Smart Sync is a Dropbox feature that helps you save space on your hard drive. Access every file and folder in your Dropbox account from your computer, using virtually no hard drive space. Smart Sync is available for Dropbox Plus and Professional customers, and members of Dropbox Business teams. With Smart Sync, you can:
With Smart Sync, content on your computer is available as either online-only, local, or in mixed state folders.
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Online-only contentOnline-only content appears in the Dropbox folder on your computer, but doesn’t use the full amount of space that the file otherwise would. You can see the file, but the content isn’t fully downloaded until you need it. Only information about the file, such as the file name, location, and date the file was updated, is downloaded. |
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Local contentLocal content is downloaded and saved on the hard drive of your computer. You can directly edit these files from applications on your computer. This content is still backed up to Dropbox as well. |
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Mixed state foldersMixed state folders contain both local and online-only content. |
When you start using Smart Sync:
Note: To use Smart Sync, you need to install the Dropbox desktop application on your computer.
You can open a file as usual through your application or Finder. Dropbox downloads the entire file to your computer.
To sync a file or folder without opening it immediately, you can make it local:
You can open a file as usual through your application or Windows Explorer. Dropbox downloads the entire file to your computer.
To sync a file or folder without opening it immediately, you can make it local:
Watch this video to learn more about using Smart Sync.
If you haven’t opened files and folders in a few months, they’ll become online-only. To change this setting:
Note: This feature is only available to Dropbox Plus and Professional users.
Smart Sync works on Microsoft Windows 7 and above and on Mac OSX 10.9 and above.
Using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) to access Smart Sync files is not supported. You may experience errors or files may appear to be empty when trying to open a file that is Online-only.
Usually, setting files to be online only will free up space on your hard drive within minutes (as long as your computer is online and able to sync to Dropbox). However, there is a known limitation with macOS 10.13 (High Sierra):
Apple's operating system macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) uses a new type of file system called APFS. With APFS, the operating system takes snapshots of the file system and available hard drive space. These snapshots may not update after you've used Smart Sync to set Dropbox files as online only. This means that hard drive space you freed up with Smart Sync may not be immediately reflected or available if this snapshot hasn't updated.
This hard drive space should eventually be freed up by the OS, but the amount of time this will take can vary. This isn't a behavior specific to Dropbox, but instead the designed behavior of macOS.
Follow the steps to change the selective sync settings for your folders. Once your folders are no longer selectively synced, they automatically become online-only folders.
No, making a file online-only doesn't delete it from your Dropbox. When you make a file online-only, the file content will be deleted from your computer, but the full file will still be available in your account online and on your other devices.
Online-only files use a small amount of space on your hard drive to store information about the file, such as its name and size. This uses less space than the full file.
Some applications you're using may need to re-sync files to your computer's hard drive to function properly (like applications with a "recently viewed" menu). In some cases, Dropbox will attempt to switch the file back to online-only as soon as possible to minimize usage of your hard drive space.
No, online-only content isn’t stored locally on your computer. Connect to the internet to access online-only content.
Yes, you can move online-only content inside the Dropbox folder on your device, and changes sync to your other devices. If you move online-only content outside of the local Dropbox folder, the content downloads to that location.
Any actions taken on an online-only file sync to your Dropbox account and to anyone else who shares that file. Since the file isn’t stored on your computer, the file content will not be available in your trash. You can restore deleted files from your Dropbox account online.
Learn more about restoring files.
You can use your desktop search to locate online-only files and folders by name. However, online-only files don't contain the full contents of your file, so your desktop search can't search file contents.
Yes, Smart Sync settings are unique to each device you link to your Dropbox account.
Yes, if a folder is online-only, you can download individual files inside the folder.
Yes, if you don’t want files to appear on your device, you can use selective sync. Selective sync helps you choose which files appear in your desktop application, and which are only available online.
Smart Sync is available for all Dropbox Plus, Professional, and Business users. If you connected a personal account (Basic) to a Business account, Smart Sync won't be available for that personal account.
Yes, Smart Sync requires enabling a driver (or system extension) in order to integrate with your operating system’s filesystem.
Mac and Windows computers commonly use drivers to interact with peripherals such as mice and printers. Our driver allows the Dropbox client to sync files on your filesystem when you open them (for online-only content). We engineered this driver to only provide the integration necessary to power Smart Sync. It only interacts with files inside your Dropbox storage location.
Whether you're new to Dropbox or just need a refresher, get the most from your Dropbox account by taking advantage of our self-guided learning or virtual instructor-led training classes.
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