Dropbox Selective Sync Complete Instructions 2019

What Is Dropbox Selective Sync?

Selective sync of Dropbox is a function in Dropbox desktop app. It enables you to choose which folders to be saved to local computer. Thus, you can only select frequently used ones to be synced locally to free up hard drive space. For those files that don’t be chosen, they are still stored online and you can access them on dropbox.com.

Tips:

• In default, your folders locate both on Dropbox cloud and local machine.
• If you have more than one computers, for selective sync, you should set it up respectively.
• According to above, selective synchronization can help you delete unfrequently used folders or files from desktop. Yet, you should not achieve this by manually remove items from local Dropbox folder, for it will also delete them from other linked devices and make them unavailable for people you share them with.
• Selective syncing of Dropbox is not available in mobile phones/cellphones/iphones and in android/iOS systems.
• If you are a user of Dropbox for Business, Dropbox pro or Dropbox Plus, you are recommended to use Dropbox smart sync to replace Dropbox selective sync, the former is more advanced.

How to Selective Sync Dropbox?

Where is selective sync in Dropbox? How to do selective sync on Dropbox? Just take your patience and they all will be answered one by one.

Just as said above, selective syncing is a feature in Dropbox computer application, so, you can find it there. Let’s see how to find it and set up it.

Tips: Dropbox can be applied in most computer operating systems like Apple Mac, Microsoft Windows (7/8/8.1/10, etc.), Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora, SUSE, etc.) and so on; and common computer devices including desktop, laptop, notebook, ipad, imac, macbook, etc. Yet, here, it will take Windows 10 PC for example.

1. Open Dropbox and click on its icon on taskbar.

2. In the pop-up window, click the gear on the top right and choose “Preferences…”

3. Next, move to “Sync” tab and select “Selective Sync…”.

4. In the pop-up window, tick the folders you want to be seen on your local device and click “Update”.

Dropbox Selective Sync from Cloud to Cloud

The above has talked about selective sync from Dropbox cloud to local computer. Next, it will introduce the selective syncing between two Dropbox cloud drives.

In order to achieve cloud to cloud sync, you need to rely on a third party program such as MultCloud, a multiple clouds manager.

Step 1. Sign up MultCloud Free

MultCloud is web-based software; you should firstly create an account of it to make use of its services. It’s completely free of charge.

Step 2. Add Dropbox Accounts to MultCloud

Then, in the main interface of MultCloud platform, go to “Add Clouds” tab and choose “Dropbox” or “Dropbox for Business” according to your Dropbox account type. Next, follow the guidance to finish this step.

Only one cloud account can be added in one time. Just repeat the process to add more accounts.

Step 3. Dropbox Selective Sync on MultCloud

In this step, in “Cloud Sync” tab, specify the folder you want to set selective sync with as source. And, choose a destination. Finally, click “Sync Now”.

Tips: If you plan to sync more folders, repeat this step. Or, create a new folder in your source Dropbox drive, put all target folders into it as subfolders and carry out the above task.