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I sent a referral to one of my students, but it's once again ineligible.

Sorry to have to raise a similar issue again.

As promised, I am continuing to recommend Dropbox to my students and their parents, and now sending the referrals via my Referrals page.

Today I recommended Dropbox to one of my students, while he was here with his laptop, so I could see and make sure that everything was done right.

He had never installed or used Dropbox before. He clicked on my referral link and successfully installed the App.

He tried to verify his account, but received an error message, saying that ''Something went wrong."

My Referrals page shows his status as "Ineligible."

I would be grateful if you could track down what went wrong this time and let me know?

I am happy to forward a capture of the emails and error message...

Thank you.

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Rich

GregP1 wrote:
Today I recommended Dropbox to one of my students, while he was here with his laptop, so I could see and make sure that everything was done right.

It could be that it was marked as ineligible because he was on the same network as you. Only way to possibly know what the issue is would be to contact Support directly.

GregP1

Thank you, Rich

You may well be correct.

As noted in one of my previous posts, I have found it extremely difficult to earn any referral bonuses, even though scores of my students/parents have started using Dropbox as a result of clicking on the referral link that I have emailed directly.

So this time, I asked a student to bring his laptop along and sent the referral from my Referrals Page. I share revision folders with my students, hoping that when at least some of them sign up, it would release space to share folders with further students - until I have reached the referral space limit. I understand that at that point I would need to move up to a higher Plan. But in the meantime, I would like to build confidence that the referral scheme is honoured.

It seems that when I can't see what's happening at the other end, no space is released. If your theory is correct, then I won't be able to earn space when I can see what is going on either. I hope that referring people to Dropbox doesn't become ineligible just because they sign up in my presence.

(I must say that recently Dropbox have overridden the system and manually released referral space in two instances. However, I would like to be assured that there is a straight-forward way for Dropbox customers to earn promised space successfully.)

I will try and contact Support directly, as you suggest...

Thank you, Greg

Walter

Let us know if you find any troubles along the way and we'll reach out from our end via the email address that's linked to your profile here, on our Community, Greg.

GregP1

Yes - please do contact me by email. I have another student visiting tomorrow morning and would like to invite him to start using Dropbox whilst he is here. But I don't want go down another blind alley.

Jay

Hi @GregP1, I've sent you an email, please could you reply to it when you get a chance?

GregP1

Dropbox Plan
Basic
Device
Asus Laptop
Operating System/Browser (if using the web)
Windows 11
Dropbox App Version (if using the app)
No settings or About section option available in Dropbox Windows app

Question or Issue
As previously explained, I refer DropBox to my students. Because of the awkwardness of obtaining the earned space, I use the Refer a Friend option on the website while the student is being taught here, so I can see and guide what they do. To get round the 'same network' issue, because I have two networks here - a main network and a repeater network, in order to avoid disqualification I ensure that we are logged into different networks. I watched them click on the referral link, download and install the app, but their status is still shown as 'Waiting for Install'. If Dropbox really wants to encourage referrals, please could the process for release of earned be made more straight-forward and simple?

Mark

GregP1 wrote:
I watched them click on the referral link, download and install the app, but their status is still shown as 'Waiting for Install'.

Are they installing on a desktop computer? Mobile devices such as iPads and mobile phones do not count towards the referral scheme.

GregP1

They are installing on a laptop

Mark

Have them check at http://www.dropbox.com/account/plan to see if they got the bonus space from you signing up?

And if they can see the device (computer) at http://www.dropbox.com/account/security its worth noting as well that Surfaces or devices where you download from an App Store dont count, it has to be full client.

GregP1

Don't they indirectly get bonus space from them signing up, not from ME signing up?

I simply sent her an invitation using the Referrals page on the Dropbox website; she was on a different network and picked up the resulting email on her laptop, clicked on the link and installed Dropbox. It should be that simple. What am I missing? What does the person invited physically have to do in order to stop going through this loop every time?

I am due to see that student again this Thursday. She did not download Dropbox from an App Store - I was watching what she did. Why would her device not be listed?

It feels as though Dropbox is unwilling to honour referral bonuses, by making the process as awkward as possible...

Nancy

Hey @GregP1! After your students sign up to Dropbox and follow these steps, you should both get the additional referral space to your Dropbox accounts.

From what I understand, your student installed the Dropbox app, signed in with her new Dropbox account, and she still hasn't received the extra space. Correct?

Also, to clarify, this is the first time she’s installed the Dropbox desktop app on that computer. Is this right?

Let me know and we’ll go from there.

GregP1

The student in question came round for a lesson this afternoon, with her laptop.

I got her to verify her email address by following those steps. She received an error message, saying "Something went wrong... An unexpected error has occurred, but don't worry - your files are safe and our team has been notified."

She (and the rest of my three recent introductions are shown on my referrals page) are still shown as as: "Waiting for Install"

This simply reinforces my impression that the referral system simply does not work.

Nancy

Thanks for giving that a go! In general, the “Waiting for Install” error message can also appear if the recipients of the referral haven’t logged in to their desktop app, after installing it on their computer.

If they’ve all signed in to their desktop apps with the credentials of their newly-created Dropbox accounts, and you still see this error, I can log a ticket for you and investigate this further.

GregP1

Hi Nancy. Yes- my student downloaded, installed and logged into the desktop app, but is still seeing the error message. Please log a ticket for me? Thank you, Greg

Nancy

Apologies for the delay, @GregP1! I’ve now gone ahead and logged you a new ticket. Please reply to it, when you get the chance.

Nancy

Hey @pink_light! Can you send me a few more details on what’s happened exactly on your end?

GregP1

Hi - I assume that I should reply to Nancy with more details of this issue. (I'm not sure who "pink_light" is - another user encountering the same sort of issue?

The issue is as described earlier:

Using the referrals page on the website, I recommended Dropbox to one of my students, while she was here with her laptop, so I could see and make sure that everything was done right.

She had never installed or used Dropbox before. She was logged into a different network than me. She clicked on my referral link and successfully installed the App. However, she was listed on my Referrals Page as: "Waiting for Install"

She then came round for another lesson with her laptop. I got her to verify her email address by following the steps recommended by Nancy at 10:13pm on 27th October 2025. The student received an error message, saying "Something went wrong... An unexpected error has occurred, but don't worry - your files are safe and our team has been notified."

She (and the rest of my three recent introductions are still shown on my Referrals Page) as: "Waiting for Install"

Please can you sort this out?

Thank you,

Greg

Nancy

Hi again, @GregP1! In order to investigate this internally (since we don’t have any account visibility on the forum and I can’t see any details on your Dropbox account, or the referrals you’ve sent here), you’ll still need to reply back to the email I’ve sent you.

The only thing I want you to forward me via email is a screenshot of your “Refer a friend” page, and I’ll check a few things in our system to see what we can do.