So could you help me to understand what's going on? And could you help me in order to understand how can I check the volume of the Dropbox cache? Thanks a lot, VanniSolved7.5KViews1like12CommentsCannot Make Files Online-Only On Mac
I am essentially out of space on my computer despite having plenty available in the cloud, and the hundreds of gB's I'm using are taking up space on both my dropbox and my computer itself. When I right-click the file within Finder, there is no option to "make online-only". I have already turned this feature on as well as enabled the extension from the dropbox website. I have also already authorized all the necessary permissions within the macOS settings themselves regarding Finder extensions. Despite this, and multiple restarts amidst days of troubleshooting, I am at an impasse as my workload is backing up and so before I am brutally forced to switch to Google Drive for the foreseeable future, I figured I would try and solve these issues here first. I am on MacOS 10.15.1 (Catalina), and so this is my first culprit. I would love to avoid updating for the time being, although I'm aware this may be the problem. Any advice would be vastly appreciated. Thanks!5.3KViews0likes14CommentsTrying to copy a folder from an external drive to Dropbox, but get error about the disk space.
Hi all, I have just upgraded to Dropbox with 2 TB of storage. I am trying to copy a folder of 76.62 GB from an external hard drive to Dropbox which has 1.84 GB in it. I am getting the message: Not enough disk space to copy...Aditional 2 GB of disk space his required to copy this file. You can manage disk space by removing items from the Storage section of About this Mac. I have already made files Online Only. What am I doing wrong?Solved5.3KViews1like19CommentsKeeping Online-Only files at DropBox Due to Insufficient Local Storage
Please point out where I have gone wrong: At Setting/General, Online-only files on Mac set to “ON” as per appendix 1 At Finder (Mac), Open the Dropbox folder, Right-click the file or folder you'd like to set to online-only, expect to click on “Make online-only” but no such option at my desktop (MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6). Not sure why! The Local Hard disk is still clogged-up with DropBox files that I want to convert to online-only, as per Appendix 2. Please advise the steps required to clear out the files. Do I need to carry out file deletion? Next, I tried to transfer more files into DropBox (from an external drive) expecting no local hard disk space would be used since the new files are online-only. However, the same error message, as per Appendix 3, appears. Questions: What other settings are needed in addition to setting to ON for “Online-only files on Mac”? Why is there no option at my right-click on DropBox folders or files to pick “Make online only” What additional steps are need to read/paly my online-only files, apart from being connected to Internet. Do I need to delete the existing files at the Local Disk to free up the occupied space after my files become online only?Solved5.2KViews0likes3CommentsUnwanted 'update' to Macos on File Provider causes multiple issues - excessive disk use being one
After 10+ years of happily using Dropbox both private as for business, I got the invite to update to use Macos on File Provider. The update ran smoothly in itself, but: 1) I lost around 120 GB of disk space (free was 225 GB/1TB, free is now 101GB/1TB). Mac tells me that folder size in the new location is 497,46 GB (in 81k items) but if I look online, I am only using 331,8 GB (of 2TB). This issue is unacceptable for me, I plan to use this laptop for a few more years but I am now already on the edge of storage resources (10%). 2) I cannot access Photos anymore. Just a few weeks ago I moved my photo library to my current laptop and obviously put it in Dropbox because I want a hassle-free sync-experience. Not anymore, alas. This is also unacceptable. And, no, I don't want to partially store my files online-only. I am over 50, meaning that my primary storage is at home and online is back-up (irrational, I know, but he, those are my photos and god knows what) My question is simple: can I please revert to the old situation?Solved4.5KViews5likes5CommentsDropbox is taking up all of the space on my harddrive
Dropbox is killing me. I have 2TB of space on my laptop, Dropbox is taking up almost 700gb of it, despite all of my files being set to Online Only. I've also followed the steps suggested by other users to toggle "Online Only files on Mac" which appears to have done nothing. I finally resorted to deleting the Dropbox app with the intent of re-downloading it, hoping that that would clear out whatever data it is supposedly storing, but when I deleted the dropbox app, the folder in the finder window still stayed there, and is STILL showing 700gb of storage being taken up. I can't seem to get rid of it. Can anyone give me any advice?4.5KViews3likes20CommentsHard drive full of system data on macOS, how can I change it?
Dropbox eats up computer memory in the form of system data, although all folders are not set to "offline available", but can only be viewed online. How do I fix the problem? The computer has 500 GB of hard disk space, 78 GB are my documents, 53 GB are apps, macOS 20 GB and 340 GB (!) of system data. The computer's memory is actually full, and the memory for system data keeps growing as soon as I delete files. Some new files cannot be saved (simple text documents) because there is supposedly not enough memory. I hope someone can help me…!4.1KViews0likes19CommentsReal folder size won't show in Finder
Hello, I am looking to resolve an issue I'm just experiencing now for the first time. When I do a command + i to see the size of a dropbox folder on my finder, the finder now just show me the size that the folder take locally. Before I could see the size of the full folder + the local size. For example, I have a folder of 20 go with 5 go of it accessible offline : Before the finder was saying "20 go (5 go on the local disk)" Now the finder show me "5 go (5 go on the local disk)" Here is a screencaps that illustrate the issue : To the left I have the folder "PLAN 1" in the dropbox via finder, it indicates 25 ko for 551 elements To the right I have the exact same folder on my back-up hard drive, it indicates 42 go for 551 elements (the real size of the folder). So my question is, how this feature suddenly disapperead and how can I make it come back ? It is an essential part of my business to be able to check precisely the amount of data I have ! For info, I'm running Ventura 13.6. One of my attempted was to update de MacOS because the problem started when I was on Monterey. Thanks a lot ! 🙂3.8KViews1like22Comments