Shared Folders

[LandP]

Hi,

I had access to folders that had been shared with me. This week, 2/21/23 the folders now show that they are too large to fit in "my dropbox".

According to help articles, that is because it was shared with "edit" capability. It was changed to "read only" and yet I still can't access it. I still get the message that I don't have the 3mbs space in my folder. I have refreshed my browser, etc. The browser of the account owner was refreshed, too.

It doesn't make sense to me.  If I have a folder of pictures I took at graduation, and share it with all the other parents, it should be based on my storage, not theirs.  If I have 600gbs of pictures, those pictures only exist once. They don't "become" 600 times the 100 parents.

Same with these folders that were shared with me.  At least one of the folders I can no longer access has videos.  And me looking at the folder does not make it exist twice. It's still one file, I can just see it. The owner is paying for the storage for that amount of data.

Why can I no longer access these files?  I had access for 6 months, with no issues. The only new thing was that they were shared with a new woman. She said she couldn't access due to size, and all of a sudden I couldn't access them, either.

Even when I clicked a link directly to a sub folder, which was just a pdf, for instance, I got the message that the folder doesn't exist (just like people get when they click a link they don't have permission for/are not signed in on the account it is share with).

How can I fix this?

Thank you for your assistance in this matter. 🙂

[Mark]

Hi @LandP 

There isnt actually a fix for this. The system is working as it should. Shared folders use up the space of all involved. If you do not want it to do so you need to delete them from your account (i.e. you cannot them see them at www.dropbox.com/home). Careful as in a share this may remove them for everybody else as well. My guess is when this other person has joined that they added new files to it and thats taken you over your quota and as such all syncing has stopped. 

You are right in that read only means it doesnt use up quota BUT only if you access via a shared link instead and not via the folder on your account. You need to ask the owners for a read only shared link instead and also leave the share from www.dropbox.com/share. 

[LandP]

No, the new woman didn't add anything. She never could access it.

And, it was "always" over the amount I have in an individual account.

And like I said, even clicking a link specific to a sub folder didn't allow access.

[Mark]

Then somebody else has added things to the share after you join it. Shared folders can be edited or changed by everybody in it, so, overtime if people add things it can mean its now over quota for some with smaller allowances. 

[LandP]

Actually I had access to about 100 folders, and now I have access to one tiny folder. What's up?

[Mark]

You've ran out of quota - once you are out of quota you cannot access the shares anymore. 

You need to upgrade to be able to access and use them. 

[LandP]

Thank you for attempting to answer.

Lol, I hope somebody else can answer why I had access to a hundred (ok, I didn't actually count, but it was MANY) folders, many of which included video replays, and now I don't. If a certain folder had content added, it shouldn't have affected the other 99, yet I lost access to all but one.

And if anyone knows HOW it is justified that the same data is counted against the quota for an infinite number of accounts.

Thank you so much 🙂 ❤️

[Mark]

You shouldnt loose access to other ones - www.dropbox.com/events will show you what has happened BUT you may not be able to use them while you are over quota. 

And the space thing is because it isnt just a cost for the space, its the other costs such as bandwidth and connections to and from services etc.