I’ve been using Dropbox for years for basic file syncing and sharing. However, when I was sharing a 47-minute video of my Grandma’s memorial service to out-of-town relatives, I discovered that Dropbox can be broken.
What?!
When testing this video file for playback, it got 2 minutes in and shut down for bandwidth issues.
This was surprising considering it was just one person attempting to playback the video one time. Dropbox would upload but wouldn’t download!
I immediately got an email from Dropbox with an error saying:
“This email is an automated notification from Dropbox that your Public links have been temporarily suspended for generating excessive traffic. Your Dropbox will continue to function normally with the exception of Public links.”
Dropbox tidbit learned
I can upload large video files to my public folder, but myself and other users can’t watch them as it somehow exceeds the bandwidth allowed. It appears if I wanted to share this large video for download, I must pay: buy a premium plan.
YouTube to the Rescue
After breaking Dropbox, I uploaded the memorial video to Youtube. It converted the 47 minute video for playback, but took about a full day to do so. FYI… if you want to upload a video longer than 10 minutes, your YouTube account has to be verified.
Who knew it would be so complicated to send a memorial service video out to a few relatives?
Lessons learned.
