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Solved
My quota was suddenly reduced by ~3GB
Hi, I have basically the same issue as described in this thread (https://www.dropboxforum.com/discussions/101001015/dropbox-storage-reduced-from-17-gb/812627) with just different numbers. For years I've had just over 8GB of storage space, and I've stayed below that. On the referrals page, it says I've earned 3.25 GB from "other ways", but I recently got an event saying that my storage space was reduced to 5.25GB, and I'm now over the limit.
I'm wondering why my quota was suddenly reduced by 3GB and how I can get that back. I've had this account for over 10 years with this same storage limit, and I want to know why it was suddenly reduced without warning.
Thanks!
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Events page:
plan page screenshot showing quota decrease to 5.25GB on 3/31/2025Referrals page:
referrals screenshot showing two bonuses of 250MB and 3GB, from 2011 and 2012 respectivelyPlan Page:
plan page screenshot showing 7.6 GB used of 5.25GB
Yes, it would affect the personal quota. Several years ago, there was a promotion by Dropbox which added 3 GB of quota to your personal account when you paired a personal Dropbox account and a work Dropbox account together.
This promotion later ended, but the quota remained on existing accounts, provided that the accounts were still paired.
As you mentioned that the company stopped using Dropbox for Business (and the team account was most likely downgraded), your account was unpaired from the work account, and that old promotional quota was removed from this account.
I hope this helps to clarify matters.
6 Replies
- Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi taraan, thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Did you upgrade you plan to a paid plan at some point, and then downgrade to a Basic plan?
Do you recall if you activated any other promotional offers on your account for extra quota?
This will help me to assist further!
Hey Jay !
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly!
No, I'm pretty confident that I've never upgraded to a paid plan.
I don't remember them specifically, it was so long ago when I got all my extra quota stuff. I do feel like there was one other thing that gave me extra space, but it's not listed anywhere that I can see. Perhaps there was a promotion around 2012 that gave me a bonus, but it seems odd that it would expire after 13 years (vs 10 years or 1 year). I've at the very least not had any bonuses added recently, they've all been in place for 10 or more years on my account.
Perhaps there was a change to the quota that the "camera uploads" bonus gave and my account was erroneously downgraded? I found one reference online (April 2012 row: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Dropbox) that that originally gave users 5GB instead of 3, but that would still only account for 2 of the 3 GB I'm missing. Maybe that happened and then an additional 1GB bonus dropped off at the same time somehow? I'm at 7.6GB now, so if it was split up like that I would have been over the limit if my quota went down by just 1 GB...
Thanks!
- Jay
Did you pair a Dropbox team account to your personal account in the past using these steps and then unlink this account on the date shown in the first screenshot you attached?
Hmm, yes, my company recently stopped using dropbox for business, and I had my personal account linked to my work account for ease of switching. Looks like that unlink would have happened around that same time. Would that affect my personal quota?
- Jay
Yes, it would affect the personal quota. Several years ago, there was a promotion by Dropbox which added 3 GB of quota to your personal account when you paired a personal Dropbox account and a work Dropbox account together.
This promotion later ended, but the quota remained on existing accounts, provided that the accounts were still paired.
As you mentioned that the company stopped using Dropbox for Business (and the team account was most likely downgraded), your account was unpaired from the work account, and that old promotional quota was removed from this account.
I hope this helps to clarify matters.
Thanks for helping me get answers for this. It doesn't make me happy about it, but at least now I know.
Cheers!
