Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

It’s no wonder Dropbox is killing off its unlimited storage plan

Trevor Mogg
By

Dropbox is ending unlimited storage for its business-oriented Advanced plan because it’s had enough of some users abusing the offering.

In a blog post explaining its decision, the company, which has more than 18 million paying users globally, said it’s noticed that a growing number of customers have been buying Advanced subscriptions “not to run a business or organization, but instead for purposes like crypto and Chia mining, unrelated individuals pooling storage for personal use cases, or even instances of reselling storage.”

Recommended Videos

It said that in recent months, such behavior had surged on the platform, in part because rival services had started to make similar policy changes regarding storage.

Related

“We’ve observed that customers like these frequently consume thousands of times more storage than our genuine business customers, which risks creating an unreliable experience for all of our customers,” Dropbox said. “Importantly, our policy for Advanced has always been to provide as much storage as needed to run a legitimate business or organization, not to provide unlimited storage for any use case.”

It said that trying to manage the situation by constantly monitoring “acceptable” and “unacceptable” use cases was not a viable solution, and as a result, it decided to end the “as much space as you need” policy and move to a metered model.

So, how will the new system work going forward? Well, starting this week, customers who purchase a Dropbox Advanced plan with three active licenses will receive 15TB of storage space shareable by a team, which Dropbox describes as “enough space to store about 100 million documents, 4 million photos, or 7500 hours of HD video,” adding that each additional active license will offer 5TB of storage.

The company said that more than 99% of Advanced customers currently using less than 35TB of storage per license will be able to keep the total amount of storage their team is using at the time they’re notified of the changes, plus an additional 5TB credit of pooled storage for five years with no extra fees charged to their current plan.

Meanwhile, the small number of customers using 35TB or more of storage per license can continue to use their current storage amount, up to a total of 1,000TB, at no additional cost to their existing plan, and Dropbox will contact them “to discuss a range of options” involving a suitable limited-storage plan.

New customers who need more storage space will be able to buy storage add-ons from September 18 and existing customers from November 1 at 1TB for $10 per month or $96 per year.

Dropbox said it will gradually migrate existing customers to the new policy on November 1 and promised to notify everyone at least 30 days before their planned migration date.

Google also ended unlimited storage for users of its highest-tier Workspace plan in May so it’s possible that some disgruntled users switched to Dropbox for its more generous offering. But now that it’s ending, they’ll have to once again look elsewhere for a service that meets their needs.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
How to create a bibliography in Word on Windows and Mac
A family using the computer to browse Fios internet together.

A bibliography is an important part of any well-structured college essay, dissertation, article, or other researched writing sample. It lets your readers know what sources you used as building blocks for your work, and isn’t too difficult to make without a template tool. Still, if you’d like to skip a few steps, there’s a terrific bibliography generator built right into Microsoft Word.

Read more
The unsung hero behind the modernization of Windows laptops
New Surface Laptop Studio 2 with a Surface Pen.

The large, multitouch trackpad was once synonymous with the MacBook. And starting in 2015, that has also included a haptic feedback trackpad, which simulates a physical click via a motorized engine under the surface. It was quite the revelation, and despite some initial skepticism, it really took off.

As you would expect, Apple held a patent on the technology, enjoying a five-year start ahead of other laptops. The first attempts at haptic feedback trackpads on Windows laptops weren't promising either.

Read more
How to create a Memoji on a Mac
Memoji creation screen in Messages on Mac.

Using emojis is a great way to add flair and personality to what would just be a plain ole’ text message. But if you’re an Apple devotee, you’ll also be able to liven your chats up with Memojis. Introduced on iOS 12, Memojis are custom avatars that you make in your likeness. Choose from numerous clothing, facial hair, and other cosmetic filters to dial in your appearance. When finished, your Memojis can be used with a few iOS apps, including Messages and FaceTime.

Read more