Is there enough storage freed up to access a shared item?

[Gala_4]

I am an early adopter of Dropbox -- have been on for 10-15 years. I remember it was creaky at the beginning and I may have had more than 1 account until I got everything working. It's been fine and I now have a Basic (free) account with 2 GB of storage, and with promos , referrals etc. it says I now have 5.25GB. I am suddenly getting a message that I am out of storage and I get a similar message when I try to accept an invitation to edit a shared Dropbox used by my volunteer association.  I could join this in  the past but when I found I was out of storage I deleted that folder ... did it really get deleted?

Everything has worked fine in the past -- I wonder now if there is hidden storage somewhere or if I possibly  have more than one account, but it doesn't seem to indicate this. Are deleted files not actually being deleted from my storage? I have been deleting files to get below 2GB hoping that might let me get to the shared folder. But I still can't join the shared folder to edit it.

[Calvin2DBX]

Hi @Gala_4,

Glad you raised this with us! Let me help with that.

I can see from the screenshot that the majority of the space is being taken up by other shared content.

Shared items stop using your space as soon as removed on your side.

You can delete your own copy of any additional shared folders to temporarily leave them, without affecting anyone else (no need to use the option of leaving permanently.)

So long as you left a shared item temporarily, you'd find it on the Shared section from your Dropbox Home page, from where you can add it back.

See if that clears up enough space for you to be able to join the new folder.

Keep me posted!

[Gala_4]

The solution proposed does not work as the file to join is 6GB and I have ‘deleted’ all the share folder to get them off my drive. I have only a couple of MB files left but only 5.25 GB with my free account plus gifted space a decad

[Jay · Accepted solution]

Hi @Gala_4, if your account has 5.25 GB in total, then you won't be able to join a shared folder that is greater in size. 

You'll need to either earn extra quota on your account, or purchase a paid plan to have enough to join that folder.

[Joshua_Marvin]

Why does everyone associated with a shared folder have to have the full storage space when it should only be stored by one account.