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earned storage space suddenly disappeared

I had earned bonus space for a total of a bout 7 Gb (referrals and school bonus). That has served me well for the past 10 years. Today, all of a sudden and without a warning, I get a message that my dropbox is full (3.1 Gb) and exceeds my storage space (2 Gb).

How can the earned space be restored?

I changed my account email address about 1 year ago, without affecting my dropbox storage. I have not change computers. I have tried help, chatbot, and community forum.

Please, can somone from dropbox check into this? Otherwise no help is accessible.

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Accepted answers

Rich

@swassner wrote:
Has Dropbox rescinded it's original offer?

Dropbox doesn't remove space earned through referrals. Other types of bonus space do expire, depending on the promotion at the time. You can see a list of all the space you've earned along with that which has expired on your Referrals page.

Did you actually lose space, as in your total storage quota was reduced, or do you just have so much stored in your account that you've run out of space.? If it's the latter, check your Backups for used space. Also, check your Plan page for a breakdown of your current usage. Provide a screenshot of that page if you can.

All comments

ragonesi

I feel your frustration.

Nancy

Hi @Marsie1, I’d be glad to look into this for you!

Is it possible that the extra space you’re missing from your Dropbox account was previously added via a promotion which has now expired?

In order to double check this, you can go here and scroll down the page a bit.

If you wish, you can also send me a screenshot of what you see there.

Keep me posted!

Marsie1

Dear Nancy,

thanks for your quick response. I had added my extra promotional space more than 8 years ago and it would be rather unlikely that it expires now after all this time. I also did not receive any warning (email notification) that I am running out of space.

After this "storage space exceeded" scare, I deleted a lot of files on dropbox. Unfortunately, I inadvertently removed files in a shared folder that I meant to keep and which are now permanently gone unless I pay for a "Rewind" ....

However, now my extra space shows up again (see screenshot):

The only explanation I have is that I may have exceeded the extra space limit while I was moving files from my laptop via a shared dropbox directory. This may have triggered the "space exceeded" dropbox pop-up. Strangely enough, that did not show the actual space, but indicated that I exceeded 2 Gb (the slider diagram in the Account Plan tab was red, and said "Using 3.1 GB of 2 GB"). I knew I had more than 2Gb and was naturally worried that the extra space had suddenly disappeared.

I am relieved my extra space is not gone after all. It's just a pity that this intermezzo caused me to lose shared files I meant to keep.

Marsie1

I am not sure if I should accept my explanation as a solution.

After all, the mixed-up earned space accounting from dropbox was part of the problem: Pop-up alarm that allotted space of 2Gb was full, while my actual space was 7.88 Gb - which apparently I had exceeded). This mix-up has not been fixed.

Perhaps this message exchange can serve as a helpful warning to others, when actual earned space is not correctly shown.

Nancy

Hi again, @Marsie1!

I’m happy to hear that your previous space is still available on your Dropbox account.

As per your deleted files, can you take a look
here perhaps and let me know if you’re able to restore them?

Even in case that your account went over-quota at some point, it should still be showing the actual space you have, and not the minimum 2GB, so that’s a bit odd.

If you happen to have any type of screenshots of the message you received, let me know and l’ll take a look for you.

Marsie1

Hi Nancy,

I did not take screenshots of the "over-quota" status. The dropbox icon in the lower left tray alerted me that my space was full. It showed a yellow triangle, red cross (?), exclamation mark (not sure) and a pop-up message that my dropbox was full. It was immediately noticable when I started using my PC that morning.

You are correct: Even in case that my account went over-quota at some point, it should still be showing the actual space I have, and not the minimum 2GB. But in account settings, the entire "slider" diagram was red, with a maximum of only 2Gb shown.

This made me worry that my extra space had disappeared when in fact I had apparently exceeded my earned quota of 7.88 Gb. I also could not see by how much I had exceeded it. I remember seeing 3.1 Gb in the "over quota" screen. But did this mean I exceeded my earned space by 3.1 Gb or that I exceeded the (mistakenly) assumed 2 Gb space by 1.1 Gb?

Would be truly helpful if dropbox could fix this bug.

The removed folder is gone, I am afraid. Only "rewind" may help, but it's expensive.

Nancy

Hi again, @Marsie1, thanks for the extra info you've sent.

Do you remember if the shared folder you mention was owned by somebody else or by you instead?

We can perhaps check if there's another way to retrieve it.

Marsie1

No, I don't remember who owned the deleted folder. I'm afraid I was the owner.

