Users with business emails are forced to change their email addresses

Hi Ian_Hein, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

The options that are available to you are those listed in the email you received, and in the image you attached. 

The first is to upgrade to a Dropbox team in order to add the users with a business email address and then no other changes are needed with their accounts, and the other option is for those users to change those emails to a personal email address.

Currently, there aren't any other options to these two choices.

If you have any further queries, feel free to message back.

Jay wrote:

The first is to upgrade to a Dropbox team in order to add the users with a business email address ... and the other option is for those users to change those emails to a personal email address.

Jay​, is this a result of the company already having a Business account associated with the same email domain and having invite enforcement enabled, or is this a change in policy of Dropbox allowing free accounts to be used for business purposes in general?

Hi Ian_Hein​ & Rich​,

Thanks for your questions on this!

Our goal is to make sure customers are using the version of Dropbox that best fits how they’re actually working. Over time, many teams have grown organically on Dropbox Basic using work emails. While that worked in the past, it’s created confusion between personal and business use, and it means teams miss out on features designed to support real work collaboration.

If you're using a Dropbox Basic account with a work email, you’ll have 30 days to choose which option best for you:

• Join an existing Dropbox team — if your organization already has one
• Start a Dropbox team plan (with a free trial, if eligible)
• Switch to a personal email and stay on Dropbox Basic

Ian_Hein​, for your use case you could also consider asking those sharing files with you to use shared links which don't require an account to download.

Hope that helps!

Hussam

Thank you for your replies

My biggest concern is the security of those files being downloaded.  If a link is shared could the files be accessed by anyone with the link?

hhebbo wrote:

If you're using a Dropbox Basic account with a work email

I find this a bit alarming if I'm honest and problematic. How do you decide what is a personal and what is a work email? 

For the company as well they may want to use free accounts which they then control access to via work emails (as they could reset passwords if needed). To remove that option seems like a really poor and narrow minded decision. 

This bit just doesnt make sense:

hhebbo wrote:

ver time, many teams have grown organically on Dropbox Basic using work emails. While that worked in the past, it’s created confusion between personal and business use, and it means teams miss out on features designed to support real work collaboration.

As, well, thats not accurate is it? The version and accessibility of Dropbox is based upon the plan and licence we have, it has nothing to do with the email associated with it. The type of email address I use bares no resemblance at all to the service or product I am getting. 

Ian_Hein wrote:

If a link is shared could the files be accessed by anyone with the link?

In theory yes.... but only if they have access to the link as it would be almost impossible to guess as its so long. 

You can also disable/delete links once you've finished with them at http://www.dropbox.com/links 

I would love to read the links documentation you posted the link to. Unfortunately, because I am using my business email and I am not going to sign up with a personal email, I can't access it.  It is negligent to hide documentation describing the security of feature of the platform that non account holders use behind a paywall.  

Can the link only be disabled by the party that sends the link?

Ian_Hein wrote:

I would love to read the links documentation you posted the link to.

The link I provided is only relevant if you have created links. If you dont have any they wont be anything at that link. 

Ian_Hein wrote:

It is negligent to hide documentation describing the security of feature of the platform that non account holders use behind a paywall.  

It wasnt documentation at all. It was a practical way of disabling links. 

Ian_Hein wrote:

Can the link only be disabled by the party that sends the link?

Yes. Or Team admins can also do it is part of a Business account

Thanks for sharing your perspective Mark​, and sorry for the confusion about how links work Ian_Hein​. 

To clarify, Basic accounts offer limited link controls, and shared links are generally accessible to anyone with the link. If you’re looking for more control, such as password protection or expiration dates, those features are available on our team plans and are designed to provide stronger security and oversight for work-related use. You can find out more here. 

As for account classification, we use industry standard approaches to categorize work accounts, but we hear you, domain classification isn’t perfect. If a domain has been misclassified, we ask that you reach out to our support team who can review the situation.

Thanks,
Hussam

hhebbo wrote:

As for account classification, we use industry standard approaches to categorize work accounts, but we hear you, domain classification isn’t perfect. If a domain has been misclassified, we ask that you reach out to our support team who can review the situation.

I'm not impacted by this - I just disagree with it and disagree with the way its being explained and the rationale behind it. 

Unfortunately, your post is factually incorrect because people won't be able to reach out to the support team on this - free users cannot access email support.