Re: view only link for everyone says Join Folder, Copy to Dropbox, Download. I DON'T want Join Folder.

Hi JuliusIncestus, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

When you created the shared link, what this an edit link or a read-only link?

This will help me to assist further!

I believe it was an edit link. Is there any way to confirm this?

You can view the link from the file itself, or via this page on the site. and 'View link settings'. From there you can change it to view only.

I looked everywhere and cannot find links settings.

I would rather not manually create a new link and have to change them all since I've already updated my boobs. 

As you can see above, when I set a link for viewing a folder for my Patreon members, I am presented with these boxes above;  how do I go about removing the 'Join Folder' box?  I've verified in the folder settings that the link is view-only, with no link for editing.  I don't recall this happening until this month.

Hi personanongrata and JuliusIncestus ,

I am a Dropbox Product Manager for our sharing capabilities and am overseeing the introduction of our new shared link architecture.  You can read a bit more on the changes to Folder Links with View Only access in this post here.   The ability to Join Folder from a shared link is meant to allow for easier collaboration.  We did make sure to adjust link settings so you would be able to prevent Join Folder by disabling downloads and folder joins with one simple setting toggle. 

Note, only the view link is able to disable download/join.  Edit links, by their nature, are meant to allow recipients to collaborate so don't include this setting.

Now two things I see here.  First, it looks like you may be intending to create view links instead of edit links?  If that's true, then you might want to update your default sharing settings.  See this help center article for more details.  Second, JuliusIncestus in your case, you want to disable joining, but not downloads.  That is not possible right now.  I am curious though to hear a bit more about why?  Maybe you have a unique (or not-so-unique) situation, or maybe there is a better way to use Dropbox to meet your needs.

The folder is a free book. When someone signs up for my newsletter, I just want them to be able to download the files and not alter or add anything. That's it. Although, I somehow managed to make so that they have to ask my permission to join, so I guess that's something. But I would rather have it removed altogether, since it looks kind of unprofessional.

The folder is a free book. When someone signs up for my newsletter, I just want them to be able to download the files and not alter or add anything. That's it. Although, I somehow managed to make so that they have to ask my permission to join, so I guess that's something. But I would rather have it removed altogether, since it looks kind of unprofessional.

Thanks authorsjuliusincestus  for sharing more about your use case.  Sharing a view only folder link would only permit a recipient to view content - not edit anything. 

However, I can understand for your situation, you want to keep the experience to a one way flow of content delivery to recipients.  I'm assuming these are customers or prospects of some sort, so you also want the experience to look polished and professional.  You need them to be able to download, but don't want to be bothered with "requests for access".  Nor to confuse your intended recipients with multiple options for viewing your content.  

If that all sounds right, then I can see why the addition of the "Join Folder" option that came with our introduction of content-based folder links doesn't hit the mark for you.  But there are some alternative methods that I think might work better for you.

1. Are you familiar with Dropbox Transfer?  It may actually suit your purposes better since its intended as a way to deliver work to clients.  It even allows for custom logos for a professional look.  You can use it to send folders or files with a link.
2. If you are only sharing a single file (your ebook), a shared link to the file would only allow view access and recipients would be able to download from a web preview without an account.  There is no "join" option.
3. A forced download would also be an option.  This requires modifying the URL manually - see details here - and recipients wouldn't be taken to a web preview at all.  Instead visiting the link would initiate a download. 

Hi Sir , sorry but this is really annoying , you guys have totally ruined it and made our life so difficult

i just wanted to know how to create link without join folder option , but support team had no answer and they were not even aware of new changes they clearly need some more training , totally wasted time on chat and didnt even provide any solution

why do we need join folder option on every sharing link ?

if we are collaborating with someone then we will just create shared folder once and continue working from it

and if we are creating new links everyday clearly means we are dealing with new person everyday 

before it was good if we wanted to have to join folder option on our link there was specific settings which we had to change , that too were inside not default

please let me know if you guys are planning on reverting this change or at least give option to disable join folder option on every link creation

this is so basic , please listen to customers , they are using your product more than you are on daily basis so they know better which feature should be there and which should not,

please change this

JasonSilverDBX 

I have to include myself and my team on the list of unhappy Dropbox customers because of this issue. We pay over $500 and I have to spend my time explaining our clients why we don't want them to join the folders.

And now there even is some kind of bug, which doesn't show ANY buttons and clients can't do anything with the links. 

When I open the same link in my browser (logged off in incognito mode) it shows buttons. Today a second client sent me a screenshot without buttons, probably both Apple devices.

So I have two requests:

1) Fix the bug

2) Remove the Join folder button for view only links. PLEASE. It doesn't make sense. We want them to view only. Simple as that. Do you have anybody saying they like the feature? It disrupts our workflow,

The auto download parameter doesn't help. It is again pushing client to do something they don't want to.

The Transfer also is not an option for us. In some cases we update folders and having the same link really helps. We just tell the client we made an update and they just refresh. Generating Transfers is an extra step.

Just wanted to jump on this to state we have the same issue as the OP in this thread. The 'Join Folder' option is very irritating for our workflow. We use an app and API to automate out link sharing for folders which we use to share files which are for download ONLY - if Dropbox Transfer was supported by the dbx api, we would use this, but it is not. Considering we pay a pretty hefty sum for Dropbox it is pretty disappointing how little customisation there is available to us for folder link sharing.

this is an extremely normal use case for a file sharing service. why do i want to ask every single one of my hypothetical newsletter recipients to send me their personal information? Because that's what happens when someone Joins Folder. It sends me their Dropbox name and email address.  The first time I sent out one of these new links, I was extremely embarrassed and alarmed to find myself in posession of personal information I was not expecting when 2 of my recipients Joined Folder. That was in July and I was able to work around it to get the old type of link at that time. Now I have the same issue, my former fix isn't working, and you're telling me that this mandatory privacy disaster is intentional? I collab on Discord and other username-based platforms where we are not expecting to exchange this level of private information so to have Dropbox solicit it on my behalf without my permission, with no way to prevent it and still do the 1 thing i pay Dropbox for (download) means I need to stop paying Dropbox and find another host. I'm really upset with this. I think my annual renewal payment was recent and now I find out you removed the one feature I pay it for.

Will Dropbox ever respond to our pleas???

JasonSilverDBX 

That is not a solution. Disabling both Join and Download with one toggle is not what we need. We need to disable Join and leave the Download option on. I think you are completely missing the point of most of the comments here. The Join option is creating false expectations on our clients side.

this developers are just using their brain too much , and not listening to people who are actually using their service on daily basis

Please developers dont use too much of your brains , just separate "join this folder & download option" and create two toggles , how hard it is to code ? , we want to create links which allows user to see + download (like it was before this feature) without join folder option

you are giving us option to disable join folder option now but why i mean why would you add download function also in that same toggle ? it is soooo frustrating

i bet many people are frustrated too with this new feature but they are not active on community to complain about it

whoever made this join folder option default and removed choice from user to disable in first place should be fired seriously it may sound harsh but for the sake of developing you guys broke dropbox ,no one asked for this and now when users who use dropbox on daily basis are asking for a change you guys are failing to do so.

your job is to add features not remove or change them , please listen to users

I want the people I share with to be able to Download but NOT Join Folder. How do I do that? Like many have pointed out, this is a real problem for us too.