Dropbox full because of shared folder

[Michele A.]

Hi, i have a dropbox account and the free space that i have is full because of the files inside the shared folder that i have with some friends.
Is there a way to avoid that the shared folder that uses the free space of my account without cancelling those folder?
Because i have no more space and i haven't uploaded any files

Excuse me for my english but i found problem on trying to traduce this message from my language

[Corstiaan S.]

Thinking about it again, it's a brilliant business model. Let's say someone uses Dropbox for 1GB of files. If 100 people have his folder shared in their own account, Dropbox can charge a 100 people for 1GB use but it only costs them 1 GB of storage. Simply brilliant! Kudos Dropbox, hope you make enough money. But not for me, I'm gone.

[DaveC2]

*Corstiaan S. : *again i would suggest you actually find out where costs lay before implying what they are. 

100 people accessing a 1GB file, will mean that 100 people make reads access into the Amazon S3 storage backbone of Db, each and every one of these reads is charged to DB. Its is not all about the physical space used to store, but what and how often it is accessed and updated that costs.

This is the same reason DB do not offer 100GB accounts now, I would suspect the average account has under 50GB of changing content, changing content needs to be read and written, those acts cost, thus a 100GB account or a 1TB account costs relativly the same to run, hence why DB wont sell smaller accounts, they cost the same to run so why would they offer it any cheaper. The same can be applied to sharing, its the costs to run, not the space used that is in play.

DB charge once for space, but pay for traffic, if you connect 100 devices and download your 1TB of files to all 100, they dont charge you for the traffic, so its swings and roundabouts.

Dont like it? get off!

[Adam C.36]

@Dave

That's a really crap explanation for why they charge multiple people for the same 1GB space.

I found this discussion because I have the same problem. I found all my space was used up, largely because of some connections to some shared projects I rarely access. The people who own that space pay for it. That's how it should be. It is not fair, or right, that they pay for some space, and then I get charged again for the same space. It really is an expensive rip-off.

@Corstiaan S
There is another way! If you are a Windows or Mac user, then use Office 365. For £62.99 a year on Amazon, you get 5TB space, and 5 copies of Office for you and your family. What's more, when I share my space with my family (or anyone else) it DOES NOT eat into their space!

It's also easier to use. You can map all your Windows Library folders - Documents, Desktop, Music, Videos etc to the the OneDrive folder, and then everything you do is automatically backed up. No more copying your files (or forgetting to copy!) to the DropBox folder. An altogether better experience.

Compare this with DropBox. £79/year for a measly 1TB, rip off space measurements and no additional software like full copies of MS Office.

So @Dave, tell us again why DropBox needs to charge like this, or even why we'd want to use it?

Don't like it? Get off.  Damn right I will!

[DaveC2]

Adam C. : You failed to address WHY its a crap explanation, so Ill have to assume you really meant its just an explanation you didnt like. 

As to telling you again , ill reply with "READ THE THREAD", asking someone to repeat themselfs is arrogant behaviour, you have added nothing to the discussion to expect me to explain anything more on why they use the business model they do.

You dont seem to understand how "space" (quota) is allocated and used, if so you are making assumptions about it without understanding and you simply have it wrong.

You have no individual "space" at all, they keep no "space" reserved for you, if you upload a file that they already have they map your file record into the same one as the existing one (this is technically done below the file level), you however now have access to that file now so it consumes YOUR quota. If someone shares a file with you, you now have a file record of that file and a map to the content of it, so it consumes your quota, additionally you are also granted the extra advantage that that file can be updated by multiple people so you can collaborate on its content.

Yes there are other services that provide this cheaper, like them use them, dont cry about this one.

IMHO if I don't like something I walk over talk.

[Adam C.36]

@Dave

It's a crap explanation because they CHOOSE to charge multiple times for the same space, not because they have to. Of course file ownership can be tracked either by the person who uploaded it, or by whose quota it is attached to. Other companies can do it, so they can too. It's not a technical limitation, it's their choice.

You can see this from actual disk usage compared to disk allowance - my usage is apparently many GB over my allowance, and it could be many TB over allowance with enough shared access.

Does this mean I get billed for this extra usage? No, it just means I can't use the allowance I have paid for. I'd be liable for a huge bill if I wanted to keep adding my own files, just because someone else has uploaded lots of data to a shared space - a shared space that a user may not have any choice but to keep connected as there could be other data in there they do need.

If multiple charges for shared files really is necessary because of the bandwidth used to download files, a fair way would be to only add files to usage totals when they get downloaded. If you don't access them, you don't get charged.

If they did that, I wouldn't complain. As you said, it's better to walk than talk, and that's exactly what I will be doing.

I'm a little curious about your reaction to everyone's comments here - you are quite vociferous in your defence of DropBox, yet you don't appear to be an employee, or even 'Super User' like Mark Mc above. Why does it matter to you so much?

[DaveC2]

@Adam C. : Its not a CRAP explanation, its the one that causes them to charge in the way they do, just becuase you dont like it doesnt make it crap, you just dont like it.

