I'm not able to access Dropbox in Crimea, North Korea, or Syria

Updated Oct 10, 2023

The information in this article applies to customers on paid Dropbox plans.

If you can't access dropbox.com or Dropbox Paper, or the Dropbox desktop or mobile apps fail to load or sync with your Dropbox account, you may be trying to access Dropbox from a location with restricted access. This affects users on the following plans:

Dropbox Plus
Dropbox Family
Dropbox Professional
Dropbox Essentials
Any of the Dropbox team plans (Standard, Business, Advanced, Business Plus, Enterprise, or Education)

Why is my access restricted?

In line with applicable trade sanctions and embargo requirements, Dropbox (like other similar organizations) doesn't support access to some of our services in certain countries or regions, such as Crimea, North Korea, and Syria.

If you’re on Dropbox Plus, Family, Professional, Essentials, Standard, Advanced, Business, Business Plus, Education, or Enterprise and you’re in one of these areas, you won't be able to access your Dropbox account. This restriction applies whether you reside in these areas or you're temporarily traveling to them.

What happens while I'm in a country or region with restricted access?

If you’re on Dropbox Plus, Family, Professional, Essentials, Standard, Advanced, Business, Business Plus, Education, or Enterprise, and you're trying to access our service from a restricted country or region, you may see the following behavior:

If you're logged in to dropbox.com when you enter a restricted country or region, you'll be automatically logged out and prompted to log in again. The log in will fail, and you'll repeatedly see a “Please log in or register to access this page” message with each new attempt. You may also see Dropbox attempting to load and a “There was a problem completing this request” message.

If you weren't already logged in and you attempt to, the page will refresh and prompt you to log in again, but the log in won't complete.

If you're already logged in to the Dropbox folder on your computer when you enter a restricted country or region, the folder will stop syncing to Dropbox. If you try to upload or sync files to Dropbox, you'll see a "connecting" or "syncing" message, but the upload or sync won't complete.

If you're not logged in to the Dropbox folder when you enter a restricted region, the app will say "starting" but not complete.

If you attempt to access a Dropbox mobile app from a restricted country or region, uploading and syncing will fail to complete.

Files which you previously downloaded to your mobile device will be accessible, but cached files (which look very similar) won't be.

What can I do to regain access?

These restrictions only apply if you attempt to access Dropbox from one of these countries or regions. To regain access to your Dropbox account, you'll need to access the Dropbox service outside of the restricted location.

Is my data safe even if my access is restricted?

Yes. Your data remains safe in Dropbox, even if you're not able to access it.

My account is blocked, but I'm not in a restricted country or region. What should I do?

If your access is blocked but you're not in a restricted country or region, you can try contacting Dropbox Support. However, please know that we can't unblock access for any reason if you're in a restricted country or region. The only way to regain access to Dropbox is to leave this restricted location.

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