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

Forum Discussion

hzipper's avatar
hzipper
Explorer | Level 3
4 years ago

We can't change the ownership of a folder on our Dropbox team.

Hi, I'm an administrator for our Dropbox Team. One of our employees would like to transfer ownership of a folder to another employee. He tried, and then I tried at the admin level, and followed the Help Center instructions for changing ownership. When we open the drop -down menu showing who has access to the folder, we only see "can edit" and "can view" as options, not "make owner" as suggested in the instructions. Thank you for any help!

9 Replies

  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    4 years ago
    Hi hzipper, sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

    Could you clarify if you're doing this from your end through the Admin Console or if you're using the folder's settings from the employee's end?

    A screenshot of where you see these options would be much appreciated. 

    Thanks!
  • hzipper's avatar
    hzipper
    Explorer | Level 3
    4 years ago

    Thanks a lot Walter. We have tried it both ways--me as an Admin and my colleague, the folder owner, from his own login. We followed the Help Center instructions at https://help.dropbox.com/files-folders/share/owner :

    1. click the share icon (rectangle with up arrow).
    2. Click [x] people have access.
    3. Click the dropdown arrow next to the name of the person you want to transfer ownership to.
    4. Select Make owner.

    The problem is that at step 4 in the dropdown we don't see a "Make Owner" option, only "Can view" and "Can edit"

     

  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    4 years ago
    Thanks for the additional information hzipper - much appreciated!

    If you don't see an owner for the folder, the owner may have already left the folder.

    The owner is likely the person who originally invited you to the shared folder. You can contact them and ask them to add back the folder, and then transfer ownership to you.

    If that's not feasible, you can create a new shared folder, drag the contents out of the old folder and into the new folder, and then re-invite members of the old shared folder to the new shared folder.

    I hope this helps!
  • Pervez's avatar
    Pervez
    Explorer | Level 3
    4 years ago

    I am having the same issue only the account which is marked as an Owner is still unable to change ownership.

    the red user is the team member who has ownership
    the blue user is the admin account

    Clicking the "Can edit" dropdown only gives the options of 
    "Can Edit"
    "Can View"
    Remove

  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    4 years ago

    Hey Pervez, sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

     

    If you're an admin of the team, have you tried adjusting this folder's settings through your Admin Console? 

  • veromclane's avatar
    veromclane
    Helpful | Level 5
    3 years ago

    I am having the same issue that others shared in this thread.  Please advise how to resolve this.  

     

    Thank you.

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    3 years ago

    Hi veromclane, have you tried all the steps suggested in the thread? If so, could you confirm that you're the team admin of a Dropbox Business team according to your plan, along with any error messages you may have received?

  • taha2's avatar
    taha2
    Explorer | Level 3
    2 years ago

    Hi Jay 

    Just following up on this, as I'm having the same issue reported above by Pervez , even though I am an Admin. Please advise how to resolve this.

  • Nancy's avatar
    Nancy
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    2 years ago

    Hi from me, taha2! Is the folder in question located within another one? Is it a shared folder that you’re having trouble with or a team folder? 

     

    Feel free to send us a screenshot of what you see too, so that we can have a visual of what appears in your case.

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!