I'm out of space but I have nothing in my files. Why?

[Chetter0404]

I am getting popups saying that my Dropbox is running of our space. When I check it tells me I'm using 5.3 GB of 6.3 GB but I have virtually nothing in my files.  I have one folder that has 876 KB of data in it and that's all. Why is DB telling me I'm almost out of space?

[Rich]

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@Chetter0404 wrote:

I have one folder that has 876 KB of data in it and that's all. Why is DB telling me I'm almost out of space?

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You must have other data in your account. Look at your Plan page. Whatever it shows for your usage is what you actually have in your account. Shared folders count against your storage so remember to account for those as well. You can see all of the files stored in your account on your Files page.

[Chetter0404]

I think I have found the problem. Somehow the Backup feature of Dropbox was activated and has been creating backup copies of some files. I am deleting the backups now and will see if this fixes the problem

[Chetter0404]

There is a file called CF Storage that is using up 5.33 GB of space. I tried to delete it but can't.

[Rich]

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@Chetter0404 wrote:

There is a file called CF Storage that is using up 5.33 GB of space. I tried to delete it but can't.

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Is this folder within the backup folder named PC (for Windows) or Mac (for macOS)? If so, have you disabled the computer backup feature yet?

[Chetter0404]

I was able to delete the backup file and it now shows I have lots of storage room. I tried to disable the backup feature but I get an error message:

Error (500)

Something went wrong. Don't worry, your files are still safe and the Dropbox team has been notified. 

[Megan]

Hey @Chetter0404, how are you today? 

I'm happy you managed to resolve your storage issue by deleting the file you initially mentioned. As for the Error (500) did you get it when following these steps? 

Let me know, and we'll take it from there. 

[Chetter0404]

Here are some screen captures to show what I did that led to the error:

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[Hannah]

Hey @Chetter0404, sorry to jump in here. 

Thanks for the screenshots you sent us. 

Have you tried to disable computer backup, using the steps here, to see if that works?

[Chetter0404]

Hi Hannah. I brought up the preferences and clicked on the Backup tab but I don't see Manage Backup. When I click on Setup it asks me to setup backups which I don't want.