Download Dropbox Files To Pc __EXCLUSIVE__
Ela Hartley
So today, just out of nowhere, I noticed all my Dropbox files have gone online-only. So I click on the clouds with the arrow down to download them to my MacBook. However, I noticed that as it's downloading, it's taking up space as well!!!
I had 110GB of space with all the Dropbox files on my local computer. Now that everything shows online only and I'm downloading to my local computer, I'm losing space for things that were on my local computer. It's like every file is taking space twice.
I never use the online-only feature. I tried once last year, it moved my files online only but didn't make any space. And when I downloaded back to my computer, it started taking more space. GOD save me from this ....
This video shows how in one of my dropbox folders, suddenly images are suddenly showing up with little cloud icons (online only) when they were originally offline (this is happening in all of my folders, I'm just showing you one of them). It also shows that when I simply open one of them, it makes it offline, but does not add the green checkmark. But when I simply choose "make available offline" rather than just opening it, it puts it on my computer but gives me the green checkmark this time (and as a reminder, none of my offline files ever had green checkmarks next to them after the conversion to the new mac cloud organization switch):
This video shows that when I add a new folder/file to the root dropbox folder it always gives me a green checkmark. But when I add a folder or file to any of the already existing folders (in this case the "Active" folder) it never gives me a green checkmark...unless after I add it, I go and click "make available offline". Obviously when I add something and don't set it to "online only" it should automatically get a green checkmark, right?
But, the main issue is that many of my offline files (not all of them like the OP) have suddenly appeared as online only, even though they are clearly somewhere on my computer taking up the space already. Going through and re-setting them to "available offline" begins to take up double the space on my hard drive, just like the OP.
(Just noticed that when I quit the Dropbox app, the checkmarks and cloud icons remain. In the old structure, they used to disappear. Not sure if this means anything) (this is after quitting the dropbox app on my macbook):
I unchecked mine a few days ago because I wasn't sure they were necessary, and that may have caused the issue (will wait to hear from your support person). I rechecked them yesterday and no more of my offline files seem to be changing to "online only" anymore, but all the ones that suddenly changed, and there are thousands of them, still remain as online only and I will have to manually change them, but I fear it will duplicate the hard drive space necessary and want to hear back from tech support first.
My computer is up to date with syncing, but the main issue remains...that a ton of my offline files suddenly had a cloud icon next to them (online only), which is forcing me to redownload them, even though they seem to be on my computer. I just can't figure out how to tell where the original files are, because in the new dropbox folder in the new cloud storage location there is only a blue dropbox icon and not a folder scheme. I am waiting to make sure I have to re-download all the files that have suddenly become "online only" vs you giving us a proper solution that will solve the issue. I don't want my computer to suddenly be taking up twice the space necessary if these file are actually still on my computer.
What I saw was random deletions of over 10,000 files/folders in the space of less than 33 seconds. Even with the best will in the world - not to mention the fastest fingers - this just isn't possible. Especially considering that some complete folders, and in some cases just files within folders, disappeared at 13:30 BST yesterday, all within 33 seconds (according to the event log).
Next step is to request a refund of my yearly plan as I cannot have something that intervenes in my workflow like this and then wastes half a day (and counting) trying to figure out what's missing. I guess the only silver lining is that I have a Dropbox business account, so files are kept forever. Small benefit, but a good one at this stage.
I keep opening tickets, but just keep getting sent links to the info I have already tried. Dropbox shows no deletion event, but the files are definitely missing. Anyone have an idea on how I can get my files back?
I had similar occurrence and I have loads of questions... I am accessing Drobbox thru few Linux, android and one windows 10 machine. I had thousands files deleted from random locations including some client files which is really serious. It is unfortunate if I lose my own work files as it will set us back to the latest backup... which is few days old... but if I delete files belonging to clients that is a catastrophe as I could loose the customer. I only caught this because the number of deletions was so large 5000+ files maybe about 50GB and I got notification from DB. I have experienced lost files in DB before. At the time I taught maybe they were accidentally removed by someone or my kid got hold of the the keyboard and played with the delete key... we did not see them missing within the 30 day grace period so we lost some pics and documents... now I am not sure that was the case.
This time the files were deleted at the same moment from various different locations. they were also different types pics, PDFs, office files, text, code, binary simulation data, cad drawings etc. So most likely this was done by software (operating system, file browser (I use nautilus and file explorer) or malvare). Human could not have done it manually in the time given.
What is curious that I was not able to recover some of the data from deleted files which are supposed to remain there for 30 days but I did find that data from the backup few days ago... so not all missing data remained in the recovery folder. My concern is... did I recover all the lost data or is some of it still missing or is some of the data clients shared with me missing. Also according to DB deleted files page the oldest deletion happened week ago although I use DB folder for work about every day so there should be deletions for almost every day for the last 30 days. Do I see the deletion in recovery page if shared folder is deleted by someone else than me?
It doesn't. If files have been deleted, then either you, another process on your computer or another device linked to your account had to initiate it. Dropbox cannot delete your files without being told to.
Restore one of the files that was deleted, then look at the previous version history for that file. It will tell you where the deletion originated from (hover your cursor over the timestamp to the right). If it shows you or your computer as the one that deleted it, and you didn't do it, then something on your computer did.
As I'm the only person with access to this particular set of documents, and that it has happened in such a localised area but in huge volume (i.e. 10,000 files!), it has to be something to do with Dropbox itself.
Got a new Macbook Pro. Downloaded the Dropbox app - when I go into Finder and click on Dropbox - there are no files there. When I go to the web or my iMac - files are there. Any thoughts on how to solve this - I have been searching on the Internet all day and can't seem to find a solution. Any answers are greatly appreciated. Thank You!
I use dropbox for work, but only use a select few files and can easily just go onto dropbox online to download the files I need. I had the dropbox app installed on my laptop, but hundreds of other colleages files were downloading onto my laptop and using up all of my hard drive space. I have completely unlinked and deleted the dropbox app from my laptop, but all of the files are still there in my files. Is it safe for me to now delete these files from my laptop since I have removed & unlinked the app, or will it delete the files from others' dropbox?
Same problem: My Dropbox is full because I am linked with lots of other peoples' files that I don't need. "Selective sync" does not exist. Can I delete files from my dropbox archive (via Macbook-Finder) without deleting them from other peoples' archive?
I'm a long time Dropbox user, I've run into an issue with my Dropbox desktop application "Syncing 20 files" constantly for the past few weeks, though I've seemingly not changed anything about how I use the app. This is a problem that's already been well documented in the forums for various reasons, so I'll list all of the things I've tried using other forum posts:
When opening up the Dropbox folder, I've Alt-Click to expand and view all files and folders in the drive. I've then slowly scrolled through to view the status of each file and folder (you have to sometimes wait for Dropbox to update that many green checks / blue sync icons). Doing it this way, I couldn't find any file that wasn't either a Green Checkmark or a White Checkmark/Grey Cloud. The only folder that shows a blue sync icon is at the very top level:
While running, the app isn't taking up a relevant amount of CPU doing this, and it continues to sync new and changed files properly... so that's good. This wouldn't even be such an issue except that if I check network activity in the MacOS Activity Monitor, I can see that sometimes (but not always) it's constantly uploading or downloading packets of data, larger than just a few bytes (like 0.5mb every few seconds). Also worth noting that it will never change to below 20, but for example if I add 1 new file, it will briefly say 21, before that new file then syncs and it returns to being stuck at 20.
It may also be worth noting that when first starting the app, it will give a short time estimation to sync the 20 files, which will slowly increase for a few seconds, until it hits 30 or 40s, and then that estimation text will disappear entirely:
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