Why does a shared folder not share quota?

[soundconvincer]

I just got off a chat with one of Dropbox's representatives.

In short, I have a Dropbox professional plan and I created a separate folder for each of my students. Yesterday, one of my students got a message that her account is "full" despite me having two and a half terabytes of free space left. Well, guess what, space is calculated double - once on my account and once on hers. So, let me get this straight, if I share a big folder with a lot of files with, say, 20 people, Dropbox will require all 20 of them to pay for the same amount of space!?

Anybody from Dropbox cares to justify this!?

[Jay · Accepted solution]

Hi @soundconvincer, thanks for messaging the Community!

As you’ve noticed, shared folders take up quota on all active members’ accounts. Users will need to have enough quota in order to be able to add and sync them to their accounts.

This policy exists to prevent people from giving themselves unlimited storage space by stacking accounts and shared folders. Currently, only Dropbox Business plans allow users to share their quota with other team members.

If you need them to only view and download files, sharing a link to the folder is possible.

Additionally, you can also have them upload directly to your account using file requests.

I hope this helps to clarify matters.

[Gavin F]

Hi there

I have a free account and my friend has a paid account.

He has just given me access to upload to the shared folder but I am not able to upload.

I am being told to upgrade storage. The shared folder is 20Gb, and my free space is almost used up.

Should I be able to contribute to the shared album because won’t that be in my friends space?

Thank you!!

Gavin

[Mark]

Hi @Gavin F 

Shared folders use up the quota of everybody within it - so if you want to upload 5gb of files to a shared folder you need to have that much space in your account for it. 

[Jay]

Hi @Gavin F, I've merged you to this thread with more information on this matter.

[dstroven]

I just realized today that although I pay for 2 terabytes of storage so I can share with anyone, Dropbox is multi-selling the storage by making whatever I PAY for utilize space in another's dropbox.

That is unethical and as a company, we will be terminating all accounts with Dropbox.

If I am paying to put my files online and share a link with someone else, whether they can modify or if it is read only.  I am paying for that space and file storage.  Taking up the same space on someone else's dropbox because I shared MY folder and uses up all their free space and thereby forces people to buy storage to match what I am sharing should be illegal.  It is more than double dipping for the same content.  But as many people as you share the files with. 

Why am I using dropbox to share files with contractors, when Dropbox is trying to charge them for the space I am already paying for?  If I pay for webhosting and put a file on the server and send a link to download to my clients.  My clients don't have to pay for hosting a file I already pay to host.  This is predatory and selling the same service multiple times.  

[Jay]

Hi @dstroven, I've merged you to this thread to keep similar queries together, to which there is a response to your comments.

[Gigi2424]

Someone shared their Dropbox account folder with me so that I could give them some large files. But Dropbox is counting the size of those files against my account! It shouldn't do that. I'm not putting these files into MY Dropbox account. I'm putting the files into someone else's Dropbox account.

There is no customer support at Dropbox. How are we supposed to fix an issue such as this? Thank you.

[Jay]

Hi @Gigi2424, thanks for messaging the Community.

I've merged you to this thread, as it sounds like you added a shared folder to your account.

The response here should help to clarify why you're experiencing this behavior.

[jimmermaine]

I'm guessing there's a way for you to set up a "DROP ONLY" folder so I can upload to someone's account without it appearing in my quota.

Dreamhost, I do not begrudge you wanting to make a buck. But I don't need to use your service that much and most of what I do is send files to people/organizations who ARE paying you. I have WAY too many subscriptions already and I don't want to be sending you a monthly fee if I don't need to.

And yes, it does look like "file requests" might be a way around this.

Thanks for listening.