How to manage your team’s Dropbox storage

What counts towards your team storage space?

Anything in your team’s shared space, including team folders, shared folders owned by the team, and content stored in your team member's folders counts against your team’s available storage space. Folders behave differently depending on their ownership and membership.

For example:

• Team folders use your team’s storage space and don't count towards the team member's storage limit.
• External shared folders use your team’s storage space if added to your team’s Dropbox.
• Shared folders owned by team members use your team's storage space and count against the individual member's storage limit.
• Replay and Backup content owned by members uses your team's storage space and counts against the individual member's storage limit.

Learn how shared folders affect your storage space.

How to see what storage space your team is using

Admins can create, view, and download team storage reports that show how their team and individual members are using their storage space.

Team storage report

The team storage report tells you what’s using your team’s storage space, including:

• Team folders and eligible team subfolders
• Private folders from members (active, suspended, or removed)
• Archived and app-created folders
• High-level view of shared folders
• Usage from Dropbox Replay and Backup (if applicable)

Learn how to create a team storage report.
 

Team folders report

The team folders report provides a view of what’s consuming team storage within the team folders and subfolders—both active and archived. It also provides insights into which team members and external users have access to folders, and their last modified date(s).

To access the team folders report:

1. Go to the Admin Console.
2. Open Content Manager.
3. Select Export Team Folders Report.
4. Wait for the CSV file to be generated.
5. Open the report from your admin’s Dropbox Business Reports folder.
    

Shared folders report

This report focuses on storage used by shared folders that contribute to your quota, but with richer sharing and access details, including:

• Which team members have shared folders mounted (including mount paths)
• Which team members and external users have access to folders
• Last modified date(s)
• Whether a folder is internal, external, or orphaned

To access the shared folders report:

1. Go to the Admin Console.
2. Open Content Manager.
3. Select Shared Folders Report from the available report actions.
4. Start the export and wait for the CSV file to be generated.
5. Open the report from your admin’s Dropbox Business Reports folder.
    

Member reports

Member reports show what each individual team member can access, and how much storage they’re using.

Available reports include: 

• Member data report: Shows usage, limits, and file access for each member.
• Member access report: Shows which folders each member can access.

These reports can help identify storage overages or unusual access patterns.

Storage details

The Storage details section of the admin console dashboard shows a real-time overview of how storage is used across your team folders and team members.

You can view your storage usage by:

• Team folders: View the storage used by each of your team folders. The interactive chart shows the folders that use most storage, and groups the rest under Other. You can view all your team folders listed next to the chart. To get more detailed information on the storage used by each team folder, click the folder’s name on the chart, or on the list next to it.
• Usage history: View the total storage used by your team over time. To see the exact TB used, the percentage of storage used, and the specific date and time for that data, hover over the Over time trend.
• Team member: View the storage used by each member of your team. The Team member section shows the top 10 team members by storage use. Click See all members to view everyone on your team. To see the exact amount of TB a team member’s using, their storage limit, and the specific date and time for that data, hover over the team member’s name.

How to manage storage limits

Team admins can set custom storage limits for individual team members. These limits apply only to a member’s own folders and help prevent accidental overages without restricting collaboration.

Per-user storage limits

• Apply only to folders owned by that team member.
• Don’t affect team folders, shared folders, or content owned outside of the team.
• Help admins manage storage without relying only on a single shared team storage pool.

Set a custom storage limit for all team members

1. Log in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
2. Click Admin console in the left sidebar.
3. Under Products, click the dropdown next to Dropbox.
4. Click Settings.
5. Under Content, scroll to Storage.
6. Toggle Member storage limit to On (Keep syncing) or On (Stop syncing).
7. Enter a custom limit value using the dropdown next to Storage limit per member.
8. Click Save.

Learn how to set storage limits for team folders.

Edit a storage limit for a team member

Team admins can update an individual team member’s storage limits from the Members tab. Before you start, make sure Member storage limit is set to On (Keep syncing) or On (Stop syncing) in the admin console.

1. Log in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
2. Click Admin console in the left sidebar.
3. Click Members.
4. Select the team member you want to update.
5. In the Storage used column, click ☑ (edit).
6. Enter a new custom limit.

You can also update a member’s storage limit by selecting the team member directly in the Members tab and clicking Edit space limit.

How to optimize storage space for your team

Storage cleanup

If your team is approaching its storage limit, use the Manage storage cleanup tool to review storage usage and identify opportunities on how to save storage space.

From the Manage storage cleanup tool, you can view files and folders, view how much storage they’re using, and take actions if needed.

To manage storage cleanup:

1. Click ☑ (more options) next to the folder you want to manage.
2. Click More.
3. Click Manage storage.
4. Filter content by Largest or Last Activity.
5. Hover over the content to take action:
   • To delete the content, click Delete.
   • To open the content in a new tab, click ☑ (open).

Learn how to recover deleted files and folders.

Manage storage from removed members

Deleting team members doesn’t instantly free up space. Files and backups remain unless removed, so it’s recommended to:

• Transfer ownership of user content before deletion.
• Permanently delete removed private content and backups.

Learn how to manage deleted team members’ files.

Upgrade or add more storage space

If your team is nearing its storage limit, admins can:

• Upgrade the team's plan.
• Buy additional storage space.

Learn how to get more storage space.

How to troubleshoot storage space issues

To resolve syncing or hard drive space issues, you can use:

• Selective sync: Choose which folders sync locally.
• Online-only files: Keep files in the cloud only.

Learn how to troubleshoot hard drive space issues.