Inactivity deletion: Dropbox's help page says 12 months; its Terms from 1 January 2027 say 6

Dropbox's inactive-account help page ("Updated Aug 31, 2026" in this archive's capture) says: "Dropbox determines inactive accounts by looking at log-ins and file activity (adding, editing, or deleting) anywhere on Dropbox during the past 12 months." It applies to free accounts ("Dropbox may close and delete inactive Dropbox Basic accounts") and says "Activity on other Dropbox services, such as Dropbox Sign or DocSend, doesn’t count as Dropbox account activity." On notice, the page says "we’ll send you multiple reminder emails before your account is closed" and "If we don’t notify you that your account is inactive, your account won’t be deleted due to inactivity." It also says: "If you receive an email that your account is inactive and don’t take steps to keep it active, we’ll send multiple reminder emails before it’s automatically closed, and your files will be deleted within 90 days." Once an account is closed, the page says "Dropbox doesn't reopen accounts that were closed because of inactivity," though it adds that where an account was closed without permission and the owner has proof it was not them, "we may be able to help."

The threshold is changing. The revised Terms of Service, posted 1 September 2026 and effective 1 January 2027, replace "12 consecutive months" with "6 consecutive months" in the termination clause for users who "don’t have a Paid Account". Dropbox's help page on the updates says: "We’ve changed the time period of inactivity required before we may terminate non-paying accounts to 6 consecutive months. We’ll continue to provide notice before doing so." The inactive-account help page above, updated the day before the revised Terms were posted, still describes 12 months, which matches the Terms in force today. The pages reviewed do not say whether time already idle before 1 January 2027 counts toward the 6 months. This archive's entry on the revised Terms is at /issues/2026-terms-rewrite-six-month-inactivity-over-18.

The same help page read differently in earlier archived copies. The copy archived on 27 September 2023 said an account "will be automatically deactivated—and your files deleted—90 days after you reach 12 months of inactivity," and "Only sharing files and folders won’t count as activity to keep your account active." The copy archived on 4 October 2024 (page "Updated Sep 17, 2024") said: "You'll have 90 days after receiving the first inactivity email to log in to your account before it's closed, and we'll send you multiple reminders along the way." Today's page does not repeat that 90-days-after-the-first-email sentence or the rule about sharing files, and this archive did not determine when either wording was removed. The 90-day figure remains on today's page in a different sentence, quoted above, about file deletion after the reminder emails and automatic closure.

On other plans, today's page says "Account closures only affect users on Dropbox Basic." The pages reviewed do not describe a different inactivity period for any other plan. The revised Terms also say that where several accounts share an email address and Dropbox suspends or terminates access, that action "may apply to all associated accounts"; the pages reviewed do not say whether that covers a termination for inactivity, or accounts that have a Paid Account.

Two posts on Dropbox's community forum, both marked in this archive as no longer online, are listed as sources. One is titled as a complaint that an account was deleted even though it had not been inactive for more than a year; the other concerns files deleted on inactive paid accounts. This archive could not re-check either thread and knows them only by their titles, so it treats each as an unverified allegation. The paid-account claim is not something the Dropbox help pages reviewed say happens, since they say closures affect Dropbox Basic users, so this archive cannot reconcile it with them.

This is a documented standing policy with a dated change coming; the representative year reflects the period of the original help-center wording.