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anram's avatar
anram
Explorer | Level 3
2 years ago

Placeholders not visible on PC

I have several online only folders, but placeholders for the folders do not show up on my laptop PC running windows 10. On a second PC connected to the same Dropbox the placeholders for online files ...
Desktop
  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    2 years ago
    anram wrote:

    I have enabled selective sync, an example is as below:

     However on my PC I only see 

    This would be the expected behavior for Selective Sync. The Selective Sync feature is used to remove the local copy of a folder from your computer. It doesn't leave a place holder behind like marking a file or folder as Online-only would.

     

    If you want local placeholders for your folders, go back into Selective Sync and check the folders so they sync back to your computer. They *should* come back as Online-only which would be a placeholder. If they fully sync back to your computer (green check mark), just right-click one or more folders and select Make online-only.

Jay's avatar
Jay
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

Hi anram, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

 

Have you enabled selective sync for those folders, so they're not appearing on your machine?

 

This will help me to assist further!

anram's avatar
anram
Explorer | Level 3
2 years ago

Hi Jay,

Thank you for the response, I have enabled selective sync, an example is as below:

 However on my PC I only see 

 It is interesting that _My Paper doc appears as a placeholder, but my folder names do not

Any thoughts

Thanks

Andrew

  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    2 years ago

    Thanks for the screenshots, anram, they're really helpful!

     

    Can you let us know what the sync status and version of the Dropbox app on your computer is?

     

    You can hover over your Dropbox icon, to see this info.

    • anram's avatar
      anram
      Explorer | Level 3
      2 years ago

      Sync Status is Up to Date and Version is 178.4.4811

      Thanks

      Andrew

  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
    2 years ago
    anram wrote:

    I have enabled selective sync, an example is as below:

     However on my PC I only see 

    This would be the expected behavior for Selective Sync. The Selective Sync feature is used to remove the local copy of a folder from your computer. It doesn't leave a place holder behind like marking a file or folder as Online-only would.

     

    If you want local placeholders for your folders, go back into Selective Sync and check the folders so they sync back to your computer. They *should* come back as Online-only which would be a placeholder. If they fully sync back to your computer (green check mark), just right-click one or more folders and select Make online-only.

    • anram's avatar
      anram
      Explorer | Level 3
      2 years ago

      Thank you. I had misunderstood the difference between Selective Sync and Make Folder Online Only. I now have the functionality I wanted

      • Scratchy's avatar
        Scratchy
        New member | Level 2
        11 months ago
        They certainly have made the explanation as confusing as possible. How about this?

        □ Show ALL folders locally but select
        what's stored ONLINE ONLY

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