As to file ownership, I dont think you understood what I said about how they store files, so again.

You go to microsoft site and download the DirectX offline install file (say 300MB), and upload that to your dropbox. They store that into 300MB into their storage space, and link it to the file record in your account. I then upload that same file, I have from a MSCP DVD, and they see that the same file is in their storage space, and they link it to the file record in my account. Now we BOTH are the owner of the file. We have never shared a folder, or the file in anyway, its just the same file so they store it once. YOU have the file dont you, so it uses YOUR quota, I have the file so it uses MY quota, your logic is I should get it for no quota use because YOU uploaded it first. THANKS DUDE FOR THE FREE STORAGE ON YOUR DIME! (If only!)

Addressing your disk usage over your allowance, Usage is what you have access to, allowance is what you have purchased access rights to. Your logic here seems pretty skewed, you want access to files, but you dont think you should pay for that access, QUOTA is how much you can access and sync, its not 1TB of physical hard disk space, you would have to be insane if you thought every user was getting that, you can force that usage by uploading files that would be unique to you only, but each time you upload something they already have they link to the already have file. (as do other cloud storage sites).

If your talking of some other kind of inconsistencies between diskspace used locally and in DBs quota usage on your account, be aware that DB does not see local file replication nodes as one file, it counts each instance your storing against your quota, (see symbolic links and/or iphotos)

DBs business model is to give you a quota of space you can access, and charge you for it, if you use half thats your bus, if you use all thats on you, if you use all with unique files no one else has, thats all good too, but your paying one fixed fee, end of. Now if you have 3 devices and upload a file via the cloud then 3 devices download that file each one costs DB to withdraw that data from the Amazon s3 storage backbone, each new file , each changed file, also causes this, and if you have 30 devices thats 10 times as much cost, whats the change in cost to you.... nill change, you pay one fixed flat fee.

As to your curiousity about me, I dont defend Dropbox, I defend how they are charging for this service as how they charge to make some $$$ and survive, they are not google or MS who have a billion dollar bank account to fall back on as they scoop up market share, to then sell you other stuff interconnected, this is all they do. If you saw some other threads I post on you would see I have some serious issues with how dropbox does some things, one being slack as performance to business customers.   But really I might throw back your final question, with this "Why does it mater to me so much? ....  if you're leaving and said so twice now, why do you care?"

PS: Office365 is NOT 5 copies of office it's one licence to use on 5 devices, there are several inter device dependencies, that are not present when you have multiple licence to use, but thats a whole different forum discussion.

[John J.62]

I have a dropbox account with 1Tb of space and am using 28Gb of space and when I try to add files dropbox tells me i don't have enough room to add 1 Gb of files.  Who can I call to resolve the problem?

[Rich]

John, do you have enough available space on your local hard drive?

[Adam C.36]

@Dave

I think you still don't get what my complaint is.

Your example of them saving space by allowing users shared access to identical files is correct and probably common to most cloud services like this (Google Music certainly does it this way).

If DB want to do this, that's fine - if they can make it transparent, and ensure that if one of those owners updates the file, then the other can still see their original (unless they can both see it in the same location) then that's fine. Optimising their space makes perfect sense. No argument there.

What my problem is this:

• I purchase, for example, 50GB space for my use and upload, for example, 20GB music files
• I then get given shared access to some space for some sort of shared project. I perhaps need 1GB files from there, which I regularly use.
• From my paid for allowance, I'm now using 21GB - my music, and the 1GB shared files that I use
• Now, someone uploads 100GB data into a folder in the shared space. This is not data I have ever looked at, and possibly never intend to look at. I might not even know it's there.
• That is, until I decide I want to upload another 1GB music. I expect to have 29Gb spare space, but I find that I'm actually 71GB OVER my allowance (21+100-50)
• If I want to access any of the files in the uploaded 100GB, then DB I think would be quite entitled to charge me for the files I access and download. But not the rest of them!

This is the problem, and the one I think @John J who has just posted is probably suffering from. It makes it really difficult to predict how much space you need, as your allowance is at the mercy of other people, who may upload loads of dross that eats away at your allowance, even though you may never want to use it. While it may be possible to reduce your data usage by disconnecting from some shared data, it often isn't possible to do this, due to needing access to other data in the share. 

[DaveC2]

@Adam C.

Your case falls down on the second point.

RE: "I then get given shared access to some space for some sort of shared project. I perhaps need 1GB files from there, which I regularly use."

Dropbox has no functionality for the above example point.

What you are given the opportunity to access or decline access to is a SHARED FOLDER, A shared folder enables you to COLLABORATE either as a viewer or editor (depending on offered access) of any file any editor adds or edits in that folder. Access to those files consumes your quota of accessible space.

No one is giving you their space, they are allowing you access to content.

If your finding people add huge volumes of files to shared folders your in , if a viewer, simply delete the folder, and use the sharing link to restore it at any time you might want to look at the folder again, and if your an editor teach them a lesson by deleting all the files.