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What does the limit on shared folders mean?
Since Dropbox discontinued free Team Accounts, our account was converted to a Basic account. Apparently this change introduced limits on the number of shared folders we can have. All of our folders are currently sub-folders of a "Team Folder". When I try to share one of these subfolders to anyone outside the group to which the top-level "Team Folder" is already shared, I get the message:
>>
This folder can only be shared with a link
The parent folder is 4 shared folders over the limit. Learn more
The parent folder is 4 shared folders over the limit. Learn more
<<
The "Learn more" link says that the top-level folder (which is the parent folder in this case) can only have 10 shared sub-folders, so I deleted and moved some folders to reduce the number of sub-folders in the top-level folder to 7. Nonetheless, I still get the error message cited above when I try to "Share with Dropbox".
What am I doing wrong?
Have I misunderstood the shared folders limitation?
27 Replies
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Megan wrote:Have you tried unsharing or moving any subfolders with those subfolders too?
Thanks for responding. I have deleted some sub-folders and moved one, but this doesn't change the message I reported. When I tried moving sub-folders up to the root level, they lost their sharing access lists, so I moved them back. Can I at least move sub-folders up to the root level without breaking the sharing links I have already distributed?
Jay's response suggests to me that the sharing limit does *not* only apply to the parent folder, but to the parent folder *and its sub-folders*.
If this is the case, then both the error message and the "Learn more" link need to be a bit more specific.
For example, the error message should read:
>>This folder can only be shared with a link
The parent folder *(including subfolders)* is 4 shared folders over the limit. Learn more<<If this is true, then I will need to find the contributing sub-folders. However, our directory tree is pretty extensive. Is there some way to find the contributing sub-folders without having to individually examine each sub-folder?Hi IMCZug,
Yes, the message content is somewhat confusing, but the FAQ that link points to is clear enough, I think. At the beginning, do you have shared folders count above the absolute maximum (30 000)? 🙂 Most probably no, but for completeness, if you have, their total count should be decreased.
IMCZug wrote:... I have deleted some sub-folders and moved one, but this doesn't change the message I reported. When I tried moving sub-folders up to the root level, they lost their sharing access lists, so I moved them back. Can I at least move sub-folders up to the root level without breaking the sharing links I have already distributed? ...
😁 Of course, one shared folder share everything within, including all files and subfolders. If you move out something (file or folder) it's no more within and no more shared as a part of the shared folder. If you put something into shared folder (again file or folder) it becomes shareable as a part of it. You don't have to reorder your shared folders content, but the shared folders ordering within their containing folder(s). You can have 10 shared folders within one containing folder at most! 😉 This is the reason, most probably. In such a case, move some shared folder (one or more - as much as need) in some other folder, so no more a place (folder) be that contain more than 10 shared folders within. Take in mind that shared folders can't be nested too, while decide where to move particular folder to.
Hope this helps.
Our club’s free Dropbox Team account was converted to a normal free account when Dropbox discontinued free Team accounts.
This left us with a top-level folder shared with all of the former team members. They are still referred to in the UI as “folder members”, but I cannot find any information describing how to mange these in an ordinary free account. All I can do is delete some of the obsolete ones.
How can I share a new folder to the same people? Do I have to send new Dropbox invitations to all of them?
Furthermore, the top-level folder lists an obsolete e-mail address as its “owner”. How can I fix this?
- Mark
Super User II
Hi IMCZug
As you are not the owner you cannot add/remove people. The owner has to do that, or, delegate responsibility to others to do so. If they didnt do they or for whatever reason now cannot do that the only thing you can do is set up a new folder structure. Dropbox wont be able to change the owner for you. Being honest this is probably the quickest way to do it in your situation.
