Sharing a large folder with DropBox Plus

[SteveDreaming]

I purchased a Plus account and then shared a folder with about 700Gb of data in it with two people who do not already have DropBox account by sharing it to their email accounts. The setting was chosen that only invited people and can view or edit the contents. The first said that when he created a free DropBox account it told him did not have enough space to view this shared folder

Does the recipient of a shared folder have to pay for Dropbox capacity to be able to read a folder?

[Rich · Accepted solution]

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@SteveDreaming wrote:

Does the recipient of a shared folder have to pay for Dropbox capacity to be able to read a folder?

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Yes, because when you invite someone to a shared folder they're not accessing the folder in your account. They get their own copy of the folder in their account, and need to have enough available space to hold that folder.

• https://help.dropbox.com/accounts-billing/space-storage/storage-space

If they don't need to have edit capabilities within the folder, and won't need to upload files back to you, use a shared link instead. The recipient doesn't even need a Dropbox account.

[SteveDreaming]

Thank you, that is exactly what I needed to know!

[Marion C.]

So what happens if they don't need the whole folder but want to change/edit and comment on a document within the folder - are you saying that they can only view the contents and not alter them? Mostly each individual document is small but together they overwhelm my colleagues Dropbox (2GB) folder whereas I have a 1TB account. The idea is that I host the folder of documents but thay she can access and change them as necessary. Is that not possible via a link and without her upgrading?

[Rich]

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@Marion C. wrote:

The idea is that I host the folder of documents but thay she can access and change them as necessary. Is that not possible via a link and without her upgrading?

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If the files total more than the space she has available in her account, then no, it won't be possible without her upgrading.

• https://help.dropbox.com/storage-space/shared-folder-count-against-storage

[Marion C.]

OK, thanks. Will have to find another way then. She already subscribes to ICloud so isn't willing to pay for Dropbox too whereas I like Dropbox and don't want to pay for ICloud that I don't need. Ho hum, I guess it is Google Drive then. Thanks for making it clear though, very helpful