Smart Sync lets you make some changes to these files, and you can see their size, as well, letting you easily check storage space. Something you can’t do with Dropbox Selective Sync is preview or alter online-only files in the Dropbox app on your computer.

This can be done either through the “sync” tab or by right-clicking them and selecting “online only” from the Smart Sync dropdown. You can enable Smart Sync for individual files and folders, as well. Your files will be visible and marked by a gray cloud icon, meaning Smart Sync is enabled for them. This is done through the “sync” tab in the “preferences” menu, accessible through the system tray icon. First, you can change your sync settings to only keep files online for your entire Dropbox folder. You can activate Smart Sync in several ways. Here’s our information on the competition and what they have to offer. There are plenty of options out there for you to choose from. Nowadays, most cloud services offer similar functionality, and a lot of them include it in their free plans, as well. This lets you edit your file offline, but when you’re done, you will have to manually set it to “online only” again. However, as soon as you open one of these files in the Dropbox desktop app, it will sync and download to your computer. You can still see the file’s size, but the size on your disk will always be zero.

The file is gone from your hard drive, but an icon remains in the Dropbox folder representing your online file and doesn’t take up hard disk space. When you set a file or folder to “online only” using Smart Sync, you create a copy of it online that’s available to you only on the Dropbox website or the mobile app. Unlike with Selective Sync, you can still see these files in your Dropbox folder, meaning they’re always just a click away. MP4 Repair: How to Fix Corrupted Video Files in 2019ĭropbox’s Smart Sync feature lets you clear space by setting your files and folders as “online only.” This means that they will only be accessible online until you decide to download them to your hard drive.Best Choice Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery.How to Set Up a Strong Password in 2020.How to Securely Store Passwords in the Cloud.Best Password Manager for Small Business.How to Access the Deep Web and the Dark Net.Online Storage or Online Backup: What's The Difference?.Time Machine vs Arq vs Duplicati vs Cloudberry Backup.

Dropbox smart sync icons