Forum Discussion

JDTurkelton's avatar
JDTurkelton
Helpful | Level 5
10 months ago

People I shared my folders with cannot access due to "not enough space" - this is unacceptable.

I am the tech lead for my church and I have people who take photos of services and events.  I wanted to use Dropbox as a place where they could upload their photos and the Pastor and I could get them to use for our website and other multi-media uses.  I personally upgraded to a 3TB plan so that I would have plenty of space for them to be able to share their photos and videos without the need to do so in small chunks requiring me to keep going in there and removing them.  I wasn't aware that Dropbox counts shared folders against their storage space allotted.  IF this is indeed the case, I'm going to want a full refund of the year I purchased in advanced.  I don't like shady scummy practices like that.  I have worked in consulting for years and have had companies use their file share services to share files with me and I could create new accounts there and get what I needed without ever running into anything like this.

So I'm first of all wondering if there is a better way of doing this?  Why should my entire team pay for the same space that I already purchased?  I really hope someone has a solution that can work.  Thanks in advance.

  • JDTurkelton's avatar
    JDTurkelton
    Helpful | Level 5

    So from my google searches, unless I did something wrong when I set this up, 
    1. I purchased 3 TB of space that I am the sole owner of.  I allow my team members to write to that space so we have an easy way to transfer files. 

    2. But that requires them to also purchase more space.  So say 5 other team members each purchase 3 TB plans to use the same space I have already purchased.  

    3. 6 people purchasing 3 TB of space - do we get 18 TB of space then?  NO.

    4. Why should they have to purchase the ability to use my space?

    5. If I buy a house, the bank doesn't also require each person who lives with me to also pay them the full price of the same house just to use it.  

    • Rich's avatar
      Rich
      Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II

      JDTurkelton wrote:

      Why should they have to purchase the ability to use my space?


      The short of it is this... they're not using your space. They're using their own space. When people are a member of a shared folder, they aren't uploading to the owner's account. They each have their own copy of the folder in their own account, and that copy syncs with all other members. A person needs to have enough space available for any files in their account.

       

       

      If you just want people to upload to you without affecting their own account (or even needing an account), use a File Request instead. People will be able to upload directly to your account, but they won't be able to access the files once uploaded.

       

      • theflyingburritto's avatar
        theflyingburritto
        Explorer | Level 4

        This is ludicrous. Why does DB force data to be duplicated when a user simply needs access. Why can't someone without a subscription that has been shared a folder from someone with sufficient storage space not be able to have access and have it stored locally? Truthfully, this is outrageous and blatantly exploitative.  

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