Namespaces and Limitations

Learn about Namespaces and Limitations in Dropbox.

When migrating large datasets to Dropbox and when migrating permissions, namespaces inside Dropbox need to be considered.

Dropbox has published official documentation around namespace limitations that can be found in the following locations. Movebot recommends reading through this if migrating more than 1 million files.

Restrictions and Limitations for Team Deployments	https://help.dropbox.com/plans/large-deployments
Dropbox Performance Guide	https://developers.dropbox.com/dbx-performance-guide

Team folders and Shared folders in Dropbox typically reside in their own namespace. Each namespace has soft and hard limits around the number of files, users, and permissions associated with them.

How does Movebot work with namespaces?

Movebot has some features that can assist with navigating namespace limitations and properly structuring data when moving into Dropbox.

Identification of Potential Issues	During a Discovery Scan, Movebot will identify folders that should be split into separate team folders or namespaces inside Dropbox. While Movebot does not force you to split large folders into smaller namespaces, it is highly recommended that you follow the guidance provided by the Discovery Scan and use this information to direct the structuring process.
Root Folder Namespace Creation	"Create a namespace per transfer" is an option that can be enabled from the Content Options page for a project or an individual transfer mapping. When enabled, Movebot will create the root folder targeted by the transfer within a new namespace. If the root folder already has its own namespace, Movebot will not create an additional namespace. Only the root folder will receive a unique namespace. Subfolders of the same transfer will not be created with separate namespaces unless they have permissions that break inheritance or are created by other transfers in Movebot.
Permission Namespace Creation	When migrating with permissions, Movebot will create a namespace for any shared folders with permissions that do not inherit permissions from the parent folder. Movebot will automatically detect Shared folders with custom permissions that have not been inherited and create the shared folder/namespace in Dropbox with the required permissions. If you remove the permissions inherited from a parent shared folder, a new namespace will be created inside Dropbox.

For assistance configuring large migrations to Dropbox, please contact [e-mail]