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Deleting licenses

Is way to difficult and convoluted and took much more time than it should have. This is the worst experience I've had with Dropbox. You normally make things easy. This was a pain in the ass, and for no good reason. I have deleted members months ago, didn't re-assign their licenses and was continuing to get charged. So I wanted to reduce the licenses. It was damn hard to find the way to do this. You should present the links in the same place as the delete team members location......very annoying

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Orla

Hi David, how you delete licences depends on what kind of subscription you have, annual or monthly. If you have an annual subscription you can reduce licenses 30 days before your next renewal by clicking the "renew now" button on the Account page of your admin console. If you have a monthly account you can do this at any time during your month and your licenses will be charged at the correct amount the next month.

Huub W.

This is indeed the worst dropbox experience ever. You can find the button 'add licenses' everywhere, but nowhere where to remove licenses. And if you have unused licenses like we do it is not possible to see what the end date is and if they will actually end! If this does not improve we will switch to Microsoft onedrive or Google drive.

Jean-Philippe R1

Hey guys,

I have the same problem, I want to delete a licenses (I have 6 and only use 5 of them). How / Where do I remove a license ?

Jai B.1

Guys - any help on how to remove licenses? We have unused licenses and I can't find the remove button anywhere.

This is a TERRIBLE approach by Dropbox and will force people to switch away from them. Please learn something from Netflix and make a prominent button that people can click to remove licenses. Transparency is the best approach.

Mark

A very quick look in the help section gives you - https://www.dropbox.com/help/7238?path=dropbox_for_business

Note that you can only update at renewal.

Jai B.1

I don't understand - we are on a month-to month plan for business. We have 2 unused licenses. When I can I remove them. Also - when I click the reduce licenses link - I get some text I can't read. See attached image. Very confused! Please help. ></p>

Mark

Tried a different browser?

Made sure it doesn't take you below the 5 minimum requirement?

If so to both you are going to need to contact support either via www.dropbox.com/support or the phone numbers in your Admin panel.

Jon (.

Agree with the community. Should be able to delete users at any time, even if on an annual plan.

Etiënne L.

NOT COOL DROPBOX!!!!! I hate this so much when companies make it so hard to remove or delete a license/account whatever. GROW UP!

Jon (.

This is what happens when small companies that were once nimble and fair become big and need to deliver profits to VC's or Wall Street. The invitation Dropbox is to prove us wrong on this issue of adjustments to the annual license plan and do the right thing. Respectfully submitted.

Israel L.2

This is TERRIBLE. My account has many unused licenses.

Trick #1, removing a user and deleting their data = still keep paying.

Trick #2, no apparent way to delete. Help section describes links that don't exist.

Trick #3, lots of Add User buttons. But remove users licensing first go to "renew now". What kind of dirty trick is being played here.

For me 30% of my billings for 6 months. Maybe more like 12 months.

Is this Dark Pattern of hiding removing licenses contributing 15% to DB revenue? Less? More?

update:

I wrote support.

Support gave me the same "answer" suggesting I tap on buttons that are not present.

I pointed this out.

After 3 days I nudged them again.

They replied they've removed the licenses for me! How kind...? No, not kind. This shuts me up but doesn't' solve the problem for the less-persistant.

Dear Dropbox, it appears this is intentional?

Mikel L.

I'm also having the problem, the "help article" refers to buttons that don't exist. No where can I find a reduce license button. I'm continually paying for licenses I can't use.

DropBox, this is silly, client alienating behaviour. Just add a "manage licenses" link that lets me set the licenses. And while you are at it, of COURSE you can prorate the downgrade...You manage to have the code to prorate the upgrade!

craig b.16

GD !! I thought I was the only one. Now I read all these comments. You can bet your ass I am looking for a way to LEAVE drop box and will NOT be adding any of my new business with this WICKED and DECEPTIVE practice. Congress should make this a FELONY and put the CEO in prison. Do that to a few of these scammers and watch how they suddenly change to being customer focused. Now I will have email them and complain and get them to do it for me. And since I am just transitioning, you can bet your ass we will NOT be using dropbox on any of our NEW accounts. What a sick twisted joke. Any investors reading this? I will make sure to take the time I have wasted here and email them too. It is all public information.

Rob A.3

Completely agree with the sentiments above.

Why have they even got two systems here, Licences/Members on almost every system we use you pay per user. Delete a user and you no longer pay for that user. Simple.

This is a clear attempt to trick users into paying for a service they don't need.

Disgrace full business practice. Shame on you Dropbox.

Hello K.

Yep. In the same boat. Did everyone have to email support directly to fix this issue or did y'all just cancel your accounts completely?

Peter G.73

I am on a month-to-month subscription through Dropbox Business. When you have spare licenses on your account, you can remove them by a hard-to-find "Reduce licenses" link that shows up next to "Cancel Dropbox Business" (see bottom-right in screenshot below).

Again, this seems to ONLY show up when you have spare, unused licenses.

jeannefer57

I have been all over DROPBOX for the last hour trying to cancel a license and you make it imposssible on purpose !! That is a bad business practice and today THIS customer is very frustrated and discontent with your service .

