If you’re using services like Box.com, DropBox.com, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive, you likely have the synchronization software installed and enabled.
Like most people, you probably have hundreds or thousands of files stored.
If you setup a new computer, depending on the speed of your Internet connection, you’ll need to wait hours (or maybe days) for all your files to synchronize again.
Even after that waiting period, you’ll likely find that the synchronization software running in the background tends to slow down your computer at startup, and while you’re using it.
AntiVirus software will want to scan every file that’s being synchronized, making the process even slower.
If you’ve been having trouble with your computer running slow, disable or close the synchronization software and see if that makes a difference.
Something else you can consider is to have one cloud service for your current files (keep that synchronized) and another service used as an archival backup of old files that are two or more years old (not synchronized).
Keep those thousands of files backed up in the cloud and also on a local removable hard drive. By doing this, you’ll free up disk space and speed up your computer.
You can always go to the website to get to your older archived files, but at least they aren’t taking up room on your local hard drive.
Many portable computers these days use solid state drives with less storage capacity. So, it’s important to only be carrying around the current files that are most important.