dropbox smart sync still taking up space mac

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Now that we understand how Smart Sync works, let’s highlight three implications of the technical architecture.

#Dropbox smart sync still taking up space mac windows

The Minifilter and Dropbox.exe interact using Windows Interprocess Communication - a collection of technologies supporting communication between different programs.

Windows makes the file available to the user.

Dropbox.exe goes out to the Internet and downloads the file from.

The Minifilter contacts the Dropbox.exe process and asks it to get the file.

So when you request an “online-only” file not yet on your hard drive: The answer: Dropbox.exe - the process run when you launch Dropbox on your desktop. We don’t use system extensions to read or write filesĬlearly the Minifilter isn’t downloading the files from. We don’t use system extensions to parse any data in the filesystem We don’t use system extensions to make network requests However Dropbox says otherwise (the Minifilter is a “system extension”): Windows Interprocess Communication (IPC)Īt first, we thought that the Minifilter component did all the heavy lifting, downloading content as necessary. The next section examines how that works.ģ.

Notepad displays the contents of the file.

Windows next calls ReadFile, which returns the contents of the file.

The Minifilter, seeing that the file’s contents have not yet been downloaded, arranges for the file’s contents to be retrieved from and saved on the local PC.

But before invoking ReadFile, Windows intercepts the operation and notifies the Dropbox Minifilter that a program would like to read the contents of notes.txt.

Notepad calls the Windows API ReadFile function to grab the contents of notes.txt.

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TXT files), passing it the full path to notes.txt. Windows starts Notepad (the program associated with.Its contents have not yet been downloaded to your computer. Suppose you have an online-only file called “notes.txt” in your Dropbox folder. The arrangement is fairly technical, but the following example illustrates the basic concept.

#Dropbox smart sync still taking up space mac driver

When you access a file in your Dropbox folder, demanding to see its content, a Windows Minifilter driver ensures that the file’s contents are quickly fetched from. Windows file system Minifilter driver technology

Very efficient!īut what happens when you try to access the zero-content file? That’s where the next technology comes in…Ģ. As a result, you can see the file on your system but it consumes almost no space on your hard drive. So when you create a file on, the file’s information (its “metadata”) is immediately downloaded to your computer but none of the file’s contents are transferred in that operation. NTFS Sparse File functionality allows Dropbox to create an “empty shell” for any file - with all the usual information (name, size, etc.) but with none of the actual content. Smart Sync leverages a trio of Windows capabilities: How Smart Sync works: Supporting technologies PS: Our levels of support and turnaround times (24 hours for Dropbox for Business users ) can be found here too.Indeed, Smart Sync has been a very popular feature since its debut in 2017. I hope this works for you and thanks in advance for your cooperation.

If this persists, send us a screenshot of the discrepancy on the space used as you see it on your computer and we'll take it from there. Note that your account should then take a few moments to re-index your Dropbox folder and sync any pending changes before returning to normal activity.

Your Dropbox will then prompt you to re-enter your account information.

Click the gear icon and select Preferences… from the menu.

Click the Dropbox icon from the menu bar.

In the meantime, could you also try unlinking and relinking your account to the affected computer following these steps? Moreover, can you please check your inbox and let me know if you see my colleague's email? Is it possible that you are not getting our emails? In regards to the email correspondence you had up until now with us, I ran a small search on our system and I was able to locate your support ticket and the agent working on it has already provided you with an update. First off, sorry to hear about the issue you have been experiencing so far with Smart Sync.