Files will not delete from DropBox--gives error message

[risingfire]

I am having trouble deleting files from DropBox.  Some folders contain thousands of files.  I see from other discussions that DB does not handle large amounts of files well, and currently my DB has 2 million+ (!).  So I want to delete these huge folders and remove them from DB.  But.... DB is refusing to delete them.  I have tried this from both desktop and website interface.  No luck. 

On the website interface I tried to drill down to simply deleting a batch of files from one folder.  I receve the popup message "Delete 14030 items?"

I click "Delete" and then after a minute or so receive the popup message "Couldn't delete 14030 items."

I have tried everything I can think of.  How can I get rid of these files from DB??

[Jay]

Hi @risingfire, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Are these files you're trying to delete in a private or shared folder?

Have you tried deleting the files in smaller batches?

This will help me to assist further!

[risingfire · Accepted solution]

Thanks... yes, I've tried smaller batches, but that did not help.  These are shared folders.  One of the other DB members was able to move some of the folders to a sub-folder and I was able to delete each of those moved folders one-by-one.  I also think that he may have been able to delete the files in the current recycle bin/deleted files folder, so that may have also helped.  It's hard to say exactly what got us past the "can't delete files" error message from DropBox, but it does seem that we may be able to delete these large folders.  There are still more to go, but we seem to be making progress.

[Jay]

That sounds like good news. Just so you're aware, deleting files from the recycle bin/deleted files folder doesn't really affect the Dropbox account, since the space has already been freed up.

However, it's good news that progress is being made on your account. If you need any further assistance, please let me know!

[risingfire]

Thanks, that's good to know.  I was not sure if the millions of files in the deleted files bin were contributing to the problem or not, so wanted to mention.  Wish I could say how we exactly got past that error, but yes, I'm glad that we are making progress on removing these very large folders, too!