Smart Sync is a feature in the Dropbox desktop app that makes files online-only so they don’t take up hard drive space. This article explains how admins can manage the default Smart Sync settings for their team. Learn more about the Smart Sync feature and what online-only means.
Admins also have the option to uninstall the Smart Sync system extension from team members’ computers.
Not using Dropbox yet? See how Dropbox makes syncing files easy.
Manage your team’s default Smart Sync settings
Team members can manage their own Smart Sync settings or they can choose Let my admin manage this setting in their desktop app preferences to let their admin choose their default settings.
Let my admin manage this setting doesn’t change any existing Smart Sync settings on the team member’s files. Also, team members can still make individual files online-only or local on their own computers or go back to managing their own settings at any time.
To manage the default Smart Sync settings for your team:
- Sign in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
- Click Admin console.
- Click Settings.
- Click Sync.
- Next to Set new file default, click your preferred default setting.
- Click Online only from the dropdown to make any new file added to a team member’s Dropbox account default to online-only, so it doesn’t take up hard drive space.
- Click Local from the dropdown to make any new file added to a team member’s Dropbox account default to local. Learn about the difference between local and online-only files
- Next to Save hard drive space automatically, click On or Off from the dropdown. This setting makes files that team members haven’t opened in a few months automatically become online-only. Learn more about automatic Smart Sync in this article.