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Remove from a team account and revert back to a personal Dropbox account

I have had a personal Dropbox for years which I use to do all my work, store photos, share files with clients and colleagues etc...

I had a new client wanting to share files via Dropbox and without paying much attention I clicked on the email invitation thinking it was to a shared folder like I have done many times previously, but actually looks like it was an invite to join their team...

So now it appears that my personal Dropbox has been completely taken over and I am now a part of their team!

While I can see that it says on my Personal files that I am the only member, assuming the client can't see the files, it really isn't ideal and would like to reclaim my own Dropbox for myself.

Is there a way for me to remove myself from the Team? And if so will that simply go back to my normal plan?

Any help on this much appreciated as don't want to risk loosing access to my own files and account...

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Rich

@dominorodgers wrote:
While I can see that it says on my Personal files that I am the only member, assuming the client can't see the files ...

They can't see your files normally, but if they're on a Business Advanced or Enterprise plan, then the team admin has the capability to sign in as you and would be able access your files.

Is there a way for me to remove myself from the Team?

No. You need the team admin to convert your account back to an individual account. It's important that they don't simply remove you from the team. Doing so would delete your account and your files. They need to convert you back to an individual account.

And if so will that simply go back to my normal plan?

If you were on a paid plan before joining the team, then you would have received a prorated refund for any time remaining on your account. When your account is converted back, it will be a Basic account, and you'll need to resubscribe if you were previously on a paid plan.

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Rich

@dominorodgers wrote:
While I can see that it says on my Personal files that I am the only member, assuming the client can't see the files ...

They can't see your files normally, but if they're on a Business Advanced or Enterprise plan, then the team admin has the capability to sign in as you and would be able access your files.

Is there a way for me to remove myself from the Team?

And if so will that simply go back to my normal plan?

Eclipze

I have the same issue.

I am literally gobsmacked that the admin of the dropbox account can sign in as me and access my personal files.

This is a major security issue. I accepted an invite for one client, which has now taken over my Dropbox account for ALL my clients.

Submitted a ticket.

ChaiL27

Thanks for sharing! I was about to do the same, but hesitated just long enough, and started to click around in this forum. Lucky I found your story.

What a strange procedure by Dropbox... Makes me want to look for other cloud options.

I did send in a ticket to ask if there are ways around it, or if I maybe misunderstood something.

Wish you a quick recovery.

lailao

Hi, How did this shakedown for you once you submitted your ticket?

I am having the same situation and have been ignored by dropbox for a week- no one has replied to me. Further the bitch ass admin of the team wont give me privilides to access support features to resolve this horrendous security issue ( suport features being chat or telephone support)...so my hands are tied behind my back. This is a literal **bleep**ing nightmare. I smell a lawuit coming....

lailao

Hi, How did this shakedown for you once you submitted your ticket?

Eclipze

Dropbox advised to have the admin remove me from the team (not delete) and that would push me back to a Dropbox Basic plan. I talked with the client over the phone at the time to make sure we got the option right. It still deleted my account. Because I had no account, I couldn't use the ticket system or contact Dropbox (couldn't sign in with no account). But I at least had a ticket I could reply email.

Dropbox asked me for my permission, to contact my client and ask them for permission to restore my own account. That's the account that I was paying for, in my companies name, using my companies email with my companies files. Once my client agreed, then it got sent to the Advanced team. Several days later, my account was activated as a basic account, empty. I upgraded the plan, copied my files back and re-synced.

Took 1.5 weeks and a lot of emails. This was a major breach of data security for me.

Good luck with getting your account recovered!

lailao

TYSM for responding to me. Wow! I am so sorry this hapened to you. Truly, a nightmare. At lest your client is cooperative- mine is not. Adding insult to injury is all they've been good for. I'm not sure if you're aware, but your deleted files can be reovered/accessed for 180 days. I am unsure if it matters if youve been deleted or transferred to a dropbox basic...it seems to be a gray area....and so this is where I'm at in the battle- just trying to make sure they can't re-gain access to my stuff (I've already regained my files because client transferred them all to me, but Dropbox never asked me for my consent around handling this they way they did with you, nor did my client...she just randomy sent them). I need clear assurance I am permanently deleted and thres no chance of them un-deleting my files, so my only hope is to keep trying with dropbox ticket system. If you know the answer, do fill me in please as I am desperate...Probably looking at a week or two lost as well to this fiasco. On a final note, it say so much that I got a quicker reply from a stranger in a dropbox forum than from dropbox themselves! I could never in good conscience recommend them!

lailao

*at least

*recovered

Sorry so many typos, using a new keyboard!

Eclipze

Hi Iailao,

I know how disruptive this scenario is! Particularly given the lack of prompt support.

When this scenario first occurred, I immediately made a seperate backup of my files. On recovery of my account, I did not seek to have this data restored for me. Too much trouble and delay to ask Dropbox to re-instate it. Easier to do myself from my own backup.

Because someone else has admin control on your account, they can use those admin priveledge to access all your file. Even those in the private folder. Even if they delete the account, they can still restore it. You need to have the account transferred back to yourself, so you are the admin. Then I would assume they cannot restore it to gain access to your previous files.

I initially contacted Dropbox. Transcript below for your reference. I was extremely disappointed with Mathias on the chat, as they disconnected the chat on their end very rudely. After that... I couldn't start the chat system again to talk to someone else.

