Joining a Dropbox Family plan: warnings and errors
The information in this article applies to customers on Dropbox Family.
Invite not available
If you’ve received an invite to a Dropbox Family plan and are unable to accept the invitation, review the “invite not available” error messages below to help resolve your issue.
You’re already a member of this plan
You may have already joined the Dropbox Family plan you were invited to. To check:
- Log in to dropbox.com.
- Click your avatar (profile picture or initials) in the top-right corner.
- Click Settings.
- Click Plan.
You can’t be a member of more than one Family plan
Your email address can only be associated with one Dropbox Family plan. If you’d like to join another Family plan, you’ll need to use a different email address and Dropbox account.
Before you can join the plan, you’ll need to cancel your existing subscription from your mobile device
If you have a subscription that was purchased on a mobile device through an app store, you’ll need to cancel your existing plan and downgrade to Dropbox Basic. You’ll be able to join the Family plan at the end of your current billing cycle—you won’t lose access to any files when you downgrade.
Your current plan doesn't support switching to the Family plan
If your subscription was redeemed from a license key, you won’t be able to switch to Dropbox Family with that account. If you’d like to buy or join a Dropbox Family plan with the same account, you’ll need to contact support and downgrade to a Basic plan first.
Your account currently has extended version history, which isn't supported in Dropbox Family
If you’ve purchased extended version history, you won’t be able to switch to Dropbox Family with that account. If you’d like to buy or join a Dropbox Family plan with the same account, you’ll need to contact support and they can remove the add-on from your account so that you may proceed with upgrading to a Family plan.
You are not allowed to join the plan
Access to Dropbox plans is restricted in certain countries and regions. If you’re in a restricted location, you won’t be able to join Dropbox Family.
You’re logged in with a Dropbox team account
If you’re logged in to a Dropbox team account, you won’t be able to accept an invitation to Dropbox Family. Ask the person who invited you to resend the invitation to your personal email address. Once you receive the invitation, you can either create a new free Basic account when you join the plan, or join with an existing Dropbox Basic, Plus, or Professional account.
Before you can join the plan, you’ll need to cancel your scheduled downgrade
If you’ve scheduled a downgrade to your Dropbox Plus or Professional account, you’ll need to cancel the downgrade before you can accept your Family plan invite. After you join Dropbox Family, your account will be refunded for the prorated cost of your original plan.
You can’t join the plan at this time
There may be a problem with your invitation. Refresh the page to try again. If you continue to receive this message, ask the person who invited you to check the status of your invite.
Email invite not received
If you’re the Family manager on your plan and someone hasn’t received the email invite you sent, there may be a few reasons:
- The invite was delivered to the “spam” or “junk” folder of the recipient’s email account.
- The invite was sent to the wrong email address.
If the recipient can’t find the original invite in their email or if there was a problem with the address, you can delete it and send a new invite.
To delete the original invite:
- Log in to dropbox.com with your Family manager account.
- Click your avatar (profile picture or initials) in the top-right corner.
- Click Settings.
- Click Family.
- Click “…” (ellipsis) next to the invite.
- Click Delete Invite.
To create a new invite:
- Click Invite Members.
- Enter the email address of the person you want to invite and add a note, if you like.
- You can also invite family members with a link. To do so, click Get a link instead and share that link with an email or other message. If you choose to send a link, you can copy and re-send it later if needed.
- Click Send invites.
If you sent an invite via link, you can copy the link and send it again:
- Log in to dropbox.com with your Family manager account.
- Click your avatar (profile picture or initials) in the top-right corner.
- Click Settings.
- Click Family.
- Click “…” (ellipsis) next to the invite.
- Click Copy Link. You can then paste the link into an email or other message.
Contact support
If you need more information about Dropbox Family or your individual account, you can always get help from the Dropbox help center, Quick Start Guides, and the community. Every member of a Family plan can contact support by email and the Family manager can also request chat support.
