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"Your Dropbox is full" but what is taking up my storage space?
On Mac air with newest OS. I uninstalled the app, checked the hard drive, restarted the computer, barked at the moon, clapped twice and prayed to allah. The problem remains.
I refuse to pay to upgrade. I cannot sync additional files.
Hi Paul!
When you join a shared folder, that folder now resides in your Dropbox too and therefore takes up space.
Your Dropbox quota is calculated based on the total contents of your Dropbox, which includes shared folders. A Dropbox account can't sync more than its quota, so a 2 GB account can't sync more than 2 GB, including the space taken up by shared folders. Because every member of a shared folder can add and modify the files in the shared folder, the shared folder takes up space in each member's account. This policy exists to prevent people from giving themselves unlimited space by stacking Basic accounts and shared folders.
If you need a little more space, you can visit the following pages on our website to see how you can earn bonus space:
- Earn bonus space by learning about Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/gs
- Earn bonus space by referring people to Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/referrals
- Earn bonus space by telling people about Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/freeThanks,
Dom
51 Replies
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Hi Paul!
When you join a shared folder, that folder now resides in your Dropbox too and therefore takes up space.
Your Dropbox quota is calculated based on the total contents of your Dropbox, which includes shared folders. A Dropbox account can't sync more than its quota, so a 2 GB account can't sync more than 2 GB, including the space taken up by shared folders. Because every member of a shared folder can add and modify the files in the shared folder, the shared folder takes up space in each member's account. This policy exists to prevent people from giving themselves unlimited space by stacking Basic accounts and shared folders.
If you need a little more space, you can visit the following pages on our website to see how you can earn bonus space:
- Earn bonus space by learning about Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/gs
- Earn bonus space by referring people to Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/referrals
- Earn bonus space by telling people about Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/freeThanks,
Dom
Me too. On Windows 10. No barking, but much gnashing of teeth. 243 KB of 2 GB used, yet I can't join a new shared folder for lack of space for three days now - and they assure me that it isn't huge.
Please let me know if you find a solution.
Richard P.Super User alumni
Geoffrey - shared folders count in full against your account quota - if its larger than your available space then you cannot accept the invite.
Solomon - you need to delete files from your Dropbox or upgrade.
Richard. I deleted tons of files and am well under my allowed space. Its still a problem.
- Mark
Super User II
What files are showing at www.dropbox.com/home and www.dropbox.com/account THEY are the ones to look at.
If you want to accept a shared folder, it doesn't matter if you are under your limit. If accepting a share would put you over it then you cant.
I'm having the same or a similar problem. When I try to accept an invitation, I receive a pop-up that state:
"Your personal Dropbox will run out of space if you accept this invitation." My account shows I'm only using 7mb of 2.75 available, and I'm assured by the originator of the folder that it is less than 250 mb. What else could I try?
- Rich
The originator of the share is likely mistaken. If you have nearly 2.7GB of available space in your account and Dropbox is saying that you'll run out of space, then the shared folder you've been invited to is larger than 2.7GB.
OK, so it turns out that the new photographer has like a 12 Megapixel camera and the person delivering the files had no idea that they were huge.
Obviously, Dropbox is watching the file sizes closely. It would be nice if they would give us an indicator of the size of shared folders so that we have some idea how to proceed. The current user interface tries to be "simple", but ends up being frustrating when it appears that Dropbox is broken.
I might consider upgrading for some projects if I had that information. But I'm a volunteer; I'm not going to throw money just in case that might fix the problem.
My Dropbox is empty. I put every file in the trash. Now I cannot download a new file which is not big. I get an error message saying it is full. Maybe I should turn my computer off and reboot and then this box will "know" it's empty? Paper sure was easier.
