At one time, Dropbox was the big name in personal cloud storage. Nowadays, there are plenty of other services to choose from, like Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. As such, the time might have come to delete your Dropbox account.

Before you delete your Dropbox account, there are a few things you need to get in order. Here's what you need to know.

How to Download Your Dropbox Files

When you delete your Dropbox account, all of your files are removed from Dropbox's servers (they remain in the Dropbox folder on your computer). The only exception are files you placed in shared folders, which will continue to be accessible to those members.

This means that Dropbox will stop syncing across all of your devices. You will be unable to access your account or view any files shared with you.

As such, you might want to first download all of your Dropbox files:

dropbox download all files
  1. Go to Dropbox.com and sign in.
  2. In the main pane, hover the table's title row and click the checkbox (next to Name).
  3. Click Download.
  4. This will initiate a download all of your Dropbox files in a ZIP.

How to Delete a Dropbox Account

Now it's time to delete your Dropbox account. Once you complete this process, Dropbox will initiate the deletion of your files within 30 days.

However, it's critical to note that this process is irreversible. Once you delete a Dropbox Basic, Plus, Family, or Professional account, you can't undo it.

Although you can sign up for another Dropbox account, this won't recover your files. You'll also lose any bonus storage space you earned through things like referrals.

If you're certain there are no creative uses for your Dropbox account and you're ready to delete it, here's how:

dropbox delete account form
  1. Go to Dropbox.com and sign in.
  2. In the top-right, click your profile picture.
  3. Click Settings.
  4. In the General tab, select Delete account.
  5. Enter your password.
  6. Select your reason for leaving. You can provide more details, if you wish.
  7. Click Permanently delete.

You can now go ahead and remove Dropbox from your computer, phone, and other devices.

Check Out Alternative Cloud Storage Providers

If you've deleted Dropbox but still need cloud storage, there are plenty of alternatives. Consider something like Google Drive, which gives you 15GB for free, or upgrade to Google One for a reasonable cost.