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Forum Discussion
Why do shared files count against my space use???
Why are files shared with me counted against my space usage? Is this data counted twice? If someone who is sharing files with me is paying for this space, why should I have to pay as well just to acc...
dualice wrote:
Why are files shared with me counted against my space usage?
Because the files exist in your account.
When you have access to a shared folder, you're not accessing someone else's folder. You're accessing your own COPY of the folder within your account, and you need to have enough space available to hold that folder.
If you just need to view or download files that someone else is sharing with you, ask them to send you a shared link instead. A shared link is a view-only method of sharing and you don't even need a Dropbox account to access it.
I left Box (Personal Pro) for Dropbox (Professional). Luckily, I am still in the trial and will cancel today based on this subpar design and policy. I pay $$$ for a larger storage capacity since I am the power user, but I share folders with my wife and friends, who occasionally view or edit files in my space. I work in computing and have a master's degree in operating systems. The files are stored once, they take up space once, they have metadata that controls the permissions. Sure, there's some incremental cost for bandwidth and etc. but requiring each shared folder to pay over again for the entire storage volume of your files is highway robbery.
Next up, I'll give Google Drive a try. Worst case I can roll back to Box -- although you pay more for the space. But at least it doesn't try to shake down each of my collaborators to pay for my storage. What a joke. It's hard to get clear comparison data when shopping for a file sharing platform. I hope this note saves some of you time and money!
