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Forum Discussion

Fowzie T.'s avatar
Fowzie T.
Helpful | Level 6
8 years ago

Smart Sync storage issue on macOS Sierra 10.12- macOS High Sierra 10.13.3.

I'm really confused, the premise of smart sync is to free up local storage. This is a screenshot of a folder which contains about 2GB of data.  Am I doing something wrong?   https://www.dropbox.c...
Mac
Sync
  • Jane's avatar
    Jane
    7 years ago
    Howdy folks,
     
    I’m , I’m working on the Community team at Dropbox & I’m posting here so as to stir this discussion towards a different route. Without further ado, I’m going to split this thread off into a number of different ones, as I’d like to avoid any confusion in regards to the topic or the status of this conversation. 
     
    Why are you splitting the thread?
    For context, this thread has been around since last February & a number of very separate (and now resolved) Smart Sync issues have been reported here. This separation was triggered as we like to group distinct issues together to better help users discover relevant content, advice and to help self-resolve.
     
    Don’t worry, no information is being removed, we are however moving some posts into other threads & for that reason, I’m going to include links to all the new threads at the bottom here. 
     
    As an example, this thread contains a lot of information & troubleshooting around an issue we experienced on Mac OS 10.13.3, something now resolved. We wouldn’t want people on 10.13.4 to attempt troubleshooting steps that weren’t relevant to their current state.
      
    But I still have my issue!
    We’ve moved all the open discussions into separate threads listed at the bottom. Apologies if we missed yours! Regardless, anyone who has opened a ticket with Support, that ticket will remain open and is unrelated to this split. 
     
    So, has this been solved forever? 
    The initial behavior reported here has been, however this thread has become a single point for a vast number of other Smart Sync posts,  some of which should have their own threads, some open, some now resolved.
     
    Where do I post Smart Sync comments now?
    Either in one of the below threads - or, if they don’t match the behavior you're getting, you may feel free to create a new one! :slight_smile: As this thread will remain public, you may also use it as a point of reference, so as to let us know of any troubleshooting steps you've followed from those mentioned above. 
     
    Thanks for your co-operation and please keep the discussion going in the below, or new, threads!
     
     
  • Jane's avatar
    Jane
    7 years ago
    For note, issues caught up in this thread, that should have had their own threads included:
     
    Issue 1: I can’t enable Smart Sync at all: 
    • Usually this was the result of an incorrect installation & in such cases, re-installing anew helped fix the issue. Alternatively, if you were running a Beta version of the Dropbox app on your desktop, you may need to check if this works on the most updated Stable version (Note: It's currently 48.4.58). 
    • Status: :white_check_mark:
    Issue 2: I’m on a Professional plan & I can’t get Smart Sync to work either: 
    • Some users on the Professional plan were experiencing an issue utilizing Smart Sync, as they had needed to enable System Extensions previously, which has been documented on this resource. 
    • Status:  :white_check_mark:
    Issue 3: I’ve made my files online-only, though they’re still using up my storage locally: 
    • In some cases, users reported that Smart Synced files might be locally stored in the cache folder a little longer, hence taking up space. Clearing the cache folder should resolve this issue. 
    • Status: :white_check_mark:
  • Jane's avatar
    Jane
    7 years ago
    Issue 4: I followed the instructions on your resources & set up my files as online-only, though I can see that they’re still taking up space on my pc/ Mac.
    • The Properties (Win) and Get Info (Mac OS) panel will indicate the actual file size instead of the size on disk, as you may expect. “Size on disk” is the space being taken up by a placeholder file and should be around 0kb.
    • Status: :white_check_mark:
    Issue 5: I can see that my Dropbox folder on my Mac OSX (v.42.4.114) reported file & folder size incorrectly, making it look like files were still residing on my hard disk.
    • After further investigation, we were able to determine that the Finder was showing the wrong size on disk for folders with compressed files.
    • Status: :white_check_mark:
    Issue 6: I can’t back-up my online-only files on the TimeMachine migration assistant & whenever it tries to access them, this action brings them back locally. 
    • This is related to the way TimeMachine reads file sizes and is an on-going issue, though this issue lies with Apple’s software. De-selecting the Dropbox folder when restoring if possible will work around this issue.
    • Status: :arrows_counterclockwise:
    Issue 7: Third-party disk management apps report Smart Synced files are present locally.
    • Some third-party app may read the nominal file size rather than the physical size. This is not a Dropbox issue, but down to the way some apps are built.
    • Status: :white_check_mark:

    That's all from me! As usual, I'll be around in case you'd need me to clarify matters in more detail, so feel free to ping me & I'll do my best to check back with you.

Fowzie T.'s avatar
Fowzie T.
Helpful | Level 6

Hi there, if I told you, you wouldn't believe me :) 

 

I got talking to 7 people at Dropbox business and none of them had any clues and in the end I came to a shocking realisation. Basically, the video which you watched about Smart Sync should be taken down as that's false advertising (majorly). Billion dollar company and no one internally is aware of this change and no one is communicating to the support team; who can then answer your question.

 

I've attached a screenshot of one of my folders which is 39.9mb. This folder is only in the cloud and my finder is being 'told' what the size is but it's actually not a local folder taking up space on my HD. Having checked and double checked with various apps to check out my HD usage, it really isn't there. Ok, that's great news, but I genuinely feel sorry for the dozens of folks who were expecting a 'remove' in the menu as illustrated in the video and instead now within the past week or so a new video demo video has cropped up with now only shows 'local' and 'Online Only' as your default 2 options. The guys at DB dropped the ball here.

 

So summarise....it works...just ignore how your PC or Mac is lying to you :D

 

HoosierRon's avatar
HoosierRon
Helpful | Level 6
8 years ago
You are correct. All of the files have left my hard drive. (When I turn wifi off, I cannot access the file; when I turn it back on, I can.) But the computer's operating system is not aware of this fact. So the computer is still reserving all of this space on the hard drive as if the files were still present.

Clearly there is a bug with Smart Sync that needs to get fixed. Otherwise, the whole thing is utterly pointless.
  • RobertJF's avatar
    RobertJF
    New member | Level 2
    8 years ago

    has Dropbox acknowledged this problem? I’m having the same issue. Smart sync is indeed not actually storing files on disk because it has to download them when you try to open, but the operating system (macOS 10.12.3) is still reserving space for the whole file.

    • HoosierRon's avatar
      HoosierRon
      Helpful | Level 6
      8 years ago

      Today I received this.

       

      Hi there,

      Thank you for contacting Dropbox Support.

      Please note that MacOS 10.11 seems to have an issue that doesn't show the folder size when a folder is set to Online-only, however the files are not taking local storage.
      In order to fix the issue, please update your MacOS to 10.12.

      Please let me know if you need any clarification or further assistance.


       

       

      I have not yet tried it, but if you have 10.12.3, I am not hopeful.

      • zadek's avatar
        zadek
        New member | Level 2
        8 years ago

        I am on 10.12.3 and my OS is freaking out because despite having a 500 GB hard drive Dropbox Smart Sync is telling the system I have 950 GB of Documents. I can;t even take a screenshot because there is no space to put it anywhere (well, at least that's what the OS thinks)!

        That's a huge bug, Dropbox just rendered my Mac completely useless!

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