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Forum Discussion
Issues with API Limits
We are an IT company and setup Dropbox for a client as an alternative to Google Drive as they were having syncing issues. We have been recommending Dropbox to all our clients up to this point.
We installed a Synology NAS and started it syncing with their Dropbox using Synology Cloud Sync. There was about 100gb of data. They have 5 users on a Business plan with Dropbox.
They quickly ran out of API calls. After numerous support requests and waiting for days in between for answers we finally found out that API limits reset at the start of the month (not the subscription rollover date). So we used a dropbox client to sync all the data up as it doesn't use API calls, paused the Synology Sync program until the new month started and then started it up again.
That went ok until half way through the month when a few thousand files were added to the NAS and the API limit has maxxed out again. This is just normal use, not a lot of data.
Basically what we sold the client is useless because they can't save to their NAS and have it sync to Dropbox without running out of API calls very quickly through normal use.
Apparently with the individual account you get unlimited API calls which seems ridiculous. How can we solve this or do we just give up and move to something else?
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- Greg-DB
Dropbox Community Moderator
Thanks for writing this up, and my apologies for the difficulties. I've sent this feedback along to the team.
For reference, you can find more information about the transport limit here:
https://www.dropbox.com/developers/reference/data-transport-limit
If a team is consistently hitting this limit, the team admin should reach out to sales directly to review different plans for their team without the limit.
Hi Greg,
Of course I have been pointed at the documentation before.
Unfortunately it is the same answer wherever we go with dropbox. Go see sales, sales says see support, support says sales, sales says get a much larger subscription and they will increase the limit.
Maybe it is time to start considering small businesses too instead of just large ones. This company doesn't want to shell out for 10 licences that they don't use. There is not a viable solution for small business syncing from a NAS which is unfortunate. Dropbox is a great product but we are out in the cold here...
- Greg-DB
Thanks for the additional feedback! I'm sending this along to the team.
Hi Greg, we ran in exactly the same issue. Got a notificaiton mail that API calls reached the limit, already on the 5th of the month out of the sudden. Used Dropbox for 2 years with 2 Synology NAS's and 6 Mac-Clients with around 2 TB of data >100.000 files in total. No problems up to now, where we are stuck.
Business support suggested we upgrade from 3 to 10 licenses, which results in threefolding the price, not acceptable for my client of course. Since I complained about it, no response. What I mainliy dislike is the fact that during an ongoing contract, Dropbox changes the terms and let us die with it.
We will consinder OneDrive, Google Drive or Amazon not because they are better but just because I have to. Very bad dealing with customer requirements.
Dropbox is out of choice for small business solutions unfortunately.
BR Markus from Vienna
- Greg-DB
Thank you! This sort of feedback is very helpful and appreciated. I'll make sure it gets to the right people.
- It’s obvious you are bleeding customers right now. Whether Dropbox is too big to care is the question.
It seems to me that relaxing or removing API limits back to what they used to be for business accounts would be relatively straightforward in terms of code.
We too are looking at other alternatives not because we want to by any means but you provide no solution at this stage other than paying for unwanted licensing.
Good luck Greg
Thanks,
Ian - I am also having this issue now with 2 clients. I am a dropbox reseller. Tried to onboard the clients to dropbox from synology nas, using cloud sync. But also ran out off api calls after few days.
Api calls should be limited on individual plans and not business plans
And one more odd thing is when you sell dropbox as reseller then the billing button inside admin panel is not visible so you can not even see how many api calls have been used.
But just to understand. If you buy 10 licenses total of business standard then api call limit is automatically removed? - Greg-DB
Tue_Nielsen I can only offer help with using the Dropbox API itself. For questions about different Business plan options, please contact sales. For help with the Dropbox web site, please contact support.
Same thing here. I am a photographer and trying to back up my Synology back up to DrobBox. I have a lot of photos that need to be backed up, but already on the first day I reached 80% of my API limit on the business account. The only solutions that was offered to me was that I should buy 10 licenses. That is ridiculous. I really like dropbox, but I can not use it with the API limit.
Unfortunately if the limit stays, I have to find another service provider, who does not "cheat" with their plan.
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