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Forum Discussion
Dropbox full due to invisible automatic backup?
Hi, I have a serious problem and hope someone here can help me with it. I've enjoyed using my Dropbox free plan for a lot of years now, up until about a month ago. The size of my Dropbox is 1...
I had the same problem.
This was the solution for me:
Sign In to dropbox.com
Click the grid icon in the top-left corner.
Click Backup from the menu that appears.
Dropbox Backup will open in a new tab.
Click the tree dots to the right of the disk you no longer want to backup and choose Delete.
JvdMaarel wrote:...
I get the impression that Dropbox is trying to sync my photo library, even though the backup function is turned off and I don't see these files appearing anywhere in the Dropbox folder.
...
Hi JvdMaarel,
According your description, Dropbox' Backup isn't turned off, despite your impression. Did you try turn backup off according to "Turn off computer backup" section in pointed topic. If not, try out and on point 6 there select "Keep content in folders on this PC/Mac", not "Leave content in Dropbox".
JvdMaarel wrote:
...- Where is this hidden backup stored? I can't see those 7.56 GB of data anywhere.
...
🙂 You are almost giving answer to your question. It's hidden! 🤷 Make hidden files visible in your Finder and you will see them. 😉
All folders you have selected for backup are moved already into Dropbox folder. On their initial places are only aliases! Take care when you delete something; this thing gets deleted locally too. You can lost valuable data in such a way!
Hope this gives a way and clarifies matter.
Hi Здравко , thanks for your reply.
I know it would seem that way, but those things are the first things I changed/checked after I searched Dropbox support and google for similar problems.
I did disable the backup and the hidden files and folders in the Dropbox root show contain no significant data, see my screenshots:
I had the same problem.
This was the solution for me:
Sign In to dropbox.com
Click the grid icon in the top-left corner.
Click Backup from the menu that appears.
Dropbox Backup will open in a new tab.
Click the tree dots to the right of the disk you no longer want to backup and choose Delete.
... and here a view of the Photos (new) folder which doesn't reside in the Dropbox folder. It contains thousands op photos and seems to depict the contents of my Apple Photos library.
JvdMaarel wrote:... and here a view of the Photos (new) folder which doesn't reside in the Dropbox folder. It contains thousands op photos and seems to depict the contents of my Apple Photos library.
Hi JvdMaarel,
The folder you labeled "Photos (new)" is virtual folder accumulating all pictures/photos residing somewhere within your account. This folder doesn't match to exactly one real folder while all your pictures aren't residing on the same place/folder. Similar virtual folders are those representing pictures, documents, audio, etc. in your mobile phone, for example.
You can find out exact place of every one photo by click on it and open the side pane there if not open yet:
In info pane you can see exact folder containing particular photo and go to there by click on the path, if you want:
Once you know the place where those photos reside on, would be able figure out where they come from (or have come from) and how, I believe. 🙂
Good luck.
Hi Здравко ,
Thanks again! I haven't been able to try it though:
I'm glad to announce my problem has been solved this morning. Because Dropbox didn't sync anymore, I decided to move my main documents folder (around 5 GB) to the Onedrive I got with our Office365 Family account. Because I always used Dropbox, I never looked at that medium.
As soon as I had moved those 5 GB, my Dropbox was suddenly cleared of the unfinished backup/sync, meaning my Dropbox was nearly empty and the approx. 8 GB that had somehow disappeared were freed again as well. The virtual Photo's (new) folder doesn't display any pics any more either.
On Onedrive, my data still is only 5 GB in size, so that looks good, no ghost pictures have appeared over there. The Onedrive iOS app looks pretty similar to the Dropbox app, so I think I'm gonna stick with that cloud-service for now. My plan over there comprises 1 TB in size, so I got lot's of room to spare. 🙂
After some 10 years of Dropbox, maybe it's time for a new start!
