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LauraLOTC's avatar
LauraLOTC
Explorer | Level 4
3 years ago

My personal account was accidentally merged into a Business Account

I have a personal Dropbox account for my work as a journalist. My business partner created a new Business Account and invited me to join only to access certain files. When I went to accept the system asked to "merge" the accounts and not understanding what that meant, I clicked yes. Then Dropbox notified me that my personal account was closed and they were refunding me my fee. How do I extricate myself from this? I do not want to own the Business Account or have that for my own Dropbox, I only need access to it. How do I restore my Personal account and revive the subscription? The person who created the new business account says it was a mistake, but doesn't know how to fix it and one can't "call" Dropbox, nor is there a way to change accounts. Help!


  • LauraLOTC wrote:

    When I went to accept the system asked to "merge" the accounts and not understanding what that meant, I clicked yes. ... How do I extricate myself from this?


    When you merged your account into the team account, you effectively made the team the owner of your account. In order to leave the team, the team admin needs to convert your account back to an individual account. It's important that they don't just remove you from the team as doing so would delete your account. If that were to happen, the team admin only has seven days to restore your account.

     

    After your account has been converted back to an individual account you'll be back on the Basic plan. You can then resubscribe to Plus, Professional, etc.

  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II

    LauraLOTC wrote:

    When I went to accept the system asked to "merge" the accounts and not understanding what that meant, I clicked yes. ... How do I extricate myself from this?


    When you merged your account into the team account, you effectively made the team the owner of your account. In order to leave the team, the team admin needs to convert your account back to an individual account. It's important that they don't just remove you from the team as doing so would delete your account. If that were to happen, the team admin only has seven days to restore your account.

     

    After your account has been converted back to an individual account you'll be back on the Basic plan. You can then resubscribe to Plus, Professional, etc.

    • LauraLOTC's avatar
      LauraLOTC
      Explorer | Level 4

      Thanks so much for the info. We were able to get into the Admin portion and speak to a Dropbox team member who walked us through the steps to revert the account.

    • gryphonox's avatar
      gryphonox
      New member | Level 2

      I have this same issue - in reverting to an individual account at the Basic Plan, will I lose content as the space required will need to be upgraded immediately?

      • Megan's avatar
        Megan
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

        Hi gryphonox, I'd be happy to answer this for you! 

         

        If you joined a Business team, and you want to revert back to an individual plan the best way to go on about it is to ask for the admin to convert your account, following these steps. 

         

        Now onto your question: Please be aware that if your account is ever downgraded, Dropbox will not delete any of your files. 

         

        If you are over quota all that should happen is that Dropbox will not sync any new files. 

         

        Let me know in case you have any questions.

  • EGuy's avatar
    EGuy
    New member | Level 2

    When I worked recently with an NGO on a project, their business account took over my personal account. They shared files with me and all was OK. But when the project finished, they terminated my membership and instead of returning to my personal account, I am locked out of it because - I am told - me email address is no longer valid. So I cannot access any of the folders that were on my personal account, and I stood to lose everything. When I went back to the NGO, they reinstated my membership, so I can see all my original folders. BUT.... how can I get out from this org's business account and restore my personal account?

     

    • Nancy's avatar
      Nancy
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

      Hi EGuy, and thanks for posting this on the forum!

       

      In this case, the admin of your Business team will need to follow the steps Rich provided above and convert your account to an individual one again. 

       

      If you have any further questions though, let me know.

  • kevinvonesper's avatar
    kevinvonesper
    New member | Level 2

    Hello Community!

     

    I've sent Dropbox several e-mails about this without a response so I am turning to you to see if you have any insight.  I am a freelancer and one of the companies I work for sent me an invite be part of their Business account when they were trying to send me an invite to download files for a project.  Skip to now, my entire dropbox account has been integrated into their account.  This was a total mistake and now I am trying to reverse this action/get my own private account back without cancelling dropbox and losing all my files.  Anyone have any ideas?  Thank you.

    • Rich's avatar
      Rich
      Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II

      kevinvonesper wrote:

      ... one of the companies I work for sent me an invite be part of their Business account ... my entire dropbox account has been integrated into their account.  ... and now I am trying to reverse this action/get my own private account back ...


      You need to contact the team admin and ask them to convert your account back to an individual account. It's very important that they don't just remove you from the team as doing so would delete your account. If that were to happen they only have seven days to restore your account. They must convert it back to an individual account, and only the team admin can do this. Dropbox can't do it.

