How to download folders larger than 20GB on Dropbox without a Pro account

I have explained my reasoning from the edits and cross-referenced with the help center.

One user seems to have a vendetta and has managed to delete my comments after complete misunderstand the question despite multiple citations being provided to support my claim and zero evidence for their assertion.

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    Dropbox is a webapp so would be better suited to the dedicated Web Applications. – Burgi Jul 23 '19 at 15:48
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    @Turkeyphant Only one comment was deleted, and was flagged as unfriendly/unkind. and deleted by a moderator.. – DavidPostill Jul 23 '19 at 16:39
  • @Turkeyphant - Only moderators are able to see deleted comments. The comment is deleted, it will not be restored, forget about the comment. The unkind comment was deleted by a moderator, it really does not matter, what the comment said. – Ramhound Jul 24 '19 at 4:17

It was closed by me because

  1. It was largely too broad

    your previous "on topic" question example was specific. How to download using a specific program (wget).

    That there wasn't a "good" answer is irrelevant there.

    Your question effectively asked us to try rubbing every possible downloading software against it in the hopes that someone finds a solution.

    If you'd said "I tried x and then tried scripting it and almost got what I want but not quite" then we could at least look at how far you'd gone and work onwards. That would be something specific we could work with.

  2. Why a company does something is not a computer hardware or software problem.

    You spent a lot of unnecessary time lamenting a company decision to not waste resources on people unwilling to reimburse them for the privilege. I chose this as the specific close reason because which the choices a company makes is not a "computer hardware or software" problem.

    Company choices to restrict functionality behind payment barriers is not a problem we can help with.

    There have been several lengthy threads on the community forums bemoaning the fact that people and their clients can't use the server for what it is sold for.

    This is where you are making the mistake of assuming that what your provider of large files is paying for and what you are (not) paying for are the same thing. Dropbox is an intermediary web service that gives you a desktop client and they restrict the desktop client (legitimately) depending on the specific client at that moment.

  3. You had already answered your own question

    You had already answered your own question of Is there really no workaround or solution to make this quicker than manually downloading each file individually? with

    they have said the only way is to pay for another Dropbox Pro account

    Which is the supported solution by your provider of choice.

We are (generally) here for customers using their programs and data in ways that are consistent with the terms of service to which they agreed, subject to things like fair use and other light-handed approaches.

Your service has specifically blocked your use case behind a (legitimate) paywall. You either pay for that service, or you don't.

  • @Turkeyphant - Calling anyone "utterly ignorant" is behavior that is unacceptable. If you continue to think that about other users within our community uncivil discourse will be reported to the moderators. I strongly suggest you read the Code of Conduct – Ramhound Jul 24 '19 at 4:16
  • @Turkeyphant it is clear (at least it is to me) from the behaviours you are experiencing that this is "by design" on the part of Dropbox. They don't want to waste resources (cpu time, disk space) zipping up massive folders because the penalty to them is disproportionate to the near zero benefit they get from unpaid users. They also clearly do not care to be a large file sharing service and provide it as a benefit, not a right. You pay for Pro and their client will do all the work for you, you denying that here when you state it as fact in your question is disingenuous. – Mokubai Jul 24 '19 at 6:48
  • Your question was also reviewed for reopening by the community and was voted to be left closed. – Mokubai Jul 24 '19 at 6:54

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