User profile for user: hotwheels22
hotwheels22 Author
User level: Level 1
106 points

dropbox use on macbook air

i'm feeling a little brain locked with dropbox on my mac air. i've been running out of space and can't tell if the 150GB on my dropbox folder is actually taking up this amount of room

on my HD. i tried the DB docs and can't figure this out.


obviously it does not take up timm on my iphone even though i can access all the files on my phone.


does anyone know how this works and how i would keep some of the data from taking up HD space if it does take up space?


THANKS FOR ANY HELP

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), 11 inch, early 2015; w/BC WIN 10

Posted on Oct 6, 2016 11:46 AM

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11 replies
User profile for user: Tech198
Tech198
User level: Level 1
84 points

Oct 6, 2016 3:48 PM in response to hotwheels22

with Dropbox there is a difference to iCloud drive in that Dropbox has "selective sync"


When turning this on on selective folders these are removed from Mac, but still appear in Dropbox..


https://www.dropbox.com/help/175


This is one feature i wish Apple would add to icloud drive, so hopefully i will be one. and mainly the number #1 issue why *don't* use iCloud drive..


I had only 256Gig SSD on my Retina, so i don't want everything taking up space, but i do want it in the cloud. WIth Dropbox, u can do that.\ thanks to selective sync.


However the only way around this i found with icloud drive just to simple turn it off.... don't worry about the warning that comes up, since iCloud website still keeps everything... it serves the same purpose as dropbox's selective sync, but its a issue u must go thorough and inconvenient.


Basically....


1. keep icloud drive on

2. drag and drop what u want over to icloud drive folder and wait it to finish.

3. go back under System Preferences, icloud, and disable icloud drive.. to remove contents from mac only

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User profile for user: hotwheels22
hotwheels22 Author
User level: Level 1
106 points

Oct 6, 2016 4:02 PM in response to Tech198

arg. i don't get this.


i have a dropbox folder on my air on the desktop. i have NO files stored anywhere else. is the 150 GB on dropbox taking up 150 GB of space on my HD?? if so, shouldn't it show up in what size or about mac or omni disk sweeper?


ALSO, you are saying that with selective sync i can choose to - well select to have some folders NOT ON THE AIR HARD DRIVE - but accessible to the air if i select it in the dropbox folder?


i mean, files are not stored on my iphone but are accessible to my iphone. if they are stored on my desktop i don't care because i am not running out of room. BUT i would like to know if the dropbox folder is in fact taking up HD space on my air and if so how to prevent this...


and shouldn't i see this shown as taking up space in some of the software i mentioned or in about mac storage...

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User profile for user: kahjot
kahjot
User level: Level 4
2,463 points

Oct 6, 2016 7:21 PM in response to hotwheels22

Anything you keep in the Dropbox sync folder on your hard drive IS on your hard drive as well as on Dropbox's servers. Anything you delete from one will be deleted from the other, unless you set up specific folders to not be synced. You have to be very careful with this, obviously. Mobile devices only access the files stored remotely; since they typically have much smaller internal storage, it wouldn't make sense for them to sync as laptops or desktops do.


if you want to store something on Dropbox's servers that you don't want to keep on your hard drive, or that you don't want to expose to the risk of accidental deletion, you can upload to Dropbox via your web browser. Just drag these files into the browser window that you have opened to your Dropbox account. To keep these from being synced to the Dropbox sync folder on your HD, open your Dropbox preferences, go to "Account" and click on Selective Sync. This brings up a list of the remote folders. Uncheck the folders that you just uploaded via the browser that you don't want to store locally. You should have these files backed up to a second hard drive also, to be safe.


You will be able to see these files from mobile devices. To access them or download them to a computer that has Dropbox installed, you can click on the Dropbox icon in the right side of the finder menu bar. You will see a folder and a globe to the right of the word "Dropbox". Click the globe to open a browser window and access what is stored remotely.

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User profile for user: hotwheels22
hotwheels22 Author
User level: Level 1
106 points

Oct 6, 2016 7:49 PM in response to kahjot

OK. thanks.


so if i am running out of disk space on my laptop HD then i can somehow set a folder or folders - presumable from either my laptop or desktop or even iphone - to not sync with the laptop? or i have to do this from the laptop? and to do this i select the folder and right click and tell it not to sync?


then if i am on the laptop i need to click on the glove icon at the top to view these folder?


i mean, this is a tad confusing. presumably the iphone sees everything. but if i select a folde to select sync somehow then it is only visible if i select the globe icon at least only on the laptop that is...?


THANKS

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User profile for user: kahjot
kahjot
User level: Level 4
2,463 points

Oct 7, 2016 8:26 AM in response to hotwheels22

Yes, on your laptop, set the Dropbox sync preferences to only sync the folders you want to have on your laptop hard drive as well as stored remotely with Dropbox.


