Daily bandwidth limits and banning / suspensions

[James K.1]

Today I shared a 9 minute video I shot of my friends. I shared it with them and more than 10 of them must have downloaded it.

"Because this is your first ban, you may remove the temporary ban on your shared and Public folder links."

That makes it sound like I could be permanently banned if I ever did that again, which is pretty ridiculous.

It's not a true "daily" limit if I'm not allowed to reach that limit on a "daily" basis.

P.S. Does it count against your bandwidth even if some people just stream the video from the web browser interface?

Thanks in advance.

[Mark]

Your next ban will be for about 72 hours with each one getting longer.

And yes it does, you get 20gb of bandwidth across all of your links and shares and it includes playback in the browser (as that uses bandwidth).

[James K.1]

Thanks.

Without the ability to see our bandwidth usage, it's like driving cars without speedometers and being expected to stay below x MPH.

Daily bandwidth limits should be like storage limits-- you just get a notification that your limit has been reached, and you can't go past it. No penalty, no threats, no slaps on the wrist, no being treated like a felon. You would think that they would be MORE lenient than storage limits, considering you can't monitor your bandwidth.

[Mark]

Or you'd think they do want it as a punishment to try and stop people using it all up all of the time? Remembering that Dropbox isnt primarily a streaming service, its a syncing one (which a lot of people use for free) and that ever MB of data costs them money to transfer.

[Xy]

Hi,

I agree that this shouldn't be treated as a 'crime.' My links were locked before for downloads. But, my question is: "Will the links be locked if you share public links and others 'Save To Their Dropbox Account?' They aren't downloading. But, does this transfer count as bandwidth usage?

[Max_maximus]

i got banned for uploading my files

i uploaded about 13 gigs of data because i needed them for several client later on

i send one of my clients some of the links (about 500 mb of data) and my client reported back that the links said i was temporarly banned

maybe my total usage (download and upload) was about 20 gb but still

luckely i  have another service that i could rely on for those files or i would have lost my client

put a simple number in the settings page where you inform the user about its daily use

you already have that data, so simply output it

[Rich]

The bandwidth limits do not apply to the transfer of your own data. Bandwidth is only counted for share links and streaming to a mobile device.

A first-time suspension for a bandwidth overage is 24-72 hours and will be lifted automatically. Each subsequent suspension lasts longer. If you're a Basic user, upgrading to Plus will also clear a bandwidth related suspension (because it increases your limit from 20GB/day to 200GB/day).

There are other reasons suspensions occur as well, and due to privacy concerns, the message will always say that it's bandwidth related. The file could have been reported as part of a DMCA request, it could contain a virus or malware, etc. There are many other reasons. In these cases, the suspensions are not lifted automatically and you need to contact Support.

Open your ticket here: https://dropbox.com/support
Track your ticket here: https://dropbox.zendesk.com

Replies take approximately 1 - 3 business days with Plus users getting priority (longer for Basic users).

[This thread is now closed by moderators due to inactivity. If you're experiencing a similar behavior, feel free to start a new discussion in the Dropbox Community here.]