Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨‍💻? Find out how to check here.

Forum Discussion

Avior's avatar
Avior
New member | Level 2
3 years ago

Public links have been temporarily suspended for generating excessive traffic.

I received a message that Public links have been temporarily suspended for generating excessive traffic. Your current account bandwidth limit is 1024.00 GB and your current usage is 1369.96 GB. First of all this is unclear, daily limit, weekly, monthly - please clarify. Second this information is impossible to find, I enen reached out to the support and chatted with a DropBox rep and he could not figure this out. 3rd, i monitor my traffic I've uploaded 551GB in the last 24hr. The link was shared with one person when he started downloading he was locked out. So there is no way 1369.96GB of traffic was generated. Please explain to me whats happening.

9 Replies

Replies have been turned off for this discussion
  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    3 years ago

    Hi Avior, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

     

    The information regarding the daily bandwidth limits can be found on this page.

     

    Bandwidth is only used up when users view or download files via a shared link, or when they upload files via a file request link.

     

    If you have any further queries, feel free to message back.

  • Avior's avatar
    Avior
    New member | Level 2
    3 years ago

    Hello Jay,

     

    thanks for sharing the link. The provided link further proves my point and highlights my concern I made in initial post. I will summarize my concerns below:

     

    I have uploaded 551GB of data yesterday from 9am to 10:30PM. Out of this 551GB, 1GB was downloaded by one user, and 225GB by another user. Please note these are individual users and they do NOT share the links with anyone and they download the data only one time I have confirmed that. So at 10:52pm local time the shared link with 225GB of data gets blocked, meaning the user was only be able to download about 100GB.

     

    For Family account I have 1TB of data upload and unlimited downloads. With this in mind I see all the traffic through my firewall and I can see I’ve uploaded 551GB which is 48% below allowable bandwidth. According to this article I have no download limit, so I don’t understand why I am being flagged for excessive bandwidth usage.

     

    Can you please look into this and ensure I don’t get flagged again?

    Also when does the daily limit reset?

     

    I believe I am not able to utilize full bandwidth of my account.

     

    I would like to upload up to 1TB of data per day, share the link with one person and have them download that data without being flagged for excessive bandwidth usage.

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    3 years ago

    How are you uploading your data? As I mentioned previously, this only applies to shared link and file requests, not when you upload files directly to your own account, or via syncing.

     

    If the bandwidth limit has been breached, then it means that either others have been downloading from your shared links, or uploading using file requests, that exceeds the amount of 1 TB in a single 24 hour period. It isn't possible to detect which shared links have been generating this amount of data. 

     

    For the first ban, it would expire after 24 hours. For each subsequent ban, it would be 2 days, then 4 days, and become exponentially longer to remove the ban on your shared links.

  • Avior's avatar
    Avior
    New member | Level 2
    3 years ago

    Below please find answers to your questions:

     

    How are you uploading your data?

    >>I am uploading the data via FileZilla client.

     

    If the bandwidth limit has been breached, then it means that either others have been downloading from your shared links, or uploading using file requests, that exceeds the amount of 1 TB in a single 24 hour period.

    >>This is not possible. I already explained my situation in great detail in previous response. You keep responding with generic information that does not apply to me. Once again, I uploaded 551GB, 100GB were downloaded the link got banned. Is this clear? Can you escalate this request to someone that can actually look at my account and troubleshoot the issue.

  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    3 years ago

    Thanks for the additional info, Avior.

     

    Can we send you an email, so we can investigate this further?

  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
    3 years ago

    Avior wrote:

    Once again, I uploaded 551GB, 100GB were downloaded the link got banned.


    While they're investigating, keep this in mind ...

     

    The bandwidth you're referring to is not the same as the bandwidth limit that are tracked on Dropbox. You've mentioned your uploads to the service, which do not count towards this limit. It is just the traffic generated by your shared links (all links across your entire account) and the files uploaded to you by other people using a File Request. Also, the traffic you see on your firewall is not an indicator of the bandwidth used on your account, as the traffic that actually matters is between the downloaded and the Dropbox servers, and does not travel across your firewall.

     

    It's very easy to trigger the bandwidth limits, especially with large files. If someone shared the link that you sent or they downloaded the file multiple times, the used bandwidth can add up very quickly.

  •  DHUANN XROM's avatar
    DHUANN XROM
    New member | Level 2
    3 years ago

    Hello guys.. me i ask some question, how to remove temporarily suspended due to excessive traffic? All my videos now are not working?

  • Mark's avatar
    Mark
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
    3 years ago

    When the ban was put in place did you get an email? If so you sometimes get an option in that email to remove it. If not and you are a free user you can pay to upgrade. If you are already paid then I'm afraid its a case of riding it out.

  • Davion32's avatar
    Davion32
    New member | Level 2
    3 years ago

    If your website or online service has been temporarily suspended due to excessive traffic, there are several steps you can take to address the issue and restore normal functionality:

    1. Identify the cause: Determine the specific reason for the excessive traffic. It could be a sudden increase in legitimate user traffic or a potential DDoS attack. Analyzing server logs or consulting with your hosting provider can help identify the root cause.

    2. Scale your infrastructure: If the traffic surge is due to legitimate user activity, consider scaling up your infrastructure. This could involve upgrading your hosting plan, adding more server resources, or utilizing content delivery networks (CDNs) to distribute the load.

    3. Mitigate DDoS attacks: If the excessive traffic is a result of a DDoS attack, you may need to implement mitigation strategies. Contact your hosting provider or a specialized DDoS protection service to help mitigate the attack and restore normal operation.

    4. Optimize your website: Evaluate your website's performance and optimize it for efficient handling of traffic. This may involve implementing caching mechanisms, optimizing code and database queries, and minimizing external resource dependencies.

    5. Implement traffic management techniques: Consider implementing traffic management techniques such as load balancing or rate limiting to distribute traffic evenly and prevent overload situations.

    6. Communicate with users: If your service has been temporarily suspended, it's important to communicate with your users or visitors. Provide updates on the situation, estimated resolution time, and alternative ways to access your service if applicable.

    7. Monitor and adapt: Continuously monitor the situation and make necessary adjustments to prevent future suspensions. Regularly review your infrastructure, traffic patterns, and security measures to ensure optimal performance and stability.

About Create, upload, and share

Find help to solve issues with creating, uploading, and sharing files and folders in Dropbox. Get support and advice from the Dropbox Community.

The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X, Facebook or Instagram.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!