I have a 1TB Dropbox account, so it's important to keep the contents from going to laptops with 750 or 1 TB hard drives, or the Mini with its 500 GB drive. The sync prefs had to be set on each machine.


I have been slowly uploading images via the browser interface, which requires recreating the folders in which the images are organized on my computer, since you cannot drag a folder into a Dropbox window in your browser, just files. It's a small inconvenience compared to the possibility of accidentally losing 600+ GB of images from decades of photography due to a syncing error. I would never store that type of stuff in the Dropbox sync folder.

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User profile for user: hotwheels22
hotwheels22 Author
User level: Level 1
106 points

Oct 7, 2016 9:27 AM in response to kahjot

OK. so a big time thank you for the help. i also have really important data here and i have been moving it around. i recently took a LOT off the dropbox folder and put it on my DESKTOP HD in the hopes of freeing up space on the LAPTOP. then i kept getting warnings from dropbox about a large deletion - which i have so far /assumed/ were related to this /movement/ of data. i have to check this today.


anwyay, i do feel particularly thick-headed with this issue and don't want to lose data so a couple more questions please? i AM going to read the dropbox documents one more time but it is not like talking to someone on the forum.


"Yes, on your laptop, set the Dropbox sync preferences to only sync the folders you want to have on your laptop hard drive as well as stored remotely with Dropbox."

> OK, how do i do this again mechanically (like right click on a folder or whatever...?)? also i am setting certain folders that are on the dropbox folder on my laptop to selectively NOT SYNC to the laptop, is that right?


"I have a 1TB Dropbox account, so it's important to keep the contents from going to laptops with 750 or 1 TB hard drives, or the Mini with its 500 GB drive. The sync prefs had to be set on each machine."


OK, got it!


"I have been slowly uploading images via the browser interface, which requires recreating the folders in which the images are organized on my computer, since you cannot drag a folder into a Dropbox window in your browser, just files. It's a small inconvenience compared to the possibility of accidentally losing 600+ GB of images from decades of photography due to a syncing error. I would never store that type of stuff in the Dropbox sync folder."


OK. help me please. this sounds important.


1. you are worried about accidentally going into the dropbox folder on your laptop or desktop (or presumably iphone) and accidentally deleting a folder? for instance in a scenario where you (meaning ME) are cleaning up quick and a quick arrow down shows nothing in a folder so you delete it - only to realize later or not even realize that this was just /showing/ as empty on your laptop because it did not have time to sync all the data into it that you just put in from your desktop...?


2. what is this issue with not being able to drag folders? this is on the web interface?


3. also, i am not sure i understand the importance or need of dealing with the web interface. i thought this was just so that i could RETRIEVE files on the laptop that i set to not selectively sync to the laptop. it sounds like there is a more important issue here related to the way it is stored somehow? i mean, doesn't all the data on the web and all the data on my dropbox folders behave the same in the sense that if i delete a folder called MY GOOD STUFF off the laptop, or the desktop, or the iphone, or the web interface - that this data will have been deleted...?


THANK YOU

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User profile for user: kahjot
kahjot
User level: Level 4
2,463 points

Oct 9, 2016 9:53 AM in response to hotwheels22

You set up selective sync in your Dropbox preferences, under the Account tab. Set this individually for each computer that is connected to Dropbox. You can get to preferences by clicking on the Dropbox icon toward the right in the menu bar at the top of your display. Click on the little gear icon at the lower right of the screen that drops down when you click on the Dropbox menu icon. From there, a menu comes down in which you can select "Preferences". That is where you set up selective syncing, in the Account tab (Selective Sync: Change Settings…).


1. Things happen. If I accidentally deleted something in the Dropbox Sync Folder, it would also be deleted online. If I acidentally deleted something from the Dropbox server, and it was set to sync with my local folder, it would vanish from my local folder. I'm not a rocket scientist, so I don't take that chance with critical files.


2. For whatever reason, you can't drag a folder into Dropbox via the browser interface. You create a folder through the web interface, name it appropriately, open it, and drag and drop files into it, at which point they get uploaded.


3. You can retrieve files not synced to your laptop through the web interface. There isn't anything more to it than that. I choose to NOT keep 600GB of images from various cameras and film scans in the local Dropbox folder.

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User profile for user: hotwheels22
hotwheels22 Author
User level: Level 1
106 points

Oct 9, 2016 10:39 AM in response to kahjot

tthanks SO much for this help kahjot. i think i am finally out of the woods on this one. i have set up a hmadful of large folders in dropbox and plan to keep one or two OFF sync on the laptop. if i find i am needing to work in one of these folders a lot i am going to turn off the others and turn i that one. i could see dropbox giving options for "sync folder presets" that let you do this in one step effectively logging in to various folders and unsymning others. i'm sure this is a big programming chhcallenge but for power users it would be great.

right now if i need a file i find myself reaching for the iphone and emailing it which somehow seems easier since i see it all at a glance....

REGARDS

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dropbox use on macbook air

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