How to change my email address when the email is no longer active?

[MartynC]

I need to change my email address as I no longer have access to the email. (Provider is useless) The instructions on Dropbox help simply don't work. Things are in different places to where they say they are and when you do find the right tab there is no 'edit' button thereby making it impossible. I am using a desktop Mac.

[Hannah · Accepted solution]

Hey @MartynC, thanks for visiting our Community.

Can you please go to this page in your account settings, and try to change your email address from there?

If you don't see an "edit" button, what do you see?

Let me know how it goes.

[MartynC]

Thanks Hannah,

Never got to that page and I seem to have sorted it thanks.

Martyn

[Hannah]

Happy to see that helped, Martyn!

If you need anything else, make sure to let us know.

Have a great day!

[mwpmvanbeek]

I followed the procedure and my account has the new email address. Nevertheless mails are still send to my old email address. How to solve?

[Hannah]

What kind of emails are you receiving to your old address, please?

Are they emails sent by Dropbox, or from people sharing files with you, for example?

[MartynC]

The problematic ones are from people sharing - or at least trying to. I am guessing it is because the email they are sending them too is my newer and preferred email address. However my main Dropbox account is an old one (but with much more storage) and associated with an old address (now changed thanks to you) but of course not changed to my main preferred address as that was not allowed. I changed it to an address I dont really use, its just an alternate for use if needed for any reason. Which means I do have access to it of course.

I dont remember why I opened the other one, perhaps I thought I was changing the email. Not really sure, I am guessing. I dont really want to have two accounts, particularly if this is indeed the cause of the issues. Additionally the newer account has very little space which again I think is the issue as I am getting a message saying I dont have enough space to open one of the documents that has been shared to me.

[Hannah]

It does sound like you have two accounts.

So, if I understand this correctly, you have a paid account that uses an email you can access, but is not your preferred one.

And another account, which is free and doesn't have a lot of space, but uses your main/preferred email address.

In this case, you can try one of two things:

1. Either delete the free account (while making sure you first download any files you need), to free up the main email and use it for your paid account
2. Or change the email address of the free account to a third, placeholder email address, to free up your main one and use it for your paid account

I hope this helps!

[mwpmvanbeek]

Dear Hannah,

Thank you for your answer.

I only have 1 free account.

[Hannah]

Hey @mwpmvanbeek, my apologies, you mentioned that your main account has much more storage, so I mistakenly thought it was a paid one.

In any case, have you checked whether you have two Dropbox accounts?

One way to check this, is to search for any Dropbox related emails in both your email addresses; that should give you an idea.