Child Item

Lost bonus space

I use Basic Dropbox for almost 10 years. During my professional life I recommended dropbox to many colleagues, so I regularly owned an additional 0.5 GB because of that. Moreover, at some moment I bought a Samsung Tablet (10") and because of this purchase I got - from Samsung - an additional 5GB space on dropbox. So, in total my dropbox is about 9GB, from which about 65% is used. I can (could...) still save files on my dropbox, since I still "own" some 2.8GB free space.

Then, a few weeks ago I bought a new PC. Old one was getting too slow. New one is HP 2-in-1, core i7, 1Tb SSD and I started installing various software
programs on it.

Then I added dropbox to it. I was not really amused when I got a notification from the dropbox system that the maximum space that I could occupy is... only 2GB! This is of course not possible, since I already "owned" 9GB.

Not all my data has been copied on the new PC, and I am not able to store new data.

This does not work.

So, I suggested that they (dropbox) provide me again the previous 9GB and allow me to use all not yet used space (35%), just like it was before.

No reaction, no comment, ticket closed. "Sorry, no support for Basic Dropbox".

Stay away from it.

Find more posts tagged with

Storage space

Accepted answers

Bo JustMe

Hm. (hesitating...)

I can't remember I ever instructed dropbox to make such a backup.

(Did dropbox initiated making this backup for some reason?)

Anyway, I don't need it. Deleted.

And, yes, you solved the problem!

Personal Dropbox space - Using 5.8 GB of 9.25 GB

Regular files (3.6 GB) - Shared files (2.2 GB) - Unused space (3.5 GB)

So, it looks like I got my 9.25 GB space back, of which 3.6 GB and 2.2 GB are used, and ... I have my 3.5 GB unused space back.

I dropped a 270 MB file in some folder and it appears after sync on dropbox.com.

You solved my problem. I thank you very - very - much.

(Too bad the regular support couldn't/wouldn't help me though....)

All comments

Mark

If you are only seeing 2gb @Bo JustMe you've signed in to a different account, or, accidentally set a new one up.

You can test that by going to www.dropbox.com/events - can you see any activity before you bought the new device? What about www.dropbox.com/account/security - does that show the previous devices connected?

Bo JustMe

The only thing I changed before using my new PC was my email address (because the old one was no longer valid.
Answer to your questions: yes and yes.

Jay

HI @Bo JustMe, could you clarify what you mean by using a new email? Did you change that email directly on the Dropbox account when you were logged in?

What is your current quota total when visiting this page?

Bo JustMe

>> Did you change that email directly on the Dropbox account when you were logged in?

Right. The email that I used 10 years ago to register was not valid anymore. So, (I'm always logged on), I went to the dropbox website and changed my email address.

>> What is your current quota total when visiting this page?

Very confusing:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

2 GB of storage to help you store and share files.

Your Personal Dropbox account is full - Using 10.3 GB of 9.25 GB

Regular files (8.1 GB) -- Shared files (2.2 GB)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Thanks for your assistance... appreciated.)

Walter

Hey @Bo JustMe, sorry to jump in here, but could you also take a look at your backups page and see if there are any folders taking up space listed there?

Bo JustMe

One line:

Name - Status - Last backup - Size

PC Done 3/21/2023 3:14PM 4.51GB

Thats it.

Walter

If you don't need the backup of that computer, you can delete it to make up some space @Bo JustMe

Bo JustMe

Hm. (hesitating...)

I can't remember I ever instructed dropbox to make such a backup.

(Did dropbox initiated making this backup for some reason?)

Anyway, I don't need it. Deleted.

And, yes, you solved the problem!

Personal Dropbox space - Using 5.8 GB of 9.25 GB

Regular files (3.6 GB) - Shared files (2.2 GB) - Unused space (3.5 GB)

So, it looks like I got my 9.25 GB space back, of which 3.6 GB and 2.2 GB are used, and ... I have my 3.5 GB unused space back.

I dropped a 270 MB file in some folder and it appears after sync on dropbox.com.

You solved my problem. I thank you very - very - much.

(Too bad the regular support couldn't/wouldn't help me though....)

Walter

I'm glad to heat it's sorted now and thanks for keeping me in the loop too @Bo JustMe

See you around the Community and take care!

JBH109

I am a college instructor and recommended Dropbox to many of my students. As a result I had 18 G of storage. Unfortunately I also had two accounts,one for School and then a testing account. Both accounts had my school email. When I signed, I signed into the wrongd account, changed password and when I signed in with the new password I had only 2 GB of storage and lost a lot of data. Any way of restoring the data?

Rich

@JBH109 wrote:
Unfortunately I also had two accounts,one for School and then a testing account. Both accounts had my school email.

It's not possible to have two accounts with the same email address. If you had two accounts, the second one was with a different email address. Figure out what that other email is and you'll probably find the other account with the extra space you had earned.

anice

I got caught in "sort of the same trap" by recommending to my kids who may or may not have used Dropbox. All of a sudden, my new computer shows me over the limit and I am unable to download my files (which is why they remove them from your computer in the first place) and now I must subscribe to get my files back. I don't trust any positive responses on this forum as those people are probably getting more FREE SPACE! STAY AWAY FROM THIS TRAP! I would not be surprised if they even leave "negative" responses on this forum. Wanna Bet!

Rich

@anice wrote:
All of a sudden, my new computer shows me over the limit ...

New computer, with a new installation of Dropbox? You likely enabled the backup feature which probably put you over your limit. If that's the case, you can delete your backups from the Backups page.

... which is why they remove them from your computer in the first place) and now I must subscribe to get my files back.

Dropbox doesn't remove files from your computer unless you've instructed it to do so. It doesn't have that kind of control. Also, you don't need to subscribe to access your files if you're over the limit.

anice

Thank you for your response and help. I will check what you have provided but I am halfway finished with downloading all the files to my external drive. At my age (90), I really don't need it anymore and the subscriptions they have, starting over 3TB, is much more than I will ever need. It might be better to switch to another method. Thanks again, Anice

anice

Hannah

Hey @anice, thanks for your feedback here and I'm sorry that you feel that way, but let's see what we can find out.

Is it possible that you enabled our backup feature, which might have filled up your Dropbox space?

Do you see any backed up files here?

anice

Hannah,

Thanks for the response. I did some digging and found out that we somehow created a 2nd Dropbox account with the "free" 2 Gig limit. The original login for the expanded capacity was found intact and did contain the 7 Gig limit, which is all I was looking for. It does not get easier as we age and pushing 90 is the likely reason that it occurred. I apologize for the negative comments and need to do my homework, before cursing out the lesson, which was my fault. My wife and I are both approaching 90 and the Dropbox is handy and we find the data capacity is much lower than what most people need. It would be good to have a list of pitfalls that might occur, so we can fix it with some strokes, without all the unneeded chatter.

Thanks,

Don

Hannah

No worries, Don, I'm glad you were able to figure it out in the end!

Your feedback is valuable and I'll make sure to pass your comments along to our team.

If you ever need anything else, just give us a shout.

Have a great weekend and thanks for using Dropbox!