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The files I want to permanently delete either don't show in "Deleted files", or they throw an error

landman1

Having trouble permanently deleting files from dropbox to save space. Most files I delete do not even show up in the “deleted files” on the dropbox.com site and ones that do, when I hit permanently delete tab, it is deleted but with message that “the file is lost forever but this does not free up storage space”.– the instructions I follow on the site when I get to that point say to hit permanently delete button a second time but I do not get that option. What the?. Seems there is no way I can free up space on my dropbox.

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Walter

Hey there @landman1 - sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

Can you please let me know if the files you delete show up in your events page at all and send us a screenshot of the particular point where you get stuck?

Also, what do your account settings report in regards to your quota?

Let us know more and we'll take it from there.

landman1

where is events page

account is 73.09MB over limit

Walter

You can navigate to your events page by clicking on the link I provided earlier @landman1:

https://www.dropbox.com/events

Can you give it a go and let me know how it goes?

landman1

i don't think that all of my attemted deleted items show

Walter

Can you attempt another deletion now and send me a screenshot of the exact error you're getting then @landman1?

landman1

when logged in I can not open files from there brcause I get message that I am over storage limit

landman1

when I delete a file from my files it does not show in deleted file when I log in.

Also discovered that I can not restore a file that does show in deleted files. because I get same message that I can not do that because I have exceeded my storage space and I need to upgrage to do.

I will not pay for an upgrade - I do not even need or use dropbox. This is just a real pain spending days just trying to delete a few files to come within my limit. I would delete dropbox if I could without losing all of my files. Is there anyway I can

do that?

landman1

did you get my 10/21 reply

Walter

What happens when you click on the 'Manage files' option @landman1? Does this persist after clearing your browser's cache or on another browser by any chance? If you're over your account's quota limit, it's normal that you're not able to restore any files, but you should be able to access them to delete and/or download them.

Nancy

Hi from me too, @landman1. I’d like to start off by saying that once you delete a file from your Dropbox account this way, it should no longer take up space from it, so there’s no need to permanently delete it on top of that. If you receive this message again though “the file is lost forever but this does not free up storage space”, please send me a screenshot of it.

Now, have you tried deleting files outside of your Dropbox backup, and they still don’t show up at your Deleted files page?

Regarding your actual usage and what’s taking up the extra storage, have you checked your Subscriptions page online? Feel free to send me a visual of that, as well.

Another thing you can try (if the Dropbox app is currently running) is to move files from your local Dropbox folder to another location on your device. This should delete them from your Dropbox account, too.

If you’re concerned about any deletions by Dropbox in the meantime (since you‘re over-quota), I can suggest upgrading to a Plus trial, which you can cancel later on, just to ensure that you have more time to bring your Dropbox account under-quota first.