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Forum Discussion
Dropbox is taking up all of the space on my harddrive
Dropbox is killing me. I have 2TB of space on my laptop, Dropbox is taking up almost 700gb of it, despite all of my files being set to Online Only. I've also followed the steps suggested by other users to toggle "Online Only files on Mac" which appears to have done nothing.
I finally resorted to deleting the Dropbox app with the intent of re-downloading it, hoping that that would clear out whatever data it is supposedly storing, but when I deleted the dropbox app, the folder in the finder window still stayed there, and is STILL showing 700gb of storage being taken up. I can't seem to get rid of it. Can anyone give me any advice?
- Walter
Dropbox Staff
Hey kalebseaton, sorry to hear you're having issues with this.
If you've ensured that the app is up to date and not still syncing in your menu bar, could you try clearing your cache and let us know if it improves matters for you?
Thanks!
I have completed deleted the Dropbox app. It's no longer there. But the folder for Dropbox is still in my finder, and still shows that it's taking up 700gb of space
- Walter
If you've deleted the app, then this is a local copy of your Dropbox folder that's taking up the space on your computer kalebseaton
You should be safe to delete it without affecting your files in Dropbox.
Once you reinstall the app, you'll be able to select which folders you'd like to be synced locally on your computer through the advanced options.
dude, the same thing is happening to me but I'm too scared to delete the app. especially if I now have to worry about this happening too. lmk if you ever found an answer please dude I'm desperate
Any updated on this thread? Going down the rabbit hole to find out if there is an answer other than delete cache
- Megan
Hi GiftofGaby, welcome to our Community!
It sounds like you're facing something similar to the OP of this thread, am I right? Would you be able to let me know a bit more info on this, please?
What is the OS you're using, along with the Dropbox version there? What is the exact issue you're going through?
Keep me posted!
I've used Dropbox on my home computer for several years. I don't remember when I checked the use online only box, but I have numerous Dropbox files still on my hard drive that have almost filled it up. Once that box is checked is it OK to delete all the other Dropbox folders on my hard drive? I'm assuming when I checked the online only box it began the online only process but didn't remove the files that had already been stored locally. Since I can't speak with anyone on the Dropbox support team by phone I'm really stuck and frustrated and am considering just starting over with another offering. Can anyone give me some guidance on cleaning up my local disk... what Dropbox folders or other files can I safely delete from my hard drive? Thanks in advance for any proven advice.
- Hannah
Hey rls3800, thanks for your post today!
When you say that you checked the box about the online-only files, do you mean that you enabled the option for new files to sync as online-only?
If so, this wouldn't make your already existing files or the ones you add to that computer online-only, just the new ones added from the website or other devices.
So, if you'd like to switch your files to online-only, select the ones you want (or your entire Dropbox folder), right-click on them and then choose "make online-only".
Let me know how it goes!
Thanks Hannah, I think we're on the right track. What you're telling me is once I checked that box then only new files from that point on went only to the cloud. If that's right, then all the files that went to the cloud previous to my checking that box are both on the cloud and my PC. Therefore I have to indicate on the rest of my data that I only want it backed up to the cloud from now on. If I've got that correctly, in which "entire" Dropbox folder do I select that? Once that's done I'll have more questions about cleaning up the many Dropbox folders on my PC that would appear to have local duplicates of my backup data. It's a mess... just wish Dropbox had a phone connection available for us lowly home users. I need someone to remotely share my system and help me straighten this all out. Anyway, thanks much for the start of what I'm sure will help.
