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Forum Discussion
Dropbox full because of shared folder
Hi, i have a dropbox account and the free space that i have is full because of the files inside the shared folder that i have with some friends.
Is there a way to avoid that the shared folder that ...
Your English is very good Michele - well done!
And no, if you need read write access to that folder if will use your quota. If you just need read only access leave the share and ask the other person sends you a read only Shared link.
You can LEAVE and REJOIN a shared folder when ever you like.
So one method of getting space is to LEAVE the shared folder. And REJOIN it when you need it.
If you ONLY need some files from the shared folder and ONLY at some times, I would additionally ask the owner of the shared folder for a LINK to it, in that way you can use the link to it and download via web the files you need when you need them.
Although I don't agree with Dropbox, and this is the primary reason I won't spring for Pro, I understand why they did this.
It's simple, really. Say, someone creates 10 free accounts. 10 x 2GB = 20GB. Now, that person, from each account shares a folder with his main account. That person just got more, free, space.
@Mark Mc
But this is not how they charge for the service - DB charges by space, not by access or downloads. I can also share a link to a file or folder (from a free account) to give people access, who don't even need a DB account to download the files- no bandwidth or access charges for them!
So, to repeat what @Andrew R said, 'it simply makes no sense' to charge this way, and it places really quite severe limits on what would otherwise be a useful service.
I only keep free 5.25GB account for when people want to share stuff with me on DropBox (unfortunately, too often!). I have to constantly decide which shares to remove in order to let me save files and update files. This need to manage who has shared their space with me sometimes leads to to remove shared folders before I'm really done with them, and then ask for a new share when I come back to that project. It just sucks.
