Says I’m maxed out on storage, but I’m not…

[wamsender]

I have 18.25 gigs available that I got for free from several people signing up for a Dropbox account through me. I deleted 90% of everything…and permanently deleted…and it still shows maxed out and now I can’t upload anything else. Help?

[Rich]

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@wamsender wrote:
I deleted 90% of everything…and permanently deleted…and it still shows maxed out and now I can’t upload anything else.

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Checked your Backups page? Also note that you don't need to permanently delete files. Simply deleting them is enough to recover space.

[wamsender]

I already did all that. Still shows maxed out

[Megan]

Hey @wamsender, let's jump right into this! 

I'd love to have a visual of your plan page and what it reports in terms of your account's quota. Would you mind sending over a screenshot, please? 

Keep us posted!

[louvetemilie]

@Megan

Similar problem here: I have 4.75GB with Dropbox, and Dropbox (online) tells me I'm using 4.6GB (see screenshot).

However, when I check the space used on disk, I only see it at 2GB (see second screenshot of du -sh Dropbox at the commandline):

Why would Dropbox (app and online) consider my usage at 4.6GB when there are only 2GB of data in my Dropbox folder?

EDIT: no backups either:

[Mark]

Your shared files are using up the space as you can see on the graph.

Now its possible they are not syncing to the machine (Selective Sync in use or possibly set to Online Only?)

So, don't use the computer for size estimates - it isn't accurate at all (there is also a hidden cache). 

Everything you see at www.dropbox.com/home uses space though

[louvetemilie]

Thank you Mark for your response.

Without intending to be rude, I feel I need to correct you:

• The disk space usage as reported on the device is accurate and correct (2GB in my case)
  • I'm not aware of myself or my husband using Selective Sync or Online Only, so I'm not sure why the files are not synced on my device
• However, all the files in the shared folder that are present on the other device (my husband's device and account) are present and take up space in my online Dropbox shared folder...
  • In my case (my husband just checked), indeed the other device had 4.6GB of data in that shared folder!
  • That is the explanation for the size reported by Dropbox

The solution for me was simply to ask my husband to remove the excessive data from the shared folder on the other device, which brought down the load on my account.

My issue is now resolved. Hopefully this post will help others with similar problems, and maybe the original poster on this thread!

[Rich]

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@louvetemilie wrote:

Without intending to be rude, I feel I need to correct you:

• The disk space usage as reported on the device is accurate and correct (2GB in my case)
  • I'm not aware of myself or my husband using Selective Sync or Online Only, so I'm not sure why the files are not synced on my device

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If the space usage on your device is accurate, then you weren't syncing all of the files from your account.

If the shared folder in your account had 4.6GB of data in it, and the folder was visible in your local Dropbox folder, then either some files were marked as Online-only or some folders within it were removed using Selective Sync (or there's something preventing them from syncing, such as a bad file name). Otherwise your local folder would have had 4.6GB of data in it.

[wamsender]

There's almost nothing left in my folders. Some of them are empty. I deleted 90% of what was there. I got the extra gigs from people signing up with Dropbox through me several years ago. Do I need to disconnect devices, or something???

[Megan]

Hey @wamsender, thanks for the info! 

It seems you accessed your account page on your mobile. However, in order to see a clearer breakdown of what's taking up space for your account, you might want to visit your plan page online as found here. 

It could be an active Backup, or some shared folders even. 

Would you mind giving this a go?