How to delete a Dropbox account

To delete your free Dropbox account, go to 'Settings' and 'General' in your account and select the deletion of your account and all stored data. If you use a paid subscription, you must cancel it beforehand. The complete deletion of all data always takes place after 30 days.

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Quick guide: Deleting a Dropbox account

  1. Log in to Dropbox.
  2. Go to your profile picture or profile initials.
  3. Go to 'Settings' > 'All files'.
  4. Select 'Delete account'.

Dropbox is one of the most popular free cloud storage providers. With a Basic account, you get 2 GB of storage space. However, anyone who needs to back up photos or a lot of videos or regularly send large files will struggle to get by with the free storage option and will have to make a direct cloud storage comparison between, for example, Dropbox and Google Drive and quickly look around for more powerful Dropbox alternatives. Security concerns can also prompt users to switch.

Tip

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A step-by-step guide to deleting a Dropbox account

Whether the storage volume offered is not enough for you or you’re not convinced by the cloud security, to delete Dropbox, stick to the following steps.

Note

After deleting your Dropbox account, you should also completely remove the app from your smartphone to free up occupied storage space.

Step 1: Go to the Dropbox login page and log in with your account details. There’s no option to delete the account in the app, so you’ll need to delete the account using the browser on both your desktop and smartphone.

Step 2: Go to your profile picture or initials on the top right of the account page.

The Dropbox user profile account page
Clicking on your profile picture will take you to your profile menu.

Step 3: Select 'Settings' and then go to 'All files'.

The 'All files' area in Dropbox settings
Under 'All files' in your Dropbox settings, you’ll find the option to delete the account.

Step 4: Now click on 'Delete account'. You may need to confirm that you really want to delete the account. To do this, enter your password in the provided field and select an applicable — or any — reason for deleting the account.

The 'Delete account' command in a Dropbox account
You can delete your Dropbox account using the 'Delete account' option.

Once you have selected the deletion of your Dropbox account, your stored data in Dropbox will be deleted after approximately 30 days. If you just want to delete certain data, be sure to select only those files for deletion.

Tip

Searching for an easy-to-use Dropbox alternative without the need to log in? Then IONOS HiDrive Share is your solution. Share enables you to share and send files of up to 2GB for free, with a simple download link.

Cancel subscription beforehand in case of paid subscription

If you’ve been using Dropbox with a paid subscription, you must first cancel the subscription before closing your Dropbox account. You can also cancel the subscription in your account under 'Settings'. There, go to 'Subscription' and 'Cancel subscription'. You will then automatically be downgraded to the free Basic account, which can be deleted as described.

Note

If you use Dropbox Business, deletion is a bit more complex. First, you need to remove all Dropbox team members. Then, contact Support to downgrade the account to Basic. Then you can leave the team and delete the account as standard.

What happens to stored data after deletion?

When you delete a Dropbox account, all data stored in Dropbox will be lost 30 to 60 days after deletion. So, be sure to back up your data externally to a storage device or another cloud service. Deleted data can only be recovered in Dropbox with a business account, so your data is usually irretrievably lost 30 days after deletion.

It’s basically recommended to always follow the 3-2-1 backup rule for your data when using Dropbox or any alternative cloud provider for backups. This states that you should make at least three copies or backups of your important private or business data — two of which should be on external storage media, with one being in a protected, remote location (e.g., a cloud).

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