Online folders for small disks

Choose what stays on the computer without losing the project structure.

The laptop does not have to hold the archive

A small disk fills up because the archive was copied onto it in the hope that working offline would be simpler. It is simpler until the day the disk is full and the job you actually need is the one that did not fit. An online folder stays in the archive. The laptop keeps a list of names, a preview where that helps, and the files you have opened recently. The rest is fetched when you open it.

This is not a second, lesser copy. The file you open is the file in the archive. Saving it writes back to that file. The laptop is a window, not a suitcase.

What stays on the machine

Recent files stay, because opening yesterday's document should not wait on a mast. Previews of images stay, because scrolling a folder of photographs should not download every original. Everything else can be released. The guide for freeing that space is deliberate about which files it drops: it does not drop a file that has unsaved local changes, and it does not drop a file you have pinned.

Pinned files are the ones you know you will need away from the network. A script, a contract, a project file. Pin those. Leave the camera originals unpinned. The folder still shows their names, and opening one brings that one file across, not the whole shoot.

How a small disk fails, and how this avoids it

The usual failure is silent. The disk fills, the sync pauses, and the person keeps working on a copy that no longer matches the archive. Online folders refuse that. If the file cannot be written back, the save fails in front of you, and the archive copy stays as it was. You do not discover the split a week later.

A shared folder works the same way for every person who can see it. Someone with a small laptop and someone with a large desktop are looking at the same names. They are not each keeping a private full copy and hoping the copies agree.

Online folders are part of the current plans. They do not add a fee for the previews. If a particular application refuses to open a file until the whole folder is local, the help centre will want the name of that application.