For whole folders, selective sync is the answer: open Preferences, go to the Sync tab, click Modify, untick what you want gone and click Update. For one file, right-click it and choose Make online-only. Both clear space on your computer while the originals remain stored online, so nothing is lost.
Dropbox gives you two tools for this, and they suit different jobs. Selective sync removes whole folders from your hard drive, and those folders disappear from your computer while staying stored on dropbox.com. Make online-only keeps a file or folder visible in your folder, but stores it in the cloud so it doesn't take up space on your computer.
The menus differ slightly by device, so jump to yours below.
Selective sync on a Windows PC
- Click the Dropbox icon in your taskbar.
- Click the round account menu, which may show as your profile photo.
- Click Preferences.
- Open the Sync tab.
- Under Selective Sync, click Modify.
- Uncheck the folders you want off your hard drive.
- Click Update.
Once you click Update, the unchecked folders and everything inside them are removed from your hard drive and stored only on dropbox.com. Nothing is deleted from your account.
Selective sync on a Mac
- Click the Dropbox icon in the menu bar and open Preferences.
- Click the Sync tab.
- Under Select folders to sync to this Mac, click Modify.
- Uncheck the folders you want to remove from your hard drive.
- Click Update.
The wording differs from Windows (Select folders to sync to this Mac instead of Selective Sync), but the result is the same: unchecked folders leave the drive and live on dropbox.com. If the desktop app itself is new to you, our guide to the desktop app shows where everything sits.
One file at a time on Windows or Mac
Selective sync only deals in folders. When it's a single large file you want off your drive, online-only is the tool.
- Open your Dropbox folder (on a Mac, open Finder first).
- Navigate to the file or folder you want to set to online-only.
- Right-click it.
- Click Make online-only.
The file stays visible in your folder, so you can still see it and find it later. It's stored in the cloud and no longer takes up storage on your computer. The same right-click works on a whole folder, which is handy when you want to keep seeing a folder's contents without them sitting on the disk.
On your iPhone
In the iPhone app, anything marked for offline use sits on the handset itself. Flip that switch off to reclaim the room.
- Open the Dropbox app on your iPhone and find the file.
- Tap more options on the file.
- Toggle Make available offline to off.
The toggle turns grey when it's off, which tells you the file or folder is now online-only. It's still in your account; it just isn't stored on the device any more.
Which one to pick, at a glance
- You want a whole folder gone from this computer and don't need to see it: selective sync.
- Need it visible but not on the disk: Make online-only.
- You're short on space on your phone: turn off Make available offline.
- You want the files gone from your account altogether: that's deleting, which is a different job covered in our guide on deleting files for good.
Opening an online-only file puts it back on your drive
Online-only has a surprise built in. Open an online-only file and it downloads automatically and becomes available offline again. So if you clear space, then open those files to check they're still there, you've just put them back on your computer. Look at the file list instead of opening each one.
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If space is what you're really after, our guide on how to free up space in your account covers the other side of the problem: storage in the account itself rather than on your computer.
As of Nov 2026, the Dropbox help page on this topic is the place to confirm the options your plan and app version show.
Frequently asked questions
Can I undo selective sync later?
Yes. Go back to the same Modify screen and tick the folder again to save it to your hard drive.
Where do the folders go after selective sync?
They stay in your account and are stored only on dropbox.com, off this computer's hard drive.
Can I make a whole folder online-only instead of using selective sync?
Yes. Make online-only isn't limited to single files, so a folder can be set the same way, and it remains in your file list.
Do online-only files take up space on my phone?
No. With the offline toggle off, the item lives in the cloud and leaves your handset's storage alone.
Does selective sync take the folder away from people I share it with?
Selective sync only changes what's stored on your own hard drive, and the folder stays in your account on dropbox.com. For how shared folders behave on other people's computers, check Dropbox's help page.