  • ckonteos80's avatar
    ckonteos80
    New member | Level 2

    I have a Dropbox Plus account and was added by mistake into a Business account. What is the correct procedure to be removed from the Business account and to return to the Plus account. Without losing any files or the yearly payment that I have made.

     

    Thank you for your help

    • Rich's avatar
      Rich
      Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II

      ckonteos80 wrote:

      What is the correct procedure to be removed from the Business account and to return to the Plus account. Without losing any files or the yearly payment that I have made.


      When you join a Business team with a paid account, you receive a prorated refund for any time remaining on your subscription. Once you get your account back, you'll need to resubscribe.

       

      In order to be removed from the team you need to contact the team admin and ask them to convert your account back to an individual account. It's very important that they don't just remove you from the team as that would delete your account. If that were to happen the team admin would have just seven days to restore your account. Make sure they convert your account.

  • hammer078's avatar
    hammer078
    New member | Level 2

    - Yesterday I received an invite from my friend to collaborate on his "Work" folder (let's call it that for now).
    - I was offered 2 choices to either "join" or "create new account".
    - I opted to Join. Now my folders all got archived into 1 folder and his account folders are taking precedence in my overview.

    - my standard (paid) account got refunded (not what I wanted!!)
    - This is not what I expected and would like to revert this to how I had it prior to Joining his "Work" Folder (my own subscription and own files).

     

    How do I "un-join" and revert back to my paid subscription without loosing all my personal files and folders?

    Please advise

    • Megan's avatar
      Megan
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

      Hey hammer078, welcome to the Dropbox Community!

       

      If you joined a Dropbox Business team, the admin will need to remove you from it, so that you can go back to your personal account.

       

      They will need to remove you by converting your account to an individual Dropbox Basic account. That way, you'll lose access to the team content, but keep your account and your personal files.

       

      Let me know if you have any questions.

      • jonnyk1's avatar
        jonnyk1
        New member | Level 2

        Same problem for me.

        I clicked an invite from a supplier and it swallowed my own account and now I can't remove my account from their organisation. The process really needs improving or at least make it reversable.

         

         

  • Paul 11's avatar
    Paul 11
    Explorer | Level 3
    How do I leave the company Dropbox as I have left the company and I am still included in their media?
    • Megan's avatar
      Megan
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

      Hey there, Paul 11, let's jump right into this! 

       

      Based on the info you've provided, I understand that you are either part of a Business account, that you now want to leave. Or that you need to remove a shared folder/file off of your Dropbox account.

       

      Would you mind clarifying a bit more, and also letting me know about your plan page, and what it reports, in order for me to have a clear visual, and provide you with the correct next steps please? 

       

      Keep me posted! 

      • Paul 11's avatar
        Paul 11
        Explorer | Level 3
        Hi Megan. Thank you for your reply.
        I used to work for a company and left it Oct 22. I recently received an email from Dropbox and saw that I was still linked to the company account.
        I am trying to find out how to remove myself.
        Thank you
  • JES4's avatar
    JES4
    New member | Level 2

    Dear All,

    a bad mistake happened when a collegue from another company tried to invite me to one of his shared folders: He accidentally invited me to join his team (Dropbox Business). I followed the invite and suddenly all my data got transferred to his company's Dropbox Business. A minute later I a got informed that my account had been deleted and a day later the Dropbox fees for the remaining year had been refunded to my credit card. I contacted DB's mail support but received no answer exept: "We are glad that you have contacted Dropbox Support. We appreciate your message. However, please note that this email box is not monitored by our support team". 

    I really do hope that the community can help out and advise on the best category to post this.

    Thanks a lot!

    Jan

    • Hannah's avatar
      Hannah
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

      Hey JES4, sorry to hear about this.

       

      When you become a member of a Dropbox Business team and the team admin chooses to delete you from the team, your account is indeed deleted.

       

      What the admin needs to do now is restore your account (they have 7 days since the deletion) and then convert your account to an individual one.

       

      That way, you can  get your account back and re-upgrade to your preferred plan.

      • JES4's avatar
        JES4
        New member | Level 2

        Thanks so much for helping out Hannah,

        well, that's been a couple of weeks ago now. We decided to continue under the current status until we found time to work this out. Too late now I'm afraid. Do you have any hints for me on how to proceed from here on? I could probably set up a new dropbox account but my Mail + PW is connected to the business account. I know I can somehow swop between a business account and a private account. But actually how do I do this? Right now I'm considering to pack my things and leave for Google Drive 😞

        Best

        Jan

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