First , just searchcing for the subject of " how to remove or cancel a license" in your HELP Center is difficult and then the instructions you post instruct a path which is nowhere to be found . You indicate to go to the ADMIN CONSOLE and there click on ACCOUNT and then RENEW NOW ......

Well , "ACCOUNT" is nowhere to be found from my ADMIN CONSOLE today , so my question is when do you have it appear and how am I to know when it will pop up for me to be able to use ?? Am I supposed to log in every day ten times a day , to one lucky day stumble upon the option "ACCOUNT" so I may continue with my request ? You say I can not access the renew option until 60 days prior to renewal date ...what on earth does that mean ?? if I am billed monthly, the 60 day period makes no sense !

Purchasing licenses and canceling licenses should require equal efforts . But since it isn't , then I definitely will think TWICE next time I want to buy a license and perhaps NOT do so .

PRussell23

We are having the same trouble managing our licenses that's been expressed in other posts. I have contacted Support directly in numerous emails. I received replies, each with a different ticket number, but all with 1 of 2 exact same responses, "I will be having this case reviewed by members of our team who specialize in this kind of issue. They'll review it carefully and we will get back to you as soon as possible." OR "I am currently investigating this issue and will get back to you as soon as possible." In every email I write or reply I include a request to be contacted by phone or be given a name and number to call to address the changes required in our account. Not once has my request been answered.

This has been ongoing for over 2 months. Our Company will not continue to do business with a vendor who is this difficult to work with.

Dropbox, I love your service and product personally and recommended it to my employer. Now you've brought my judgement into question and soured me on your company. I guess Box was right afterall.

Sincerely,

PRussell23

JanVdE

Found the trick. In the 'billing - licenses - manage licenses' section, just type a negative number. If you want to go from 10 to 8 licenses, just type -2. Then the remove licenses button appears out of nowhere.

Hope this helps!

mark69

just figured it out: you need to go under "manage license" and in the box of "change license" you need to put in "MINUS x", e.g. -4 if you want to remove 4 licenses...

I know, super annoying. Thanks dropbox for wasting 30min of my life...

LeonGeld

I definitely agree with the numerous comments here about the difficulty to remove unused licenses. I was able to remove 2x unused licenses this morning only after quite some struggle. Afterwards, I noticed that another license previously assigned to an ex employee was still active. The had to go through a procedure to terminate the user, however, no option on Dropbox to now remove the license. This is hugely frustrating and should be published/reported on other forums such as "Hello Peter". Come on Dropbox management, stop ignoring the fact that your Customers are complaining about this business practice!

Hey @LeonGeld

Sorry I'm just seeing this thread now. I'm reading through the comments and I'll try to summarize it to share with our internal teams.

Shouldn't be hard to remove unused licenses!

Jane

Hey @LeonGeld,

I'd like to chime in here with some tips that'll help you control & adjust your team membership!

#1. First off, I'd like to prompt you to visit the Members tab on the admin console. If you click on the "Member type" drop-down menu for "Invited", you'll see that members with pending invites to the team still take up the licenses assigned to their account. Therefore if you'd like to repurpose any of your unused user accounts, you'll first need to remove any invitations that haven't been accepted first & then use the licenses for new users.

#2. Secondly, I'd like to note that there has been a change in the Dropbox for Business plans, put into effect after February, 2017. The change may have affected some teams opting to remain in the old pricing (that included a minimum of 5 users) who may have altered their mind and would like to revert to the new pricing while on an active subscription (since the new pricing comes with 3 users). In this scenario, the team will need to finish their current plan and any changes can be schedule for their upcoming renewal, as of 2018. That being said, if you're an admin on a team of 6 members (where the minimum amount is 5) & you'd like to reduce to 4, you'll be unable to go below 5.

Of course our team is always a chat or a phonecall away if you need more details, both in order to send over the relevant steps & advise on the most suitable plan, that would match your needs!

Brian6

It's just a dropdown list of numbers, no option to type.

Jane

Hey @Brian6,

To my mind, and based on your description, you don't get this menu because it's not available for the action you'd like to perform. You may keep in mind that if your current plan's minimum number of licenses is 3 and you'd like to go to 2, the option is disabled by default.

Hope this helps you clarify!

anjay

SO HOW DO I DELETE A LICENSE IF ON A MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION? I HAVE CLICKED EVERYWHERE AND HAVE DELETED THE MEMBER BUT STILL NEED TO DELETE THE LICENSE.

Mark

Anjaay follow https://www.dropbox.com/help/business/add-licenses-or-space

Note that you can only remove licences down to your minimum subscription level (either three or five)

Energy

I am way over trying to cancel some of my user licences. What a pain in the ass and a waste of my time. I am looking into other options other than DB due to what ocurs as entrapment. Still no joy getting this sorted as yet

@David L.6 wrote:
Is way to difficult and convoluted and took much more time than it should have. This is the worst experience I've had with Dropbox. You normally make things easy. This was a pain in the ass, and for no good reason. I have deleted members months ago, didn't re-assign their licenses and was continuing to get charged. So I wanted to reduce the licenses. It was **bleep** hard to find the way to do this. You should present the links in the same place as the delete team members location......very annoying

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