Frequent Admin Issues in Dropbox

Common admin issues when managing a Dropbox organization

This list is a work in progress. If you have dealt with any admin issues in Dropbox, please feel free to add your item in a Change request.

Files not syncing properly with Dropbox desktop

Dropbox has a soft limit of 300,000 files for syncing. While more files can be synced, going over 300k can cause performance issues or, in some cases, stop the desktop app from syncing entirely.

Should this happen, Dropbox recommends using selective sync and ensuring that the number of synced files stays below 300k.

Sharing was unsuccessful error

This error is related to permissions but might not be clear from the text. The cause of this in most cases is that one of the members is in a different organization and either you or the user you want to share the object with restricts sharing with external organizations.

Can't join a Shared folder

Issues with joining folders are often related to storage space issues. Data in folders shared with external parties counts towards the storage space of both parties. If the size of the folder exceeds the available space, the user won't be able to join the folder.