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Tamora672's avatar
Tamora672
New member | Level 2
7 months ago
Solved

The verification code takes a long time to arrive (even hours).

Hi. I'm putting my family history in Dropbox and I wanted to give all my relatives access to it. There are lot of folders with photos, life histories, old records, etc. So I thought it'd be easier to...
account access
security
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  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    7 months ago
    Tamora672 wrote:

    So I thought it'd be easier to give everybody my log-in info.

    DO NOT DO THIS! Not only would it allow anyone with that information to take over the account, it's also a violation of the Dropbox terms and could result in the deletion of your account AND your files. Do not risk it!

    Tamora672 wrote:

    When anybody logs in, I get sent the verification code and I text it to the person.

    Please don't do this! Security codes from services such as Dropbox and others are there to PREVENT others from signing into your personal account, and you're trying to bypass that security.

    If you want to give them view-only access to the files, just send them a shared link to the files or folders. If they need edit access, have them sign up for their own account and then share the folder with them.

Tamora672's avatar
Tamora672
New member | Level 2
4 months ago

I'm sorry to be so late replying but I only just saw this. I'm also sorry because I didn't mean to break any rules. You see, I need an online storage space that my relatives can access after I die, because I have all our family history documents and stories. If I give everybody view-only access to the files, does this mean they won't be able to download anything? Please advise. Thanks. -- Clare

Dell_Dropbox's avatar
Dell_Dropbox
Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
4 months ago

welcome back Tamora672​ 

In Dropbox, view-only access does not prevent downloading by default. People with view-only access can:

  • Open and view the files
  • Download copies to their own devices
  • Comment (if you allow it)
  • They cannot edit or delete files

So if you share a folder or file with someone using "Can view" permissions, they can download it.

You can check the status of this by navigating to a file in the Dropbox app, clicking the 3 dot button to open the menu, then selecting "manage access". From there, you can see a button that says "allow downloads"..... it should be enabled by default 

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