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Confused about what's taking up space in my 2 GB account

My Dropbox folder on my hard drive contains 1948 items totalling 266.9 MB.
Why does Dropbox say I have 98.4% of 2.0 GB used?
On the Dropbox website I can see a (Symlink Backup Copy) for eack of the folders inside my on-disk Dropbox folder.
Even with those backup copies, shouldn't the total come to 266.9 MB + 266.9 MB = 533.8 MB.
So why am I butting up against 2.0 GB? I'm confused as to what's taking up this space, and how to free it.
Any explanations or advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks!

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lmalma

Thanks again for your additional advice. That pointed me in the right direction.

I didn't have any selective un/sync files, but I decided to look inside the folders on the Dropbox website that were marked (Symlink Backup Copy). I don't have these on disk here. To my surprise, these were not just straight copies of my usual regular in-use folders/files, but had additional files and folders inside that I must have symlinked before that support ended in 2019. One of those (Symlink Backup Copy) folders was 1 GB itself. So I deleted, then permanently deleted, those (Symlink Backup Copy) folders after downloading them as ZIPs to be safe. So, thanks to your suggestion, my account now shows as 241.77 MB (or 11.8%) of 2 Gb used.

One final point, though, the pop-up confirm window that shows with the Permanently Delete button says something to the effect that permanently deleting files does not free up space. But it actually did in my case. (?)

So, if anyone else has diminishing space issues that they don't understand and if they were using Dropbox prior to 2019, check on the website for dormant (Symlink Backup Copy) folders that might be filled with some old unneeded content.

And with this I'll consider my issue resolved. Thanks again Rich and Walter!

All comments

Rich

@lmalma wrote:
So why am I butting up against 2.0 GB? I'm confused as to what's taking up this space, and how to free it.

Have you checked your Backups page?

lmalma

Hi, Rich

Thanks, but I've followed that link and there's nothing there:

Location Backups
Size 0 bytes
Number of files 0

Walter

Hey @lmalma, sorry to jump in here, but what exactly is reported in regards to your quota in your plan tab?

lmalma

Hi Walter,

It says as follows:

Subscriptions

Dropbox Basic Free

Personal Dropbox space Using 2 GB of 2 GB

Regular files (2 GB)
Backup (0 bytes)
Shared files (0 bytes)
Unused space (32.4 MB)

Thanks much for helping!

Walter

I see, thanks for the additional information @lmalma

Do you see any files or folders taking up that much space on the website if navigate your account's content?

When it comes to the desktop app, could it be that you selectively un-synced some folders from your computer? Could you have a look at the app's preferences under the sync tab to see if that's the case?

lmalma

Thanks again for your additional advice. That pointed me in the right direction.

And with this I'll consider my issue resolved. Thanks again Rich and Walter!

magnator

Hello, dropbox is telling me that I have full storage, it shows that it is a backup. However all the devices, I have disconnected in settings, I only have one 54kb file in my files, but dropbox has been showing full storage for two days. I repeat, I have removed all linked devices, some I no longer have access to. I tried reinstalling on my computer, but still can't delete the backups. How can I do this at web browser?

I have a free plan 2 GB

magnator

I'll add that I also deleted all linked apps

magnator

Fixed' Thnaks for link to https://www.dropbox.com/backup/all

Hannah

Hey @magnator, thanks for reaching out to us.

If you plan page reports that your space is being taken up by backup files, you should be able to find them in your backups page here.

If all your computers are already disconnected from your account, you can just delete the backups, to free up your space from that page.

Hannah

Happy to see that you were able to fix this, @magnator!

If you need anything else, please let us know.

Have a great weekend!