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Forum Discussion
Dropbox decreasing free subscription size
Just a note to the community concerning free expansions of the size of a free DropBox account.
I established a free account of size 2GB in 2012. Several years later, DropBox sent an email indicating that my account, though still free, had been increased gratis to 5GB. In the intervening years since, I accumulated around 4GB of content.
In the past several weeks I received several emails indicating that my account was over the 2GB limit for a free account and the syncing of the account would be stopped. I think DropBox may have forgotten the increase to 5GB they did some years ago, or was simply pulling it back, which is their prerogative.
Several days ago the account quit syncing as promised. Now here's the rub: In response to the account no longer syncing, I removed content from the DropBox folder on my computer to get the account under the 2GB limit. I then accessed my account in a browser and observed that the changes made on my computer were not reflected, which may have been expected. The changes I made to the DropBox folder were to remove several large directories at the top level to get the overall size down to under 2GB. I also removed a number of small files at the top level and elsewhere, just for housekeeping.
So, to try and get DropBox to sync, I removed the same several top level large directories via the browser and let it sit overnite expecting that a sync would occur that would reflect the smallish house keeping changes. Nothing happened. So the next morning I followed the advice on the DropBox site to uninstall and re-install DropBox on my computer. However, first I copied the local DropBox directory to a safe place. Upon removing and re-installing the DropBox app on my computer, no syncing had occurred involving the house keeping changes.
Fortunately, I have the copy of the DropBox directory, so the house keeping work was not lost. But I do wonder why DropBox behaved as it did. If I had to do it over, I would copy, not remove, the several large top level directories on my computer to get the size down below 2GB, then remove them in the DropBox account via the browser and see if a sync occurred by adding a dummy test file on my computer.
In the end, this is not a complaint as I have never paid DropBox a dime, and I am grateful for their free service. But, just be warned!
6 Replies
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- Walter
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi emkcams, thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts on this.
I'm sorry you had to go through this and if you notice this happening again in the future, I'll be happy to look into it for you.
Let me know if you have anything else to add or ask in the meantime. Hi Walter, could you also look into this for me as well please? I have the same issue and I am meant to be on the basic plan for a 5GB storage (+extra earned storage) but I only has 2GB with the current plan! I look forward to your response.
- Walter
Hi there liangleung - sorry to hear about this.
Could you let me know what your plan tab is reporting at the moment in regards to your quota?
Also, was the additional space coming from referrals or a promotion perhaps?
Likewise I had earned extensive space on the free tier through referrals and other promos that took me well over the 2GB basic space allocation. It seems the system should honor those promotions and referral which grew their initial user base.
- Mark
Super User II
Dropbox doesnt remove space from people for referrals unless they have been known to abuse the system. Same for other space such as getting started etc. However, a lot of other quotas are time limited AND do not transfer between accounts if you have multiple ones.
You can see whats happening to quota at www.dropbox.com/events
- Rich
tropology wrote:
It seems the system should honor those promotions and referral which grew their initial user base.
Dropbox doesn't remove space earned through referrals. The space is permanent. Space earned through other promotions is often time limited and will expire after a certain time, usually 6 months or 1 or two years.
You can see a list of the bonus space you've earned, including that which has expired, on your Referrals page. You can see your total space and usage on your Plan page.
If you feel that the numbers don't add up, take screenshots of each page, being sure to mask any private information, and post them here.
