Dropbox full because of shared folder

I've read this a couple of times now and just cannot believe it. If someone wants to share a folder with me, it's their storage use and their responsibility, not mine. I couldn't use my dropbox anymore because a couple of people shared folders with me. So in effect I had stored NOTHING in dropbox but couldn't use it either. Simply unacceptable. I'm leaving Dropbox for this. Bybye Dropbox, Hello Google drive!

@Dave
And why the hell would I want "A copy of" all the files in my dropbox? Let's say a file is shared with 3 people. It doesn't take up 3 times the storage, does it? No either you don't understand how digital files and storage work or you're just ignorant.

Thinking about it again, it's a brilliant business model. Let's say someone uses Dropbox for 1GB of files. If 100 people have his folder shared in their own account, Dropbox can charge a 100 people for 1GB use but it only costs them 1 GB of storage. Simply brilliant! Kudos Dropbox, hope you make enough money. But not for me, I'm gone.

@Dave

That's a really crap explanation for why they charge multiple people for the same 1GB space.

I found this discussion because I have the same problem. I found all my space was used up, largely because of some connections to some shared projects I rarely access. The people who own that space pay for it. That's how it should be. It is not fair, or right, that they pay for some space, and then I get charged again for the same space. It really is an expensive rip-off.

@Corstiaan S
There is another way! If you are a Windows or Mac user, then use Office 365. For £62.99 a year on Amazon, you get 5TB space, and 5 copies of Office for you and your family. What's more, when I share my space with my family (or anyone else) it DOES NOT eat into their space!

It's also easier to use. You can map all your Windows Library folders - Documents, Desktop, Music, Videos etc to the the OneDrive folder, and then everything you do is automatically backed up. No more copying your files (or forgetting to copy!) to the DropBox folder. An altogether better experience.

Compare this with DropBox. £79/year for a measly 1TB, rip off space measurements and no additional software like full copies of MS Office.

So @Dave, tell us again why DropBox needs to charge like this, or even why we'd want to use it?

Don't like it? Get off.  Damn right I will!

@Dave - Then why does dropbox communicate an unclear message to their users? Their messaging is relatively misleading, wouldn't you agree? I personally am not impressed with dropbox's constant pressure to upgrade storage. I want dropbox to be something I can't live without, not something that is trying to market to me every single folder of the way. I also don't like that DB makes it so difficult to figure out how to remove deleted files to free up memory. While you are trying to find it you see at least three buttons to upgrade. 

@Dave

I think you still don't get what my complaint is.

Your example of them saving space by allowing users shared access to identical files is correct and probably common to most cloud services like this (Google Music certainly does it this way).

If DB want to do this, that's fine - if they can make it transparent, and ensure that if one of those owners updates the file, then the other can still see their original (unless they can both see it in the same location) then that's fine. Optimising their space makes perfect sense. No argument there.

What my problem is this:

• I purchase, for example, 50GB space for my use and upload, for example, 20GB music files
• I then get given shared access to some space for some sort of shared project. I perhaps need 1GB files from there, which I regularly use.
• From my paid for allowance, I'm now using 21GB - my music, and the 1GB shared files that I use
• Now, someone uploads 100GB data into a folder in the shared space. This is not data I have ever looked at, and possibly never intend to look at. I might not even know it's there.
• That is, until I decide I want to upload another 1GB music. I expect to have 29Gb spare space, but I find that I'm actually 71GB OVER my allowance (21+100-50)
• If I want to access any of the files in the uploaded 100GB, then DB I think would be quite entitled to charge me for the files I access and download. But not the rest of them!

This is the problem, and the one I think @John J who has just posted is probably suffering from. It makes it really difficult to predict how much space you need, as your allowance is at the mercy of other people, who may upload loads of dross that eats away at your allowance, even though you may never want to use it. While it may be possible to reduce your data usage by disconnecting from some shared data, it often isn't possible to do this, due to needing access to other data in the share. 

I've paid for an upgrade and a client shared a folder full of huge art files. Now i'm again at my limit. Initially, I only wanted to see what was being shared w me but by clicking on the file - the "sharing" process began automatically and I couldn't stop it. 

I have to waste precious work time reviewing old jobs and cleaning out Dropbox to make more space. And figuring out how to do that was no picnic. And now I don't remember how I accomplished it the last time.

I agree with the others who feel hoodwinked and not served by Dropbox. (And I'm disappointed by how quickly a site like this in which the discussion is about technical issues degenerated into name calling.) I'm ready to post my dissatisfaction to a wider audience.

I can't believe I need to participate in this thread...I recommended to someone to use Dropbox to upload wedding photos they took.  They upgraded from a basic account to a 1 Terabit account.  I have editing privileges in their Dropbox account, so I tried to upload some images to it and got the message, that apparently others have gotten, that I must increase the size of my account in order to upload to their account.  With all the times that Dave insists this is logical, I not only fail to see the logic, but now realize I made a mistake suggesting to this individual that they use Dropbox.  Google Drive, here I come.  

@Dave

It's a crap explanation because they CHOOSE to charge multiple times for the same space, not because they have to. Of course file ownership can be tracked either by the person who uploaded it, or by whose quota it is attached to. Other companies can do it, so they can too. It's not a technical limitation, it's their choice.

You can see this from actual disk usage compared to disk allowance - my usage is apparently many GB over my allowance, and it could be many TB over allowance with enough shared access.

Does this mean I get billed for this extra usage? No, it just means I can't use the allowance I have paid for. I'd be liable for a huge bill if I wanted to keep adding my own files, just because someone else has uploaded lots of data to a shared space - a shared space that a user may not have any choice but to keep connected as there could be other data in there they do need.

If multiple charges for shared files really is necessary because of the bandwidth used to download files, a fair way would be to only add files to usage totals when they get downloaded. If you don't access them, you don't get charged.

If they did that, I wouldn't complain. As you said, it's better to walk than talk, and that's exactly what I will be doing.

I'm a little curious about your reaction to everyone's comments here - you are quite vociferous in your defence of DropBox, yet you don't appear to be an employee, or even 'Super User' like Mark Mc above. Why does it matter to you so much?

@Dave.

Whatever. Too much faffing around with other people's content to manage my own space. I shouldn't need to teach other people how to manage their space in order to keep my allowance available. Even if I disconnect sometimes, it's still possible that when I reconnect the share, my space is blown away while I am connected. These are problems I don't need, and don't expect to have to deal with.

I still disagree with you, and this charging model, but your total inability to even consider this charging model might have some flaws is now getting tiresome. I'm off now to live my life again and use cloud services that don't expect me to manage the space that people share with me so my doesn't get shafted.

Bye.