Dropbox files will be deleted on the 31st October 2024 due to new team plan

Hi, I've been using Dropbox for over 15 years, and it has been integral to helping my business grow for the past 10 years. As a YouTuber and documentary filmmaker, I find Dropbox a safe and reliable way to back up and store my data.

 

I've been filming the rebuilding of the sea wall in Dawlish, as it collapsed in a massive storm in 2014. As I was filming much more content from 2020, I upgraded to Dropbox Business (now Dropbox Advanced) due to the 'Unlimited Storage' feature. I knew this was perfect for storing more than my PC could hold using the 'Make Online Only' feature. 

 

As a lot of engineering work was taking place 24/7, I was out several times a week filming what was happening. With this, I also upgraded to a QNAP 6-bay NAS drive with 60TB of storage. Using Dropbox alongside my NAS drive has allowed me to dump my footage on the local NAS storage and let the drive move my data to Dropbox. As Dropbox's data storage was unlimited at the time, I never worried about space.

 

In 2023, I received an email from Dropbox stating that the unlimited data feature would no longer be available, but I could keep the space I had plus 5 TB for each user account (I have three). Or at least, this is how I read it. See below:

 

Your Dropbox Advanced plan transitions on November 27.
Your price for Advanced will not change, and there are no changes to your service or data access.
Under our Advanced plan’s updated storage policy, three active licenses will receive 15TB of storage space shared by the team. Each additional active license will receive 5TB of storage, up to 1,000TB.
To support your business operations, your storage allowance will be higher than the Advanced plan’s default storage.
Your team’s storage allowance is 153TB. This is calculated from 3 licenses, each of which receives 5TB of storage, plus an additional 138TB allotment from Dropbox.

I read this as me getting an additional 15TB with the three user accounts I had. I was happy with this because I knew the sea wall project was coming to an end, so it wasn't too much of an issue losing the unlimited storage. 

 

As the sea wall project is close to completion, I've accumulated around 160TB of storage in Dropbox, around 100TB more than my NAS storage allows. 

 

Last month, I noticed in my Dropbox admin that there was a notice:

158 TB total storage
15 TB storage you pay for (includes 3 licenses and any add-ons)
143 TB storage allowance valid through October 31, 2024

I queried this last month and was informed that my allowance would be reduced to 15TB from October 31st, 2024. So I signed up with another provider and started to move my data. In one month, I've managed to move 10TB to the new cloud provider due to restrictions in upload speed (I have fibre to prem), but doing the maths, it will take about 18 months to move may data over. 

 

I spoke with Dropbox today to inform them that I won't be able to move my files by the deadline, and they informed me that if they aren't removed by then, they will delete my files on October 31st, 2024. I informed them that it would take 18 months, but they said it was not their problem. 

 

I was informed by the agent that I was sent an email regarding this on the 27th of November, 2023, and looking at it, this was the email I mentioned above. The additional information in the email reads:

This storage allowance will be in effect until October 31, 2024, after which your account will be subject to the terms of our updated Advanced plan.

• If your team needs more storage, you have a few options including:
  i. Purchasing additional storage through the admin console
  ii. Contacting our sales team or your Dropbox provider about a plan that better fits your needs
  iii. Deleting files that are no longer needed
  A thank you
  • We really appreciate your flexibility throughout this change, and we’d like to show that.
  • You’ll see a one-time 5TB storage allocation automatically added to your team’s account.
  • This additional storage will be free until October 31, 2024.

 

To me, this means that the additional storage (15TB) will be free until 31st October 2024, and I'll go back to my 153TB. I discovered that it will actually reduce to 15TB.

 

Looking at other options, to purchase hard drives will cost £6500 and a NAS drive to put them in £3500, so £10k. Money I simply don't have. I also tried moving my files to AWS but my data bills were extortionate.

 

The only option from Dropbox is to pay for additional users at £18 per user. This will make my Dropbox bill £691.20 per month, which I simply can’t afford.

 

It appears that Dropbox isn't budging on this, and looking at their email from 2023, I see that there is nothing about file deletion. Re-reading it again, it could be read in two ways, but I read it is telling me I'll still have 158TB after the 31st of October 2024.

 

My entire life is in Dropbox, from the music I made 35 years ago to the documentary files that I am supposed to be working on this winter, but looking at it, Dropbox is going to delete the files before I start the edit.

 

Kind regards,

 

A frustrated Dropbox user.