Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨‍💻? Find out how to check here.

Forum Discussion

guy2's avatar
guy2
Explorer | Level 4
7 years ago
Solved

How to share a folder with external users?

I am the admin of our business account and want to achieve the following folder/permissions structure.  Unfortunately I can't figure out how to do this with Dropbox.  (All users need to be able to ed...
security
Share
Team admin
  • Daphne's avatar
    Daphne
    7 years ago
    Hey there guy2,
     
    Thanks for taking the time to explain exactly what you want to achieve here! To do this you will need to have the folder within a Team folder to be able to have different access levels in the folder structure. You can either create a new team folder or move the current shared folder into a team folder.
     
    Then, what I would recommend would be to create a Group from within your Admin console. You’ll need to add the team members you want to give access to the top level here (so TM1 and TM2), you won’t be able to add the external members in the group here but not to worry.
     
    Then you will need to manage the folder from within the admin console here. If the folder is currently shared with the group “Everyone at [Team name]”, you’ll need to remove this group from the folder by clicking the “Can edit/view” to the right of the group name and choose “Remove” from the menu. Now you will share the folder with the new group created and also add in the external users you want to give access to the top level folder (EU1 and EU2).
     
    Once you’ve done this, you can simply go to the sub folders and add in any external users to the correct folders. They will only be able to see that folder and it’s contents and nothing above that. 
     
    I hope this clarifies the steps for you but please don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any other questions or need some more clarification - Thanks!
Daphne's avatar
Daphne
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
7 years ago
Hey there guy2, apologies for the tardy reply here it seems I didn’t receive a notification of your reply!
 
It seems that this option just isn’t available for your account yet, these early access features can sometimes still be in testing before being released to all users.
 
In terms of the folder name, you’re indeed right there that the external user would just see the folder name as it is when you share it with them. Potentially you can change the name of the folder  on your end before sharing to add some additional context for the external users, which could probably be the best option to avoid confusion between you and the user.
 
The other option is that the external user will be able to rename the folder on their end, which won’t reflect on the folder in your account. After a folder is shared, the recipients of the folder can rename the top level folder and this will only reflect for their own account. 
 
So we could share a folder, with you naming it “Shared with Daphne”, and me renaming it “Shared with guy2”. This won’t affect how the shared folder functions and this also hopefully clarifies your last question too. If the recipient has a collection of shared folders all with the original name being similar, they can change the top level folder name to something more memorable. 
 
Of course, if the name of a folder within the shared folder is changed, this will reflect for the other members as it’s a change made within the shared content itself.
 
Let me know if anything isn’t quite clear there, hope you have a great weekend ahead - Cheers!
guy2's avatar
guy2
Explorer | Level 4
7 years ago

Ok that's great, answered all my quesitons and now many things are much clearer.  Thanks for all your patience, time, and help! =]

  • Daphne's avatar
    Daphne
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    7 years ago
    Hey guy2,
     
    I’m very happy to hear that things are all cleared up now, it was my pleasure to assist! If there’s any other questions that you have then please don’t hesitate to reach out to us here.
     
    Have a great day - Thanks!

About Security and Permissions

Start a discussion in the Dropbox Community forum to get help with your account security and permissions. Find support from Community members.

The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X, Facebook or Instagram.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!