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I left Dropbox because they count shared space against everyone involved, which makes me cannot share the "photos" folder with my wife (unless we both purchase

I left Dropbox because they count shared space against everyone involved, which makes me cannot share the "photos" folder with my wife (unless we both purchase the 1T plan). Not sure whether they changed this practice. I am a satisfied OneDrive+Office365 user now.

jsjohnst 7y ago
> Not sure whether they changed this practice. Nope, just confirmed again. The only way around it is to go with a business account, which even the cheapest option costs 2x the price of just you and your wife both having Plus accounts of your own.
ant6n 7y ago
Or share one account with your wife.
- cpach 7y ago
  Not entirely unreasonable but might still not be convenient or desirable for them. Even married couples might not want to share everything with each other.
  - settsu 7y ago
    2 individual free accounts + 1 shared paid account? It's a solution not without compromise in terms of management and accounting but does achieve an outcome that would fit the apparent need.
rhodysurf 7y ago
I had this happen recently. Our photographer from our wedding shared the photos on dropbox but we couldnt see them because we didnt have dropbox pro and the folder was over the free size limit! Why does it matter how much space I have if someone else is sharing them with me?!?!
- tinus_hn 7y ago
  They don’t want people to combine free accounts to get a storage increase. They want people to upgrade from the free accounts, obviously.
- Strom 7y ago
  It's not about your space, it's about your payment. If someone like a pro photographer shares their stuff with clients all the time, then their dropbox subscription won't necessarily cover all of that bandwidth. [1] Companies like dropbox only mention bandwidth in fine print or buried somewhere deep in the FAQ, but bandwidth is a key resource that every dropbox user consumes and dropbox has to pay for. -- [1] It might if dropbox was a more lean operation, but it isn't.
  - ec109685 7y ago
    I wonder what their ratio of ingress to egress bandwidth is. I would assume most people write more than they read from the service or does Dropbox actively push any changes to all devices?
    - TeMPOraL 7y ago
      > or does Dropbox actively push any changes to all devices? I may be misunderstanding your question, but it seems to me that this is literally the whole point of the service. Dropbox is a folder that syncs. You change something on one device (one write), it updates everywhere (multiple reads). They do have some tricks to lower their bandwidth usage. AFAIR, if multiple devices are in the same LAN, only one gets synced with the cloud, and the rest sync to that one. Also, they have (recently introduced) a sync option, in which fake files are visible in your file system, but no actual contents get put on the drive until you try to open them.
      - Namrog84 7y ago
        > "Also, they have (recently introduced) a sync option, in which fake files are visible in your file system, but no actual contents get put on the drive until you try to open them. " I thought that was a first in the earliest of versions and was one of my favorite. At some point they removed it and made you choose which folders to sync. At which point I abandoned using it. So maybe they are reintroducing it or I am misremembering something.
silasdavis 7y ago
Yes this annoyance stops me from wanting to upgrade. I don't need these shares synced but either I delete my grandmother's funeral photos or upgrade.

jsjohnst 7y ago

> Not sure whether they changed this practice. Nope, just confirmed again. The only way around it is to go with a business account, which even the cheapest option costs 2x the price of just you and your wife both having Plus accounts of your own.

ant6n 7y ago

Or share one account with your wife.

cpach 7y ago
Not entirely unreasonable but might still not be convenient or desirable for them. Even married couples might not want to share everything with each other.
- settsu 7y ago
  2 individual free accounts + 1 shared paid account? It's a solution not without compromise in terms of management and accounting but does achieve an outcome that would fit the apparent need.

rhodysurf 7y ago

I had this happen recently. Our photographer from our wedding shared the photos on dropbox but we couldnt see them because we didnt have dropbox pro and the folder was over the free size limit! Why does it matter how much space I have if someone else is sharing them with me?!?!

tinus_hn 7y ago
They don’t want people to combine free accounts to get a storage increase. They want people to upgrade from the free accounts, obviously.
Strom 7y ago
It's not about your space, it's about your payment. If someone like a pro photographer shares their stuff with clients all the time, then their dropbox subscription won't necessarily cover all of that bandwidth. [1] Companies like dropbox only mention bandwidth in fine print or buried somewhere deep in the FAQ, but bandwidth is a key resource that every dropbox user consumes and dropbox has to pay for. -- [1] It might if dropbox was a more lean operation, but it isn't.
- ec109685 7y ago
  I wonder what their ratio of ingress to egress bandwidth is. I would assume most people write more than they read from the service or does Dropbox actively push any changes to all devices?
  - TeMPOraL 7y ago
    > or does Dropbox actively push any changes to all devices? I may be misunderstanding your question, but it seems to me that this is literally the whole point of the service. Dropbox is a folder that syncs. You change something on one device (one write), it updates everywhere (multiple reads). They do have some tricks to lower their bandwidth usage. AFAIR, if multiple devices are in the same LAN, only one gets synced with the cloud, and the rest sync to that one. Also, they have (recently introduced) a sync option, in which fake files are visible in your file system, but no actual contents get put on the drive until you try to open them.
    - Namrog84 7y ago
      > "Also, they have (recently introduced) a sync option, in which fake files are visible in your file system, but no actual contents get put on the drive until you try to open them. " I thought that was a first in the earliest of versions and was one of my favorite. At some point they removed it and made you choose which folders to sync. At which point I abandoned using it. So maybe they are reintroducing it or I am misremembering something.

silasdavis 7y ago

Yes this annoyance stops me from wanting to upgrade. I don't need these shares synced but either I delete my grandmother's funeral photos or upgrade.