Tip of the week: Free up your computer's hard drive with Selective Sync

If you're anything like us, you're accumulating more and more files in your Dropbox as time goes on. And while your files are always waiting for you on our website, you probably also rely on Dropbox's powerful sync to keep them handy on all your computers. But not all computers are created equal — especially in the storage department. While your desktop at the office may have a huge hard drive, that might not be the case with your laptop or netbook. So to make sure you don't overload the storage on your Dropbox-connected computers, just use Selective Sync. When you connect a new computer to your Dropbox account with our desktop app, we try to sync all your files to it by default. But what if you use Dropbox to store large files that you only need access to once in a while — like folders full of photos, or lots of project videos? You still want them in your Dropbox, but they could overwhelm your computer's storage pretty quickly. With Selective Sync, you can save your hard drive space for the Dropbox folders you reference and share all the time, by deciding which folders not to sync to your hard drive. If you need to open a file that's not in one of your synced folders, you can always access all your files and folders from the Dropbox website. And because your folder usage and device storage space can be different across all your computers, you can customize your Selective Sync settings for each of them. To learn more about how to set up Selective Sync, visit our User Guide.