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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.
the Web o.: A personal attack would be to insult someone based on qualities they themselves lack or posses, e.g. calling someone a troll. My comment was aimed at your words, not you, and I'll back my assessment up.
- condescending: You are doing exactly what I pointed out was wrong with this thread a whole page ago. We already understand what happens to storage quotas when you share folders. We do not need you to explain that to us.
- arrogant: Your insistence on explaining what we already understand instead of addressing our complaints suggests a lack of comprehension of the actual problem.
- smug: You literally ended your message by laughing at us.
Now, in reply to your next posts:
Who said anything about ISP's? This is about Dropbox; stay on subject. In any case, of course Bob still pays his ISP to download those files. The example still points out that Alice has paid for the storage of those files on Dropbox's servers, so why should Bob have to? Dropbox is marketed by capacity of storage, and touts "simple file sharing." You might have a point if the marketing was done by data throughput, but it isn't.
The very real, legitimate complaint here is that users are not ever made aware that the files within shared folders count against the storage quotas of every user with access. Regardless of the technical reasons for this, it's not intuitive and it confuses users who hit their storage quota because of shared folders they joined.
Explanations about deduplication, bandwidth costs, file systems... It's all irrelevant because users are expecting a certain behavior. Operating counter to that expectation shouldn't just be documented; it should be communicated to the user during the folder sharing and joining processes.
"dont like it, use another cloud provider": This is exactly why this complaint matters. People are leaving. Paying customers are leaving. This complaint isn't about getting more space out of Dropbox for free; it's about improving the experience so that threads like this one aren't necessary. All Dropbox has to do is just tell users how storage quotas are affected when they share or join a folder. That's it. It's so simple, and yet it isn't done. That is our complaint.
Edit: Good job closing a thread of legitimate complaints, guys. Just a fantastic way to run things.
