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I'm downgrading my account but don't want to delete files owned by collaborator

I am on Dropbox Basic now and have been for some time.

I used to contract with another person. We both had our own business subscriptions. I no longer work with this person, but I do not want to delete the files in case this means he no longer has them. Technically, the files are his property.

What is the best practice to clear out my Dropbox, which is well over storage limits, without removing his files?

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Accepted answers

Jay

Hi @ToniCr, thanks for posting today.

If the files belong to that other user, you could create a shared folder, add that user to the folder, and then transfer ownership of the folder to them.

Once you do that, you can remove your access to the folder, which would delete them from your account only, and free up your quota. This means that the files would remain accessible by the other user.

If you need any further assistance, please let me know!

All comments

Jay

Hi @ToniCr, thanks for posting today.

If the files belong to that other user, you could create a shared folder, add that user to the folder, and then transfer ownership of the folder to them.

If you need any further assistance, please let me know!

ToniCr

Wonderful guidance, Jay, thank you. I went directly to the transfer ownership step based on your advice. First, I made sure all folders were owned by my client and if any were owned by me, I assigned ownership to him. Then I removed my own access. Seems to have worked like a charm and I think I'm back down to under 2G. I still see the "Your dropbox is full! Upgrade to get more space." message but hopefully that will disappear after some sort of syncing in the background of the dropbox.

Hannah

Hey @ToniCr, I'm glad to hear that you were able to resolve this.

Just to make sure your space was cleared up, I'd suggest taking a look at this page in your account settings; it should show you your usage, so you'll know where you stand.

I hope this helps and if you need anything else, let us know!

ToniCr

Very helpful, Hannah—it shows Basic and that I have 2 GB of storage for storing and sharing. It also shows my personal Dropbox space is using 893 MB of 5.75 GB. So I'm a wee bit confused about the two messages of 2 GB vs 5.75 GB.

Jay

The 2 GB is the default amount for a Dropbox Basic plan, the 5.75 GB you have on the plan is the actual amount of quota you have on your account.

If you have any further queries, feel free to message back.

ToniCr

Hi Jay - what is the difference between default amount and "actual amount of quota" on my account?

Thank you,

Toni

dbx_brian

All Basic users start with 2 GB of quota by default. Users may earn additional quota, for example, via our Referral program: https://www.dropbox.com/refer.

Based on your screenshot, 5.75 GB is the actual amount of quota you have.

Jay

The default amount is the 2 GB you receive when you create a new Dropbox Basic account.

ToniCr

Thank you Brian and Jay - all good!

Theresa

Hi there @ToniCr and welcome to the Dropbox Community! 😊

I am glad to see your storage issue was resolved. Thanks so much for coming back to update the thread too... it really helps others who might be facing a similar issue being part of a shared folder.

By the way, I’m Theresa 👩‍💻, one of the community managers here at Dropbox HQ. Since you’re working with shared content and collaborators, I’d love to know… how do you usually use Dropbox? Whether it’s for team projects, shared folders, or personal files, I’m always curious to hear how people make Dropbox part of their day-to-day.

Looking forward to hearing more,

T 😺 (Dropbox Community Manager)