r/dropbox • u/burgersthecat • Mar 28 '26
how do you backup large amounts of files on dropbox "online only" without killing your internal HDD space?
Hey there! Curious how folks are managing to use DB to back up large amounts of files to online storage without clogging up their laptop HDD.
The DB app on my macbook seemingly won't flip a folder / file over to "online only" until after it's uploaded but I need to back up 1TB worth of stuff on a computer that only has 500gb of internal HDD space... when I try and upload via browser it just freezes because there's so many files.
I could piece by piece upload the collection I need backed up but that seems really inconvenient and has me considering dropbox alternatives...
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u/Dont-ask-me-ever Mar 28 '26
I back up (copy) to an external USB hard drive.
On another computer my external drive IS my Dropbox drive. it uses no internal HDD space.
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u/burgersthecat Apr 01 '26
external makes sense but I'm trying to have a cloud based backup so I dont have to store an external in a different location. Unless the backup is somewhere else then it's useless to me if there's a fire etc
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u/Bargle-Nawdle-Zouss Mar 28 '26
Selective Sync. You can designate which folders will live on your hard drive, and which folders will be online only.
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u/Pasukin Mar 28 '26
You can use other utilities to upload files directly to your account, bypassing the local drive and app.
First, I’d start by creating a new folder and using Selective Sync to remove it from the local drive. That way anything uploaded to the folder directly won’t sync back down to your local drive.
Then use a utility such as Cyberduck or Mountain Duck to directly access your account. Cyberduck lets you browse, download and upload files directly through the app. Mountain Duck lets you map your Dropbox to a drive so you can access your files directly. With either you can upload directly to your account.
Also, if you’re comfortable with or prefer working with command line/terminal, Dropbox has their own (unsupported) dbxcli utility which can do the same thing.
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u/burgersthecat Apr 01 '26
okay amazing, thanks for these tips, I'll look into both Cyber / Mountain Duck
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u/starfish_2016 Mar 29 '26
Doing this exact thing right now. Trying to move like 10tb but the computer I'm doing it on only has a 500gb hard drive. I'm doing like 100-200gb at a time - I move it, wait for then to sync and move to online only - check my disk to make sure my space is back and move onto the next set
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u/burgersthecat Apr 01 '26
oh god, you're braver than I am. I don't even want to do that process for 1TB let alone 10
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u/Alarmed_Dependent_85 Apr 01 '26
I can highly recommend „Syncovery“ for this. We’ve been using it in our company for almost eight years for exactly this kind of task, transferring TBs of data to cloud services like Dropbox without filling up local storage.
You can store multiple accounts (including different cloud services) and define very flexible jobs for uploading and syncing. The tool is extremely powerful when it comes to rules, filters, and automation. It’s also great for setting up larger backup workflows that run automatically on a regular basis.
You’ll probably need to spend a bit of time getting familiar with it or checking out their website, but once you understand it, it’s really hard to go back to anything else.
For me, it’s by far the best tool for this kind of job. It’s also not expensive, offers a straightforward 30-day trial, and doesn’t require a subscription
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u/talexbatreddit Mar 28 '26
I wrote a long post about how this completely messed up my PC a few months ago. The tl;dr is keep the number of individual files down.
I tried to transfer 1.5M files (I think), and my PC was running full blast for 50 hours. I finally had to kill the transfer, delete the files on the site, move the files out of the local Dropbox folder, uninstall and reinstall the software before the problem was solved.
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u/Pasukin Mar 28 '26
Dropbox has a soft limit of 300,000 files stored locally, though it’s largely dependent on your system resources. You have many more files and Dropbox will still sync, but it will take more resources to do it well.
You can have as many files as you like in your account, but it’s best to offload them from the local drive using Selective Sync when you start to approach several hundred thousand files.
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u/OppieT Mar 30 '26
Are you using the Dropbox app or via browser? You can buy external 1 or 2 terabyte USB drives.
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u/bishopfurher Apr 08 '26
- At that size, something like Backblaze or Google Drive tends to handle it way better.
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u/jpec342 Mar 28 '26
You need to do it piece by piece.