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Shared folders taking up all my storage - How do I get out of shared folders?
I've run out of storage and its because of others sharing folders with me. How do I get out of shared folders?
You definitely have one or more shared folders that are taking up the majority of your space. Go to your Files page and if you don't see a Members header column, click the Type or Modified column and select Members. Then look for any folder that looks like this:
If you find any, hover your cursor over the folder to make the Share button appear, then click it. From there you can remove your access to the folder and remove it from your account.
As I said, I have deleted most of my files, and have removed access to all files that have been shared with me. Still, my space says it's used up. My files take up 476 MB (which is actually MORE than before I deleted files--so must be including my deleted folders?? I don't know) and 2.26 GB in shared files. (Even though I no longer have any access to shared files.) So this looks like Dropbox just wants me to start paying no matter what?
Walter
Dropbox Community Moderator
Dropbox Community ModeratorHey KH-MLC - thanks for using out Forum to post your question!
Did you get the chance to review Mark's suggestion? Did this work for you now?
No. At this point I have removed all my shared folders. I've reduced my use of Dropbox to become almost pointless. And my Dropbox is still full and I can't do anything unless I upgrade to a pay-per month.
All my deleted shared files are still in Show Deleted Files, but no way to "empty the trash," so to speak. So my account remains full.
- Rich
Super User II
Deleted files and folders don't count against your storage quota, so there's no need to "empty the trash" as you say. If your Plan page is showing that you're still over your storage quota, then there are still files in your Dropbox that are taking up space.
Look at your Plan page and find this section. What does it show you? Provide a screenshot if you're able.
OK at this point I'm starting to feel a bit stupid...
I'm getting exactly the same problem. Someone shared a folder with me a couple of months ago. That's used some of my quota. However, I'm done with the file now, but I was nervous about deleting it in case it deleted the folder in the cloud and they still needed it.
But having read this thread, it seemed safe to detach it - but having done that, I no longer have access to the folder (which is fine), but it's still showing exactly the same usage on the https://www.dropbox.com/account/plan page, although on the https://www.dropbox.com/home?d=1 page it shows the big folder as "Deleted" (and I hope it hasn't deleted it for the person who shared it with me too!) so it seems once a folder has been shared, that amount of space comes off my quota and can't be recovered.
I use a paid plan with Google Drive for my own personal cloud storage, so I only installed Dropbox because someone else wanted to share a folder with me that way - but I don't want to have a paid plan with Dropbox as well as Google; it gets a bit ridiculous if every time someone wants to share something I have to sign up to a new cloud service!
Presumably I can just close my Dropbox account and open a new one next time they want to share files, but that doesn't sound like a very convenient solution. Is there a better way?
- Rich
Did you remove your access to the share, or simply delete the folder?