Mathias
Okay so you joined your client's Dropbox Business account? That doesn't mean that they have access to all your data. You will still have a personal space (market with a purple folder) with all your private data that only you can access. So they will only have access to what you share with them.
Anyway, if you want to get back to your own personal account you need to reach out to the admin of that business account and ask him/her to remove you from the business account

Me
I have read on your help that an admin of a Business Advantage etc... can sign in as me and access my files.
Can you please revert me back to my Dropbox Plus account? I want it done properly.

Mathias
Yes that is technically possible but that is only a feature that is meant to be used for emergency situations
I don't have the tools to do that I'm afraid as I'm a pre-sales adviser on Dropbox Business. The best thing to do will be to reach out to your client and ask them to remove you again

Me
HAHAHaa... that is a major security issue for me. I cannot have a back door for one client to access my files for other clients. That is a MAJOR security issue for a business.
Why can I not revert my own account????
This is outrageous!!!

Mathias
I understand that but normally I will also not recommend you to join a client's business account as a business is mostly meant for internal use and not for external sharing

I am gobsmacked Dropbox has allowed the breach of security for my files and now it's up to my client to fix it.

Thank you for contacting us.
Chat session disconnected.

dominorodgers

It does seem to be a complete nighmare and I am glad I am not the only one this happened to. The fact that you can't remove yourself from a team is beyond ridiculous and the fact an admin can access your supposedely private files by logging in as you is terrifying!

Thankfully my client was happy to remove me from the account and restore me back to my own account - BUT since then my whole Dropbox has gone a bit mad and has affected my whole laptop. Everything that was stored locally on my machine in Dropbox somehow got removed?! Now everytime I want to open a file it has to re-download it using smart sync, which although irritating is fine when I have wifi available, but a disaster when I don't - the beauty of Dropbox and storing stuff locally was that I could still happily access my files when I didn't have wifi! This might just me being a bit slow and not getting the settings right?! Either way it is further annoying as my data modified sorting is now all off too, as the date of everything was showing as the data that my account was recovered!! As far as I can see I haven't lost files which is the main thing, but still I am super annoyed that clicking on one email link to what I believed was simply a shared folder can have caused me such upheaval....

KCACWillDo

I did that on my account but now I have major issues. Everything is stuck and I am getting this error:

'Your account can't be updated to leave the shared workspace. Some files are being used by other applications.'

I have manually shut down the files and it still shows: Windows Explorer is blocking the transfer

Please help!

Thanks

KCACWillDo

Frustrating is an understatement! Especially when I have no choice right now but to work form home :-(

nvcuadra

This is not an acceptable solution. It's too easy to accidently delete all of my personal files. Can Dropbox please just remove me from this team account that I joined accidentally? This is a horrible system that makes it entirely too easy for someone to steal all your files.

Jay

Hi @nvcuadra, I'm sorry to hear about this situation.

If you've joined a Dropbox Business team, for security and privacy purposes, only the team admin can remove you from the team an convert your account back to a personal one using these steps.

Let me know how it goes.

Brad W.

I have the same issue and the response answered my questions EXCEPT I have no access to the admin. He has left his company and no where to be found. How can I reclaim my personal account?

Jay

Hi @Brad W., is this a paid Dropbox Business team? Could you let me know what plan you see on this page?

ponderifica

I literally cannot believe this is an actual thing within Dropbox. It just happened to me. I have no idea when the client can get back to me about it and I absolutely did not want this to happen. I was skeptical upon seeing the option to merge accounts but I sort of assumed there was just something new going on with Dropbox and trusted the process. I'll NEVER do that again. This is a huge problem and will most likely be ending my 7-8 year stint with Dropbox over this. Absolutely unacceptable performance.

nvcuadra

Truly unbelievable. I dropped Dropbox after many years of being a customer and have switched to pcloud

pixi2

This is the most horrible and frightening user experience I had for years.

I'm seriously considering to cancel my (and my employees) dropbox-subscription (which I have for more than 10 years) and switch to owncloud.

SusanU

Slightly related experience.. I had a personal dropbox account for years and recently one of the companies I work for part time needed me to set up a Team for their company. I had no idea it would swoop up all my personal dropbox files and add to their team folders. I am having trouble getting it resolved.

Walter

Hey @SusanU,sorry to her you're having issues with this.

In this case, you'll need to reach out to your team admin and ask them to convert your account back to an individual one following the steps outlined here.

Let us know how you get on.

PEA2023

I accidentally added someone to my team as a member. How do I remove him from my team without blocking their entire account?

I still want him to have acces to one of the folders.

Mark

You will need to REMOVE him from the Team via the admin panel (not delete!) and then share the folder individually with him.

Note that he will need an account large enough to access it, so, if its over 2gb he will probably need to pay for an upgrade.

Rich

@PEA2023 wrote:
How do I remove him from my team without blocking their entire account?

You need to convert their account back to an individual account.

https://help.dropbox.com/account-access/convert-to-individual

Jean-Baptiste R

I have had the same issue and I want the DropBox teams to know that the process of moving a personal account to a Pro has completely shattered my confidence in the DropBox service. There is absolutely flabbergasting that in just one clan and with absolutely no explanation of consequences, nor ability to cancel, all your content is now managed by someone else without the ability to regain control by your self but ask for a permission of the 'new owner' of your content.

10+y of paid subscription will now go to another service, my trust is gone and I am superbly upset.

SparkleCindy

So will I have to pay for it again, even though I already paid for a year?

SparkleCindy

I didn't receive a refund. I've had an account for years and now because of this weird error, I need to go back in and pay when I already have?

Mark

@SparkleCindy wrote:
So will I have to pay for it again, even though I already paid for a year?

When you join a Team you are refunded the fees. So, you wont have paid 🙂