How to downgrade or cancel your Dropbox account
It seems impossible, but it’s well hidden and possible
After moving all my photos from Adobe Lightroom, with Dropbox as cloud storage to sync and backup to Apple’s iCloud and Photos, there was no real need to keep using Dropbox anymore.
So, let us try to cancel our Dropbox account, right?
My first guess was by going to https://dropbox.com/account/billing where you can see the last invoices and I can change the billing period from yearly to monthly. However, no downgrade option. 🤷♂️
Right, let’s take a step back to the general account page. I see a big “Change plan” button, which gives me to option to upgrade to the Dropbox Professional plan. But no downgrade option. 🤷♂️
I scanned every account page, but except a “Cancel your plan” that only links to the linked “Dropbox Business plan”, I couldn’t find a way to downgrade my own personal account. The only thing was a button at the right bottom called “Delete account”. That’s not what I want. I want to keep using Dropbox, but the free plan will offer enough for my needs.
Right… if deleting my account is the only way to go... Let’s give that it a try.
Oh, I have found the downgrade option! I’m required to downgrade to the free plan before I can delete my account. I only want to downgrade my plan, so this sounds perfect. I will be on the free plan after my current plan expires, and I will have 14GB. Wait, the previous screen said 16.01GB, but sure. I can still upgrade later on when needed again. So let’s hit the “I still want to downgrade” button at the bottom.
Alright, one more confirmation screen, showing what I currently have and what I will miss. Hmm, it’s now 13GB (but plus any bonus space earned previously). Notice the amount of buttons and links to cancel the downgrade-operation. One smaller button “I still want to downgrade”. Let’s hit it.
Ah, Did I downgrade and are they asking why? Wait, why is there one big blue button “Keep subscription”. Oh.. I need to say why I want to downgrade. This is a very confusing page… Clicking the first option redirects you to:
Hmm, let me go one step back, and select the “Other” option. Just because I’m curious what will happen:
Right. Let’s enter a small text. Notice that they show “2GB (plus any bonus space earned previously)”. Wondering why they just cannot show the number of the initial account details page. This is the fourth different number I’m seeing… Also notice that the “I still want to downgrade” looks inactive, but it’s active…
After clicking “I still want to downgrade”, you are redirected back to your normal Dropbox.com page with a small notification in the top that your account is downgraded 🥳 Checking the account details page shows:
And I’m seeing a confirmation email in my inbox ☺️
Right, this email mentions 13.51GB, while the accounts page mentions “Earn more space (16.01 GB earned)”, so this is the 6th number I’m seeing about how much storage I will have.
The downgrade itself is not that hard or difficult, but they did their best to keep you locked in by all means:
- 5 confirmation windows with confusing actions
- Hidden behind a “delete account” link
- While it’s clear I want to delete, all the continue buttons are having the inactive/secondary action color of Dropbox
If you are working for Dropbox, or know a Dropbox developer or designer, please ask them why this flow is made so user unfriendly. People that want to delete or downgrade their account will find or contact customer support anyway to get it happen… 😤
Oh, and another thing bugging me for months.. while having ~200GB free space on my computer, Dropbox is concerned that my drive is almost full… 🤦♂️
