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Deleted everything, still over quota.

I downgraded to Dropbox Basic since I haven't been using Dropbox at all lately. I've deleted everything from my Dropbox, but I'm still showing as exceeding my limit. I've looked everywhere in my account using the web portal just to make sure I can find any and everything, and there's nothing remaining in my account (I downloaded everything prior to deleting). I even looked in the Dropbox folder on my Mac, and it's showing 0 items. When I go into my account through the web, it shows 6.1 GB of "Backup" but when I go to the DropboxBackup, there are no backups there.

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Accepted answers

SeminoleSquirrel

I was visiting the backup page online. When I went in to get a screenshot, magically a backup appeared. It took a lot of work, but I managed to get the backup (which I never needed) deleted.

I think I'm good to go now.

All comments

Megan

Hey @SeminoleSquirrel, welcome to our Community!

Our Backup feature is what usually takes up quota for users in a similar situation, so that's what I also had in mind since you've deleted everything else.

Can you clarify if you're visiting your backup page online when checking for active ones? Is this page empty? If not you should be able to delete any active backups, and free up your account's quota.

I'll be waiting for your updates!

SeminoleSquirrel

I was visiting the backup page online. When I went in to get a screenshot, magically a backup appeared. It took a lot of work, but I managed to get the backup (which I never needed) deleted.

I think I'm good to go now.

Megan

Hey @SeminoleSquirrel!

Happy to see that your issue is now resolved!

If you need something else, please let me know and I will be more than happy to help every step of the way.

Jay G.4

I wish Dropbox would CLEARLY STATE in one sentence, instead of describing backup and storage elliptically and separately, that STORAGE and BACKUP BOTH COUNT AGAINST YOUR STORAGE LIMIT. There. Simple. easy. Clears up SO MUCH confusion. Keep the marketing department out of this explanation because their way of ’splainin’ stuff hints several times that backup is different from storage, only covers so many machines, etc. giving the impression that it is NOT connected to your storage limits but a separate something or other. Photos, too, now that I think about it. Please let me know if this isn’t correct.

SeminoleSquirrel

I agree with you here, but I'll also add something else. When I was working to clean up my Dropbox (since I dropped down from a paid to the free tier), it was not made obvious in any way, shape, or form that I had backups anywhere within my Dropbox account. To make it even worse, the first time I went to check the backup area, nothing showed up! It wasn't until I went back after deleting everything from my main Dropbox folder(s) and I posted in here looking for help that the backup "magically" appeared. Only then was I able to delete it to get under my free storage limit.

lcg311

This is really crappy glitch that happens all the time with Dropbox - figure out how to fix it for free plan users. I am having the same issue that I've deleted everything, and no backups are showing yet I'm unable to access a folder Shared with me because Dropbox says I'm out of storage.

Hannah

Hey @lcg311, we appreciate your feedback here, but let's see what we can find out about this.

How much free space do you currently have in your Dropbox account? Can you send us a screenshot of your usage from here?

Also, how large is the shared folder you're trying to add to your account?

lcg311

Zero of storage is used. Don't know how large the shared folder is - I'm not able to access or find any info about it within Dropbox because of storage limit

Rich

lcg311 wrote:
I'm unable to access a folder Shared with me because Dropbox says I'm out of storage.

Please provide a screenshot of your usage as shown on your Plan page. It should look like this:

lcg311

It is true then that the storage I have available must be equal or greater than what is in the Shared folder? So in essence, users with a Basic Plan have very limited ability to work with Shared folders and must upgrade?

lcg311

Provided above in reply to Hannah

Hannah

Thanks for the updates and the screenshots, @lcg311.

Indeed, since shared folders are added to someone's account, they need to take up space, so a user would have to have enough space to accommodate them.

Do you need to edit the folder? If you only need to view it, you can ask the owner to send you a 'view-only' link to the folder.

And if you need to upload files to it, they can send you a file request instead; that way, your own space won't be affected.

I hope this helps.