Dropbox says I am using almost 2GB of space in shared files. I don't know where they are or what they are.How do I find them and delete them?
The shared files, come from the shared content that you sent in the latest screenshot, the one starting with "Giz" @taskman.
As for the rest of the content, you provided a screenshot before, of your Backups. Your RECOVERY backup seems to be taking up 6.74GB of content, along with your External drive, which seems to be taking 0.96GB.
You also shared a screenshot showing us your home page, along with some other files there. Did you delete any of the backup, or content ever since?
@taskman wrote:Dropbox says I am using almost 2GB of space in shared files. I don't know where they are or what they are. How do I find them and delete them?
If you just delete the files you'll delete them for all the members of the share as well. Instead, you want to remove the share from your account. You can see all of the folders you're a member of on your Sharing page.
When I pull up my share folder, all I see are invites to folders with 4mb or 20mb -- nothing in the gb range, and the all say my dropbox is full and I can't accept the share. Some of these go back to 2011. The only one that isn't in red is a 4mb folder and I can't even see how to leave that. I don't regularly use dropbox, only to receive files someone shares with me. Why do I have to have a paid account to see files that someone else shares with me. Every other data storage -- google, onedrive etc let's you share folders and files without requiring people to have an account, much less a paid account.
Thank you
I removed myself from everything I could. I still have this list of folders
Folders
I have the unshare link on the folders now
Shared folder
It still shows I have 2.6GB in shared. Is that what is shared with me?
Shared
Also, how do I see which folders are using the 465GB of space?
Hey @karenrands and @taskman, to get an idea of the space you're using, make sure to check the plan tab in your account settings.
Does it report that it's shared files taking up your space?
And have you followed the steps in this article to see the size of files/calculate the size of folders in your Dropbox, to see which files are taking up your space?
Hi
If you look at this screenshot it seems shared files are taking up 2.6GB of space, if I understand it correctly
Shared files
The size thing worked. Thank you. I am still trying to find where the 2.6GB is going to
I'm afraid that for security reasons, we can't access those links with the screenshots; if you can attach the actual screenshots in your next response, it would be really helpful!
I think I am replying to my own message so the responders can see this I hope. And anyone else. 1. to my question if shared files count on 'your storage' even if you did not upload them or create the share folder. The answer is yes. (very profitable business model for cloud storage --- DropBox gets to charge EVERYONE that is included in a shared folder if that sharing puts them over quota. Imagine businesses using this and having one shared drive with 100 people accessing it. They get 100X the storage usage fee. Are they public yet? Who owns them? I want in.
And although my shared files listed in the 'shared folder' only added up to 465 MB, there was a folder of pictures with now storage amount noted, that I guess someone had shared with me a long time ago and I downloaded it. When I deleted that folder, it took a while for it to update. 2. Deleting Shared Folders. You have to first leave the group - losing access to the shared files using the 3 dots to the left of the folder that was shared, and then you can delete the folder.
Some of these folders dated back to 2011 and served no purpose to those that created it or the reason they shared it. I did hate to lose the connection to the Entrepreneur Professor that had shared all the work sheets and templates, but I was frantic to try to get the amount down so I could see current clients files THAT I needed access to. Not knowing where the count was coming from, and dropbox making it difficult to figure out if those virtual files were the culprit or the File of hundreds of pictures that had no data amount associated with it, I just wiped it all.
I'm down to 225MB and out of dropbox jail. 🙂
Here is the screenshot
Hey @taskman, thanks for the screenshot!
Do you see any files or folders taking up space in your homepage or the backups page perhaps?
Screenshots of the home and backup of space used. I started deleting everything from my dropbox. I still don't know where the 2.6GB is. I can't calculate on the folders on the home page, the option doesn't come up when I click the dots
Hey @taskman, to calculate the size of your folders, you'll need to go to the All files page, hover your mouse right on the left of the "who can access" column header, click the arrow and choose "size".
This should allow you to see the "calculate size" option after clicking the "..." (ellipsis).
I now have 2.56GB but according to the plan page I have 7.7GB regular files and 2.6GB shared.
Kobus
The plan page actually shows the used data up to 1 decimal place, that's why it's rounded up to 2.6 GB.
The screenshot shows
Regular files 7.7GB
Shared files 2.6GB
What makes up the 7.7GB and what makes up the 2.6GB?
Yes. as I have explained in prior responses, i don't know how to code this as resolved. I was able to go in and delete the folder or images that was showing up WITH NO STORAGE AMOUNTS but knowing how big images are, I knew it must be large with all the images, and DETERMINING that folders shared with me, even a decade ago, that I was 'invited' to were counting in my storage. I downloaded selected files to my personal harddrive, and deleted the folders. It took about a half hour for dropbox to note the change and then I had ample storage. It is a clever business model to charge everyone that accepts a share of a folder for that storage too. Charging a minimum of $20 a month from 5, 10 people viewing the same folder is ripe. I remembered why I am not a regular user of dropbox and will continue to back up my files to onedrive (included in office) and share files and folders on google drive. Thank you to all the people that have provided help in resolving my issues.
