How user-friendly is Dropbox on web, and how seamless is your collaboration with your team?

Hi Ela,

I’d like to share some of the challenges my team and I have been facing since switching to a Dropbox Team account, as these issues have significantly impacted our workflow.

Challenges with Dropbox Web Features

The two biggest pain points for us are uploading files and previewing files:

• Uploading Files in the Browser:

This has become a frustrating ordeal. Frequently, when we attempt to upload files, the page stays stuck in a "loading" state, and nothing happens. Refreshing the page often freezes the browser, and then—when you navigate back to a parent folder—the files suddenly begin uploading. Worse, they sometimes end up in the wrong folder, meaning we have to wait for the upload to finish and then manually move the files to their intended location. We've even encountered instances where files upload twice, leading to duplication and wasted time. This issue has been consistent since switching to a Team account and never occurred when we used individual accounts.

• Previewing Files (Photos/Videos):

This is a hit-or-miss situation. Sometimes previews load instantly, but more often, we have to refresh the page repeatedly. Even after that, it can take 30-60 seconds per file for the preview to load. As a photo- and videography company, previewing files is essential to our workflow, and the current state makes it an unreliable and time-consuming process.

Team Collaboration Challenges

Since moving to a Team account, the experience has worsened significantly. It almost feels like the infrastructure for Team accounts is different or more strained compared to individual accounts. Here's what we've encountered:

• Performance Degradation: As mentioned, the issues with uploading and previewing seem specific to Team accounts. It's almost as if the servers handling Team accounts are overloaded or not optimized, leading to slow performance across the board.
• Workarounds: Unfortunately, the only workaround we've found for these issues is patience, which is hardly efficient. We’ve tried other storage providers, and these issues seem unique to Dropbox, ruling out hardware or internet speed as the culprit. We also use high-end hardware and the fastest internet speeds available here in Amsterdam.

Suggestions

• Improve the reliability of uploads on the web for Team accounts.
• Address the previewing delays, particularly for teams handling large media files.
• Ensure that uploads go to the selected folder and do not result in duplication.

We rely heavily on Dropbox for its collaboration and sharing features, but the current experience is making it hard to justify staying on the platform. If these performance issues persist, we’ll have to explore alternative solutions.

Feel free to contact me by email if you'd like further details or if my feedback can help shape improvements in any way.