Help me debug Dropbox on my Mac
January 4, 2016 9:41 PM Subscribe
Dropbox seems to have put me 500G over my internet usage limit. Please help me debug, and explain to me gently if there's something fundamental I'm not getting about Dropbox.
I have an arrangement with an old employer ("Dave") to be on call in case he gets sick and can't produce a regular weekly paper he's responsible for. For this, I've been linked to his Dropbox account.
(Once in the past I changed computers and blew out my internet usage limit because Dropbox re-downloaded several hundred gig from Dave in the background over a few days. This isn't the current situation but it's background that might be useful. Dave keeps a lot of files in his archive.)
In October I noticed how much of my disk space was devoted to mirroring a lot of Dave's stuff, some of it quite old. I asked him if he could cut down on the number and age of the files I'd have access to. He agreed to this and I got some disk space back.
However, when I checked my internet usage this evening I found I was way into the red to an extent that may cost me several hundred dollars. Looking at Dropbox, I see this followed soon after Dave put 17887 files into the shared folder.
But what's confusing me most is that I have not lost any disk space, or in fact any disk space at all, to this event. All that throughput and no files on this end – can someone help me figure out what's going on here?
I have an arrangement with an old employer ("Dave") to be on call in case he gets sick and can't produce a regular weekly paper he's responsible for. For this, I've been linked to his Dropbox account.
(Once in the past I changed computers and blew out my internet usage limit because Dropbox re-downloaded several hundred gig from Dave in the background over a few days. This isn't the current situation but it's background that might be useful. Dave keeps a lot of files in his archive.)
In October I noticed how much of my disk space was devoted to mirroring a lot of Dave's stuff, some of it quite old. I asked him if he could cut down on the number and age of the files I'd have access to. He agreed to this and I got some disk space back.
However, when I checked my internet usage this evening I found I was way into the red to an extent that may cost me several hundred dollars. Looking at Dropbox, I see this followed soon after Dave put 17887 files into the shared folder.
But what's confusing me most is that I have not lost any disk space, or in fact any disk space at all, to this event. All that throughput and no files on this end – can someone help me figure out what's going on here?
I bet Dave is doing something like modifying lots of large image files (or other compressed files) in the shared Dropbox folder. Every time he saves, your machine is downloading the new file.
Selective Sync will help you control what files are being sync'd, which will help. Another option would be to quit/disable Dropbox entirely, which will stop the syncing. Then just launch it and sync only when you need it (like if Dave is sick). You'll still have to download all the changed files, but just once, rather than every time he saves a new file throughout the day.
posted by zachlipton at 1:22 AM on January 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
Selective Sync will help you control what files are being sync'd, which will help. Another option would be to quit/disable Dropbox entirely, which will stop the syncing. Then just launch it and sync only when you need it (like if Dave is sick). You'll still have to download all the changed files, but just once, rather than every time he saves a new file throughout the day.
posted by zachlipton at 1:22 AM on January 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
Yep, what they said.
You can also uninstall Dropbox from the machine and delete the files. Then you can access them online when you need them. Sneaky movezorz.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 1:33 AM on January 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
You can also uninstall Dropbox from the machine and delete the files. Then you can access them online when you need them. Sneaky movezorz.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 1:33 AM on January 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Syncing isn't your problem; Dave is.
Selective Sync will only help you to the extent that you can trust Dave to behave rationally and responsibly. For example, let's say you use Selective Sync to unsync from all of Dave's folders except the folder "Foobar" which only has 100 MB of files in it. Terrific, now only 100 MB of Dave's files will sync down to your machine, right? Right. Except . . . there is absolutely nothing that stops Dave from putting another 500 gigabytes of files in the "Foobar" folder tonight and re-creating the problem for you tomorrow.
If you don't think you can trust Dave to behave consistently and predictably (and it seems you can't), your best bet is to use Selective Sync to not sync any of Dave's folders to your desktop. You will still be able to access Dave's files through the dropbox.com website. If you need to work with those files more directly (say, because Dave got sick), you can always choose to start syncing the desired folders again.
posted by gritter at 4:46 AM on January 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
Selective Sync will only help you to the extent that you can trust Dave to behave rationally and responsibly. For example, let's say you use Selective Sync to unsync from all of Dave's folders except the folder "Foobar" which only has 100 MB of files in it. Terrific, now only 100 MB of Dave's files will sync down to your machine, right? Right. Except . . . there is absolutely nothing that stops Dave from putting another 500 gigabytes of files in the "Foobar" folder tonight and re-creating the problem for you tomorrow.
If you don't think you can trust Dave to behave consistently and predictably (and it seems you can't), your best bet is to use Selective Sync to not sync any of Dave's folders to your desktop. You will still be able to access Dave's files through the dropbox.com website. If you need to work with those files more directly (say, because Dave got sick), you can always choose to start syncing the desired folders again.
posted by gritter at 4:46 AM on January 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
Best answer: If you only occasionally need access to the files, then I would disable the desktop Dropbox app entirely (don't allow it to start automatically, and then don't open it - or uninstall it) or don't sync ANY of Dave's folders, and just use the dropbox.com website. It's actually pretty good for accessing and previewing files and folders; you can even move stuff around and copy/paste.
If you do end up needing to download a bunch of large files, then you can always fire up the desktop app and use Selective Sync to only download the folders you need, and then stop syncing/disable/uninstall it once more. Beware though, Selective Sync is a blacklist rather than a whitelist, so every time a new folder is added to the Dave's Dropbox, it will automatically download, unless you go in and uncheck it from the Selective Sync list. We have Dropbox for Business at work, and when I share folders with people like Dave who are constantly changing lots of stuff, I usually open the Dropbox app, and immediately pause syncing, while I go in and look at the folders in Selective Sync to make sure I'm not inadvertently downloading any of their folders unless I really need to.
posted by bluefly at 5:01 AM on January 5, 2016
If you do end up needing to download a bunch of large files, then you can always fire up the desktop app and use Selective Sync to only download the folders you need, and then stop syncing/disable/uninstall it once more. Beware though, Selective Sync is a blacklist rather than a whitelist, so every time a new folder is added to the Dave's Dropbox, it will automatically download, unless you go in and uncheck it from the Selective Sync list. We have Dropbox for Business at work, and when I share folders with people like Dave who are constantly changing lots of stuff, I usually open the Dropbox app, and immediately pause syncing, while I go in and look at the folders in Selective Sync to make sure I'm not inadvertently downloading any of their folders unless I really need to.
posted by bluefly at 5:01 AM on January 5, 2016
Response by poster: Dave fessed up to moving a lot of files around for archiving at the end of the year, so now I know. But it looks like my arrangement with Dave is coming to an end soon, so this hazard is also going to end. Thanks all for your observations and advice.
posted by zadcat at 1:03 PM on January 5, 2016
posted by zadcat at 1:03 PM on January 5, 2016
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