You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.
Forum Discussion
Grant W.1
7 years agoNew member | Level 2
Smart Sync and removing local files
Hello,
I'm attempting to convert my dropbox folder on my desktop to smart sync, so that I'm not storing any local files on my harddrive in order to save space. Currently, my folder has some local ...
- 7 years ago
Hi Grant W.1
So first and foremost, Dropbox is a sync solution, not a backup. When sync is turned on, it sync the local file to the cloud. If you delete the local file, it will also destroy the cloud copy. You can directly upload your files for storage using the web client https://www.dropbox.com/home and then that will be stored independently of your local files.
As for the status, if you click on the little dropbox logo in the system tray, it should give you the current sync status of your files.
simone111
New member | Level 2
I'm using a laptop that previously had a coworker's Dropbox synced to it. Her folder is 5 TB, and it's currently taking up a phantom 5TB on the device, even though she has unsynced and any changes I have made to her folders thus far have not reflected her current Dropbox. Am I able to move her entire Dropbox folder -- which seems to only be phantom folders/files as I can't access anything when I try to open -- to the trash?
Megan
4 years agoDropbox Staff
Hi simone111, thanks for posting to the Community!
Has the user unlinked their account from the Dropbox desktop application on the device?
If they have done that, you should be able to delete the content without affecting the content on the user's side.
Let me know how it goes.
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