Why is my account out of space?

[adrian29630]

As seems to be the case these days with many "Apps" they want you to buy their product but don't deliver support and want to rely on "Communities". In other words free assistance from other users which costs them nothing but for me at least puts me off ever paying for any of their products!

Now the reason I wanted support.  I was asked to "share" on a Dropbox account. Not my account but someone who asked me to assist in uploading a large quantity of documents in a short space of time.  As far as I am concerned this had and should not have had any involvement with my Dropbox account.  I did not add anything to my account, all the uploads went direct to the Dropbox shared folders.

Now, I constantly receive notifications that my Dropbox is full and that I am Using 34.38 GB of 2 GB space.  How ridiculous is that!!!!! They are trying to sell me more storage when I do not need storage and none of the uploaded files should be in my Dropbox.

I want this resolved. I want my Dropbox cleared of files that should not have ever been added to them.

That's why a support access should be provided to enable faults to be rectified. Some hopes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mark]

Hi @adrian29630 

I'm afraid that is how Dropbox works - any file in your account uses your quota regardless of if the other person paid or not. There is nothing to fix here - its how it works. 

If you need to just upload things to people and not edit ask them to send you a Dropbox Requests link instead. 

[adrian29630]

They sent me a request to share THEIR Dropbox in which they have more than adequate storage for the files they wanted in their dropbox. Nothing to do with me or my DropBox account.  I had access to theirs and I uploaded files directly to their account. So there was no reason for there to be any files in my account. It was as if I had no account personally but was authorized to use the shared account.

That is what is so ridiculous with this situation. None of the files are mine. None were added to my Dropbox they went straight into the shared account set up to receive them.  I am pretty sure under normal circumstances if I had exceeded my limit I would never have been able to 34.38 GB when my limit is 2GB

[Megan]

Hi @adrian29630, I'd be more than happy to help! 

Just so we can clarify if they shared folders with you, or a file request, could you possibly check the email you received, in order to upload content to their account? Did it look something like that?

If you could share a screenshot with me, that'd be amazing. (Just make sure none of your personal info is shown there)

While you're at it, can you also send me a screenshot of your account plan page, so we can have a look into this too?

[adrian29630]

Hello Megan

Thank you for your reply.  I have attached screenshots of the 2 emails I received with instructions to use/access shared folders.  I hope this provides what you asked for.

As far as my account with Dropbox is concerned I have a Free basic account with a 2GB limit.  In the past, if I have ever got close to that limit I have received notifications to upgrade or delete files.  That is why I find it hard to believe that I have apparently exceeded the limit to the extent I am told I have and it was not stopped or blocked much sooner.

[Hannah]

Hey @adrian29630, thanks for the screenshots here.

This clarifies the situation indeed, as it looks like you've been invited to add a shared folder to your account. 

Shared folders give you edit permissions, so they are added to your account, thus taking up your space.

If you just need to view the folder, this person can send you a shared link instead and a file request, if you also need to upload files.

[adrian29630]

Thanks for this reply although I still do not understand what this means.  As far as I was/am concerned I was invited to share a folder created by the other person to enable me to add content to it.  I did not expect that this would affect my account as I was not adding anything to my folders, only those created by the other person.  What you are saying seems to imply that both accounts would need to have the same amount of access/space even though the folders would only really be in one account.

What I need to know is what will happen if I delete the folders/content in my Dropbox account? Will that result in all the content being deleted from both or can I remove it from mine and the files in the other "shared" account retained?  It seems a ridiculous situation that it is not possible for access to an account to be granted without requiring both to have levels when the files are only required in one account.

[Jay · Accepted solution]

Hi @adrian29630, you can leave the shared folder from your account, or remove your access to it completely, by following these steps. 

It won't affect other users who are currently members of the shared folder.

[adrian29630]

Thanks I will do that and perhaps they will stop pestering me to upgrade my account

[Rich]

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@adrian29630 wrote:

Thanks for this reply although I still do not understand what this means.  ... What you are saying seems to imply that both accounts would need to have the same amount of access/space even though the folders would only really be in one account.

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For future reference, and to help clear things up, when you are a member of a shared folder, regardless of whether you are the owner or are invited to someone else's folder, you have your own COPY of the folder in your account. You're not uploading to someone else's account, and the folder doesn't exist in one location. Everyone has their own copy of the folder and anything you do in that folder will sync to the other user's copy of folder.