Dropbox smart syncing

And as projects add up, your hard drive space eventually runs out. But with Smart Sync, space is no longer an issue. Folders, even entire projects, are just a click away. Freeing up space is easy. Move stale files and folders to online-only. Across all levels, Smart Sync has addressed pain points for us and seriously changes the game when it comes to simplifying collaboration.

Normally, synced files are fully downloaded to your computer and they take up hard drive space. Smart Sync is a feature of the Dropbox desktop app that allows you to make files online-only so you can save hard drive space on your computer. You can choose which files to make online-only or let automatic Smart Sync choose for you. However, those files will no longer appear in the Dropbox folder on your computer.

Note: If an application on your computer needs a file to be local to function properly, automatic Smart Sync will set it to local temporarily and return it to online-only later. Online-only files take up a small amount of space on your hard drive because the placeholder requires space to store the file name and the shortcut to dropbox.

To see which files are really taking up your storage space, adjust your Dropbox settings so that online-only files have both logical and physical size set to zero. To do so:. Let us know how we can improve:. Thanks for your feedback! If all is well there, check Windows Defender and your antivirus to make sure Dropbox is whitelisted.

Our why is my Dropbox not syncing? With Smart Sync, Dropbox has taken a step in the right direction. Still, it does its job and is overall a very useful feature.

You can also read our guides to what Dropbox is and how to sync folders outside the Dropbox folder. Thank you for reading. Setting Smart Sync to On Line appears to propagate to folders outside the tree selected. Also, it is not clear if On Line propagates to lower level folders, of if it does, not immediately. Restart your computer or phone. Check your account on dropbox.

Give the Dropbox desktop app full permissions in all of your firewall, security application, and antivirus software preferences and make sure the system extension for Smart Sync is installed.

The steps will vary depending on your operating system and applications. If the Dropbox desktop app is on an external hard drive, check your connection. If you have your Dropbox folder on an external hard drive, make sure the external hard drive is connected and recognized by your computer. If it is, contact support.

Uninstall and reinstall the Dropbox desktop app. Uninstall and reinstall the Dropbox desktop app on your computer. Learn how to uninstall the Dropbox desktop app on Mac, Windows, and Linux. Then, reinstall the Dropbox desktop app. These include:. Make sure Dropbox supports your device and operating system. Some applications automatically save your changes back to Dropbox, while others need to be saved back manually.

You may also have saved it somewhere else on your computer. Search your computer for the file with the search bar in your taskbar Windows or Spotlight in your menu bar Mac. If the file has a lock icon on it instead, that means that it was locked using Dropbox.