This option will NOT be available if you enabled ASS – this is because with ASS enabled, all files added via are automatically set to online-only anyway. However, if ASS is not enabled, you can configure the Dropbox client on your computer to automatically set files added to to online-only. If you enable Automatic Smart Sync (ASS), all new files you add to your account are automatically set to online-only. However, if an application needs a file to function properly, Automatic Smart Sync temporarily sets that file as local – then, automatically return it to online-only later. ASS allows you to set files you haven’t opened from your computer for a few months to be set to online-only automatically.

Automatic Smart SyncĪnother important term of Dropbox Smart Sync is Automatic Smart Sync (ASS). However, you must be connected to the internet to open an Online-Only file. With Dropbox Smart Sync, you can still open an Online-Only file from your computer. What you see on your computer is a placeholder. However, you can still see the file or folder on your computer but is is not an actual copy. This allows you to decide which files are only available online – on your account on and not saved on your local hard drive.Īs I already mentioned in the first section of this guide, when you set a folder or file as Online-Only, the file is saved only online and not on your PC. To help understand this Dropbox technology, this section explains some of the terms associated with Smart Sync. What makes this tech great is that, even though a copy of the file is not saved on your local hard drive, the file or folder still appears on your hard drive – not as an actual file but as a placeholder. This technology saves you hard drive space by not saving or syncing a copy of the file and/or folder to your computer. Smart Sync is a Dropbox technology available on its desktop clients that allows you to manually or automatically set some files and/or folders to be available only on – saving you hard drive space on your PC or Mac.

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