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Forum Discussion
Dropbox full because of shared folder
Hi, i have a dropbox account and the free space that i have is full because of the files inside the shared folder that i have with some friends.
Is there a way to avoid that the shared folder that ...
Your English is very good Michele - well done!
And no, if you need read write access to that folder if will use your quota. If you just need read only access leave the share and ask the other person sends you a read only Shared link.
You can LEAVE and REJOIN a shared folder when ever you like.
So one method of getting space is to LEAVE the shared folder. And REJOIN it when you need it.
If you ONLY need some files from the shared folder and ONLY at some times, I would additionally ask the owner of the shared folder for a LINK to it, in that way you can use the link to it and download via web the files you need when you need them.
Although I don't agree with Dropbox, and this is the primary reason I won't spring for Pro, I understand why they did this.
It's simple, really. Say, someone creates 10 free accounts. 10 x 2GB = 20GB. Now, that person, from each account shares a folder with his main account. That person just got more, free, space.
@Dave
I think you still don't get what my complaint is.
Your example of them saving space by allowing users shared access to identical files is correct and probably common to most cloud services like this (Google Music certainly does it this way).
If DB want to do this, that's fine - if they can make it transparent, and ensure that if one of those owners updates the file, then the other can still see their original (unless they can both see it in the same location) then that's fine. Optimising their space makes perfect sense. No argument there.
What my problem is this:
- I purchase, for example, 50GB space for my use and upload, for example, 20GB music files
- I then get given shared access to some space for some sort of shared project. I perhaps need 1GB files from there, which I regularly use.
- From my paid for allowance, I'm now using 21GB - my music, and the 1GB shared files that I use
- Now, someone uploads 100GB data into a folder in the shared space. This is not data I have ever looked at, and possibly never intend to look at. I might not even know it's there.
- That is, until I decide I want to upload another 1GB music. I expect to have 29Gb spare space, but I find that I'm actually 71GB OVER my allowance (21+100-50)
- If I want to access any of the files in the uploaded 100GB, then DB I think would be quite entitled to charge me for the files I access and download. But not the rest of them!
This is the problem, and the one I think @John J who has just posted is probably suffering from. It makes it really difficult to predict how much space you need, as your allowance is at the mercy of other people, who may upload loads of dross that eats away at your allowance, even though you may never want to use it. While it may be possible to reduce your data usage by disconnecting from some shared data, it often isn't possible to do this, due to needing access to other data in the share.
