We Want to Hear From You! What Do You Want to See on the Community? Tell us here!

Forum Discussion

cmj83's avatar
cmj83
New member | Level 2
2 years ago
Solved

Since when do you have to PAY to view a shared folder?

A client shared has shared rather large files from their dropbox account and I'm unable to view them without paying for a dropbox account, what in the world is this dark pattern money gouging effort by dropbox?!.

My business does not use Dropbox (and hasn't intentionally since it started going downhill in 2014.) 

  • Hi there cmj83 - sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

     

    Shared folders take up space on all of the accounts that are members of the share. 

     

    If you'd like to view the folder without impacting your own account's quota, you can ask the owner to share a link with view only rights with you instead.

     

    I hope this helps!

9 Replies

  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    2 years ago

    Hi there cmj83 - sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

     

    Shared folders take up space on all of the accounts that are members of the share. 

     

    If you'd like to view the folder without impacting your own account's quota, you can ask the owner to share a link with view only rights with you instead.

     

    I hope this helps!

  • fmk1's avatar
    fmk1
    Explorer | Level 3
    2 years ago

    Hi Walter, 

     

    If the sharer creates the link with view only rights, will I be able to download said files onto a hard drive? Or will I forever need to rely on the sharer keeping the files on their dropbox account, and utilizing the specific sent link?

     

    Thanks,

    Faye

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

    HI fmk1, if the owner of the file has allowed them to be downloaded, then you can download them onto your computer. 

     

    If they've disabled downloads, then you'll only be able to access those files via their shared link, which does rely on them keeping the files on their account.

  • jackrataty's avatar
    jackrataty
    New member | Level 2
    10 months ago

    I requested a free data set from Equibase.  They sent me a link to a shared folder containing historical files for racehorses.  This data should not change.  I kept gettin alerts that my account is too small and need upgraded to contain the data.  I'm sharing a file.  Why am I paying for the storage?

  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
    10 months ago

    jackrataty wrote:

    They sent me a link to a shared folder containing historical files for racehorses. ... I kept gettin alerts that my account is too small and need upgraded to contain the data.


    If you're a member of a shared folder, you're not accessing that folder in someone else's account. The folder exists within your own account taking up space. If the folder is larger than the space available in your account, then you would need to upgrade to be able to hold the entire folder.

     

  • jackrataty's avatar
    jackrataty
    New member | Level 2
    10 months ago

    I dont need all of the data in the shared folder.  Can you remove files of the shared folder I dont need?

  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
    10 months ago

    jackrataty wrote:

    I dont need all of the data in the shared folder.  Can you remove files of the shared folder I dont need?


    If you remove content from a shared folder, it's removed for all members of the folder.

     

    Are you sure it's a shared folder with other members? Could they have shared the folder via a shared link and you chose to save it to your Dropbox? If it's the latter, you have your own copy and you can delete what you don't need.

     

    How, exactly, was the data shared with you?

  • jackrataty's avatar
    jackrataty
    New member | Level 2
    10 months ago

    I was set a link.  I see in the top the files shared folder and other users using this folder.  There is no option to delete files.    I kept getting alerts that I needed to upgrade for more memory.  I went ahead, even though I couldn't see the size of memory I am using for my files.  Now that I have paid I get alerts again to upgrade.  This is started to seem scammy

  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    10 months ago

    Hmm, if you've upgraded and are still getting no space alerts, can you sign out of the account and sign back in, to see if that helps?

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.

Need More Support

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 or Facebook.

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!