Is someone looking into the incorrect space counting issue I experienced when I exceeded the extra space?

thanks, Maria

chuckbo

I just received an out-of-storage message.

It seems to me that I used to have a bunch more storage than I do now that I earned by inviting about 8 or 10 other users to sign up for new accounts. Has anyone else had storage that seems to have been taken away?

Mark

Were you a part of a Dropbox Team @chuckbo ?

If so when they were disbanded an old quirk seems to have been identified and fixed in that bonus space for some doubled when a part of it.

chuckbo

Not that I know of.

If you mean: was I on a team that worked at Dropbox, then the answer is no.

If you're asking if I was part of a "team" that joined together and I was given credit for recruiting several others to sign up for Dropbox, then I'm not sure. I guess it depends how "team" is or was defined at the time.

Mark

A Team was just a way of combining and sharing files and folders. It allowed people to also link multiple Dropbox accounts to one log in on the web and computer

chuckbo

That doesn't sound familiar -- I don't remember being part of a team.

When Dropbox first got started, for anyone that you invited who accepted the invitation and opened a new account, DropBox added some space to your account. I don't remember how much. I invited at least a half dozen new accounts that joined and maybe as many as ten. And I thought I used to have more space than I do now. But maybe it's just my bad memory.

Nancy

Hey @chuckbo, hope it’s alright if I jump in, as well.

If you wish to check the exact space of your Dropbox account, you can take a look at your Plan tab.

Besides that, you can also go to the Refer a friend tab to see more details on your referrals.

Hope this helps!

Senya

Hi, I've got an email from Dropbox, which said "Out of storage space? No problem. We’ll give you an additional 250MB for free once you complete a few steps". I've completed those steps, but nothing happened, the limit is still the same. Anybody has any ideas why?

Megan

Hi @Senya, I'd be more than happy to help!

First and foremost, can you check your account's plan page, and see how much storage you're using? Is it possible that you're using way beyond your base quota?

Also, it might sound trivial, but have you completed all of the steps mentioned in the email?

Let me know more!

Freshwater

For the past few months I have been notified that my "storage was full" (2GB) and indicate's that I could buy additional storage. My account indicates that I have 8.5GB of storage (Free - gained by referrals, etc). Who/How do I rectify this?

Freshwater

Error (on my part) My account now indicates the proper storage...

I should have looked (again) before the above post...

EsariaNZ

I should have a total of 5.25 GB of storage available, based on the 2GB free + 3.25 GB bonus space earned, but my storage limit has dropped down to 2 GB out of the blue! Does anyone know what might have caused this?

From the "refer a friend" page, I have this:

Hannah

Hey @EsariaNZ, thanks for reaching out to the Dropbox Community.

Referral space is actually permanent, can you let me know where you saw that you're down to 2 GB?

What does your plan page report?

LoebLaw1

I have! I joined sometime ago and earned 15gb of space. It now appears i have only 2gb. Any idea on how i can get back the lost space?

Walter

Hi @LoebLaw1, sorry to hear about this.

Could you take a look at your account's plan tab and let us know what's reported in regards to your quota?

Did you earn the additional space through referrals or a promotion perhaps?

If it's the latter, note that some promotions are only for a fixed period of time and usually expire.

LoebLaw1

i did earn my space through referrals years ago.... but do not recall notice at time of referrals that my freebies would expire!

Megan

Hi @LoebLaw1, keep in mind that your referrals won't expire, or get removed off of your account.

Did you check your plan page as Walter mentioned above? Could you kindly send us a screenshot of it?

swassner

I am a very early user of Dropbox and recommended multiple people for membership. I was awarded extra storage space for free and have had a total of 19 gbytes of storage space for many years. I now find that while I have used 14+ gbytes of space., I am told that I have no space and have to upgrade. The files I have in dropbox are available but I can't add anything. What is going on here? Has Dropbox rescinded it's original offer?

Rich

@swassner wrote:
Has Dropbox rescinded it's original offer?

swassner

I looked at my plan page and it says that I have Dropbox basic with 2gbytes. it also says

Regular files (545.9 MB) Backup (14.4 GB) Shared files (17.5 MB) Unused space (0 bytes).

The referral page says

Total bonus space earned12.88 GB

Rich

@swassner wrote:

Regular files (545.9 MB) Backup (14.4 GB) Shared files (17.5 MB) Unused space (0 bytes).

You have the Backup feature enabled, and it looks like you've filled up your account with backup data.