Re: I sent a referral to one of my students, but it's once again ineligible.

GregP1 wrote:

I watched them click on the referral link, download and install the app, but their status is still shown as 'Waiting for Install'.

Are they installing on a desktop computer? Mobile devices such as iPads and mobile phones do not count towards the referral scheme. 

They are installing on a laptop

Have them check at http://www.dropbox.com/account/plan to see if they got the bonus space from you signing up? 

And if they can see the device (computer) at http://www.dropbox.com/account/security its worth noting as well that Surfaces or devices where you download from an App Store dont count, it has to be full client. 

Don't they indirectly get bonus space from them signing up, not from ME signing up?

I simply sent her an invitation using the Referrals page on the Dropbox website; she was on a different network and picked up the resulting email on her laptop, clicked on the link and installed Dropbox. It should be that simple. What am I missing? What does the person invited physically have to do in order to stop going through this loop every time?

I am due to see that student again this Thursday. She did not download Dropbox from an App Store - I was watching what she did. Why would her device not be listed?

It feels as though Dropbox is unwilling to honour referral bonuses, by making the process as awkward as possible...

Hey GregP1! After your students sign up to Dropbox and follow these steps, you should both get the additional referral space to your Dropbox accounts.

From what I understand, your student installed the Dropbox app, signed in with her new Dropbox account, and she still hasn't received the extra space. Correct? 

Also, to clarify, this is the first time she’s installed the Dropbox desktop app on that computer. Is this right? 

Let me know and we’ll go from there.

The student in question came round for a lesson this afternoon, with her laptop.

I got her to verify her email address by following those steps. She received an error message, saying "Something went wrong... An unexpected error has occurred, but don't worry - your files are safe and our team has been notified."

She (and the rest of my three recent introductions are shown on my referrals page) are still shown as as: "Waiting for Install"

This simply reinforces my impression that the referral system simply does not work.

Thanks for giving that a go! In general, the “Waiting for Install” error message can also appear if the recipients of the referral haven’t logged in to their desktop app, after installing it on their computer.

If they’ve all signed in to their desktop apps with the credentials of their newly-created Dropbox accounts, and you still see this error, I can log a ticket for you and investigate this further.

Hi Nancy. Yes- my student downloaded, installed and logged into the desktop app, but is still seeing the error message. Please log a ticket for me? Thank you,    Greg

Apologies for the delay, GregP1! I’ve now gone ahead and logged you a new ticket. Please reply to it, when you get the chance.

Hey pink_light! Can you send me a few more details on what’s happened exactly on your end?

Hi - I assume that I should reply to Nancy with more details of this issue. (I'm not sure who "pink_light" is - another user encountering the same sort of issue?

The issue is as described earlier:

Using the referrals page on the website, I recommended Dropbox to one of my students, while she was here with her laptop, so I could see and make sure that everything was done right.

She had never installed or used Dropbox before. She was logged into a different network than me. She clicked on my referral link and successfully installed the App. However, she was listed on my Referrals Page as: "Waiting for Install"

She then came round for another lesson with her laptop. I got her to verify her email address by following the steps recommended by Nancy at 10:13pm on 27th October 2025. The student received an error message, saying "Something went wrong... An unexpected error has occurred, but don't worry - your files are safe and our team has been notified."

She (and the rest of my three recent introductions are still shown on my Referrals Page) as: "Waiting for Install"

Please can you sort this out?

Thank you,

Greg

Hi again, GregP1! In order to investigate this internally (since we don’t have any account visibility on the forum and I can’t see any details on your Dropbox account, or the referrals you’ve sent here), you’ll still need to reply back to the email I’ve sent you.

The only thing I want you to forward me via email is a screenshot of your “Refer a friend” page, and I’ll check a few things in our system to see what we can do.