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pbuckland's avatar
pbuckland
Helpful | Level 6
7 years ago

Smart Sync is default to online-only but not working

Hi all,   In my Smart Sync settings, I have the default set to online-only. i.e. new files should be set to online-only.   However, whenever someone adds a new folder+files to my shared folde...
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Team admin
  • Sanchez's avatar
    Sanchez
    7 years ago
    Hey pbuckland, 

    In short, when you disable Smart Sync, the Selective Sync settings will apply. 

    When Smart Sync is enabled on an account, the default settings apply for new content only, so your existing files/folders are not affected unless the Smart Sync settings are manually changed. 

    Since your users are finding it difficult to manage both features, I understand that you want to disable Smart Sync, and have them only work with Selective Sync. Another way to do this would be to have each user set their preferences to Local for new files, go in and change to local any online-only content that they have manually set on existing content, and then only use the Selective Sync settings to manage things. Alternatively, they could select to sync all folders from the Selective Sync settings, and then use Smart Sync to manage it all. 
     
    Cheers
Jane's avatar
Jane
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
7 years ago
Hey pbuckland, 
 
I’ll try my best to shed some light on your inquiries below & thanks for getting in touch on the Community!
 
In my Smart Sync settings, I have the default set to online-only. i.e. new files should be set to online-only.
 
You may bear in mind that, regardless of the default option set by the team admin (i.e. Start new files as online-only), your Selective Sync settings shouldn’t be affected, as the two features can work independently. That being said, if you’ve already Selectively synced your folders, this setting will not change, hence you’ll still be able to see the latest updates online, though these will not sync down to your device. 
 
Of course, you can change the content you have available locally & switch between Selective Sync/ Smart Sync at any time by re-applying your Smart Sync & Selective settings, following these tips. 
 
I hope my advice is helpful to you, though it’ll be my pleasure to follow-up with more details, just let me know your follow-up questions in your next post here. Happy Friday! 
  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
    7 years ago

    Jane

     

    Although pbuckland uses the phrase "selective sync" I don't believe he's referring to the actual Selective Sync feature within Dropbox. I believe his complaint is that even though he has his entire Dropbox set to Online Only, new folders that are added within a share are still being downloaded to his computer. I don't think Selective Sync is actually being used here.

    • Jane's avatar
      Jane
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
      7 years ago

      Could be so @Rich, though I'm curious as to whether my assumptions matched his experience, hence I focused more on what  @pbuckland described initially. I may be wrong, so if this is the case, I hope I’ll be given the chance to modify my initial advice in my next reply below… :upside_down:

      • pbuckland's avatar
        pbuckland
        Helpful | Level 6
        7 years ago

        Hi,

        Thanks for the replies. Let me try to clarify a little.

         

        I have a shared folder, a sub-folder of this, and many many folders under this.

        Something like this:

         

        - Shared folder
          - Sub folder
            - Folder 1
            - Folder 2
            - Folder 3
            - Folder 4
            - ...
            - Folder 195
            - Folder 196
            - Folder 197

         

        Before Smart Sync started for us yesterday, I had selectively synced only Folder 1 and Folder 2, so only those two showed on my local PC.

         

        When the Dropbox app set up Smart Sync for me, I selected the option to make all other non-selectively synced folders online-only. I then made all of "Shared folder" sync in the selective sync preferences, and the online-only folders now show without syncing locally. All is good in the world.

         

        However, when another user creates a new folder, say "Folder 198", that folder is downloaded to my PC immediately. I would like any new folders like this one to show up, but in online-only mode. I don't want to have to manually set it to online-only once it has syced locally. I thought the setting would make any new folders online-only by default.

         

        Cheers,
        Paul

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