Cloud storage keeps your files accessible from anywhere, but it has limitations like capped free storage—typically 15GB unless you upgrade your plan.
These services can also consume precious space on your local drive. 6 Tips to Free Up Disk Space in Windows 10: Even a terabyte fills up fast with media files. Learn how to reclaim gigabytes by clearing redundant system files. Read more.
If archived files or shared content are bloating your Dropbox or Google Drive folder on your PC, selective sync lets you choose exactly what to download locally. Here's how to set it up.
Locate the Dropbox icon in your system tray (click the arrow to reveal hidden icons if needed). Click it, then the Settings gear icon in the top-right corner, and select Preferences.
In the Dropbox Preferences window, switch to the Sync tab. Click Selective Sync, then uncheck folders you don't want synced to this computer.
Click Refresh to update the list, then OK. Dropbox will remove those folders from your PC while keeping them safe in your cloud account.
Selective sync in Google Drive works similarly. Right-click the Drive icon in your system tray, click the three-dot Menu, and choose Preferences.
Switch to the Google Drive tab on the left. Change from Sync everything in My Drive to Sync only these folders, then uncheck items you don't need locally.
Use apps to identify space-hogging folders first. Need a disk cleanup? Visualize what's taking up space on your Windows PC: Quickly spot junk with tools that map your file structure. Read more.
