Deleting files does not free quata space, apparently is policy? Conflicting info...?

[anonymous]

Greetings--

I am posting because searching through the same question from the past gives me the wrong answer.

According to DropBox, deleting files DOES NOT free up space in the account. Here is the quote from DB help:

"Deleted files don't count against your storage quota, so permanently deleting them won’t free up space."

And, when I try to permanently delete files in "Deleted Files" section, I get a message which includes--

Permanently deleting these items won’t free up space.

So as I understand, even though I have 4.75gb of earned quota, I am forever cut off until I upgrade?

Seriously? So it's like having no space at all?

[Rich · Accepted solution]

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@anonymous wrote:

According to DropBox, deleting files DOES NOT free up space in the account. ... So as I understand, even though I have 4.75gb of earned quota, I am forever cut off until I upgrade?

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You're misunderstanding it. Once you delete a file, that space is reclaimed and the file will be moved to Deleted Files. Files located in Deleted Files don't take up space in your account. Deleting a file from Deleted Files doesn't reclaim space because it was already reclaimed when you first deleted the file.

[anonymous]

Thanks for your reply. This is not what I am experiencing. I have deleted every file in my account and it is empty. I have also permanently deleted all files. I still cannot add files or do anything at all. Here is the message I get when I try to add something:

Your Dropbox is full

You can’t upload files because you’re out of storage space. Before you can upload to Dropbox, you need to get more space.

Any light on why this is happening? As mentioned, even the FAQs state deleting files will not free up space, I quoted that in my opening post.

[anonymous]

My bad. I had neglected to delete the Shared Folders which put me over the top. Now my account is empty and free space seems to be available.

I must say the interface has changed quite a bit in the few years I have not used and been away from DropBox. It used to be far more intuitive to use, that seems to be less so now.

In any event, thanks for the reply.