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Forum Discussion
Dropbox uses a ton of hard drive space despite most files being online only
So, I've put ALL my files on online-only because my Mac was running out of space.
In my Mac settings, Dropbox takes up 108 GB currently. Once I actually look at what folders are taking up space it'...
Is it possible that the hidden Dropbox cache folder is taking up space on your machine?
Try deleting the folder using these steps to see if this helps.
Hey Jay (once again ;-),
I made a screenshot of the main Dropbox folder, and also all of those folders within that.
Blurred out everything I needed to.
Jay
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffIs it possible that the hidden Dropbox cache folder is taking up space on your machine?
Try deleting the folder using these steps to see if this helps.
I have recently selected "online only" for nearly all my files that have been stored both on my MacBook Pro and on Dropbox so as to provide more space on my MBP hard drive. When I started this process, I had only 4.7% of the hard drive available and now after about 18 hours of syncing, I have only 2.5% remaining. I would have expected that of the hard drive space, the amount available would have increased not decreased. Why is this happening?
- Rich
Super User II
webatbcp_on_db wrote:
I would have expected that of the hard drive space, the amount available would have increased not decreased. Why is this happening?
Have you checked the .dropbox.cache folder, as Jay mentioned in the post just above yours?
dude this has been happening to me for over a year now and idfk what to do. no matter what I try, and I've tried everything I can possibly think of and anything anyone else has suggested online or in person, and still nothing changes. i have dropbox set to online only by default and it still doesn't change. and I constantly go back in and make my folders online only, but they somehow manage to change back to being available offline anyways. it's killing my hard drive and it seems like there's no fix. everyone I've talked to about this is just as clueless as I am. Please please PLEASE let me know if you figure/figured something out to fix this. I'm desperate lol
- Walter
Hey urm8s8n, sorry to hear you're having issues with this.
Can you please let us know your device's exact OS version and the version and status of the Dropbox desktop app as shown in your menu bar/system tray at the moment?
Do you happen to be using any 3rd party apps that might be monitoring your files in your Dropbox folder on your computer perhaps?
If you could also send us a screenshot of where you're spotting this discrepancy, I'd appreciate it.
Hi Jay,
I encountered exactly the same issue - the dropbox take me 500GB hardrive space where the actual local file size is 200GB. I tried all the methods that you mentioned as above but it only free 12 GB which basically means nothing.
This issue has been 1 year actually. I did all online research, keep dropbox and OS version up to date, but there isn't any improvement at all.
Could you please your let your team look at this issue? I believe it's dropbox sofeware problem because I can see many users have the exactly same problem that cannot be solve. This is significantly affect the user experience. There is no point to use a cloud drive that take 3 times file size of the local drive.Thank you
- Hannah
Sorry to see that you're having this issue, Unknown abstracts.
What is your computer's OS and version?
Also, what's the version of the Dropbox app and the sync status at the moment?
You can see this info by hovering over your Dropbox icon.
Hi Hannah,
Thanks for replying. My computer OS is macOS ventura 13.5.2. The dropbox syncing is up to date.
I'm having the same issue on Windows, but this doesn't work. I had already previously cleared the cache. i don't see the option to make online only when I right-click, I only see manage hard drive space. Once I do this, Dropbox says successfully done, but it's not actually doing anything, because once I go back to manage hard drive space, it shows the space Dropbox is consuming as if I had done nothing.
- Nancy
Sorry to hear this, eroberts. Can you send us a couple of screenshots of what you see on your device (including the options you see when right-clicking on your Dropbox files and the size of the cache folder)?
I’d also like to know the syncing status and app version of your desktop app.
Hi Nancy,
Please see attached. It stopped syncing, informing me that the Dropbox is full and I need to clear files. I had tried clearing the cache several times and this didn't make sense at first because I was getting these messages but there weren't many files in the cache. On about the 5th time, I noticed some files were in the old_files folder and I cleared those and some space was freed up. However, the next day, it filled right back up again. I then checked the cache again and only 34.2 MB of space is being used. The old_files folder is also still empty.manage hard drive space - fulldropbox status even after running manage hard drive spaceno online only option on right clickmanage hard drive space - cleareddropbox versiondrive full even after running manage hard drive space
