Additionally, make sure you’re not using symlinks or referenced files. You need to close those apps to allow Dropbox to save your new sync settings. Check if you already opened the problematic files in another program.

The respective files are already in use.

There are three main reasons that could trigger this alert and we’ll list them below. This alert indicates the service could not apply your latest Selective Sync settings. Dropbox Was Unable To Update Your Selective Sync Preferences If you want to simply dismiss the message, hit the Cancel option. If this is the case, you can resume syncing at any time you want. This alert may also indicate you paused syncing from the menu. If Dropbox says it’s “ Performing initial sync with server“, wait until the service has indexed all the files in your Dropbox folder. The quickest way to solve the problem is to change the name of the unsynced file. So, when you try to sync the new file, Dropbox will alert you about the issue by adding the words “Selective sync conflict” after the file name. This usually happens because there’s already a folder with that name stored in the same location. You may occasionally get the “ Selective sync conflict” alert for certain files and folders. Let’s see how you can fix this issue and other common problems. So, it’s doing the opposite of what it’s supposed to do. When the Selective Sync feature is not working, Dropbox often fails to remove the files you selected and syncs them to your local drive. Online-only files won’t appear under Selective Sync because you can only store them in the cloud. So, the main difference between Selective Sync and Smart Sync is the place where you store your files (your local drive vs. This means you can free up more storage space on your computer by storing the contents of your files exclusively in the cloud. This option lets you make files online-only. There’s another interesting Dropbox option worth mentioning called Smart Sync.

Smart Sync vs Selective Sync: What’s the Difference?

Hit the Update button to apply the changes.Simply, uncheck those that you don’t want to sync locally. Select the folders you want to save on your local hard drive.By the way, if you’re on Mac, select Choose folders. Select the Sync tab and go to Selective Sync.Then, launch the app, click on your profile picture (top-right corner), and go to Preferences.First, you need to install the Dropbox desktop app on your computer.Here’s how you can turn on Selective Sync on Dropbox: So, if you’re on the free Basic plan, you can enable it without any problems. Selective Sync is available to all Dropbox users.

Mac dropbox not syncing