sharing files and folders with non team members

[Co-laboration]

Greetings to all,

Using a business standard account, I would like to create different spaces to share files and folders with specific team members as well as non-members. Typically:

Top-level ----> sharedspace1 (john, peter, mary, teammember1)

                 ----> sharedspace2 (jane, peter, teammember1, teammember2)

                 ----> sharedspace3 (peter, chris)

When sharing a file (within a shared folder) with non-team members, each non-team member receives an (email) invitation and link to access said file

Before the non-member can access the file, he is asked to merge it with his personal dropbox account

1/ Is there a way for non-team members to access shared files / folders without having to merge with their personal Dropbox?

2/ If they do merge with the personal Dropbox:

a/ Are any subsequent edits to yhe file from others automatically synced?

b/ How can we be sure that third parties do not have access to other files / folders of the personal Dropbox?

When a non-team member creates and shares a file / folder (within the shared space), an email can be sent for accessing the file/folder but the file/folder is not created in a shared space; rather, it is created under the private space (purple) of the Team. It can not be seen by non-administrator in the hierarchy. Since a non-member is the owner of the file/folder, it cant be moved into a shared space - not even by the administrator. The error is 'The owner of this shared folder isn't a member of the Team.'

1/ Is there a way to force files / folders created by non-members to live in a specific directory (in a shared space)?

Thanks!

[Lusil]

Hi there @Co-laboration, thanks for posting your questions here. Let's get right to them!

If the user is asked to merge their account with the team, that means you've invited them to join the team itself. 

Since only team members can access top level team folders, you'll have to create sub-folders and share those with users outside the team. 

You can have a look at this article to see what happens when a user joins a team.

Also, if you are seeing that someone has a purple folder, then that means that they are a member of the team, and that is their personal team member folder.

Just to make sure that we're on the same page though, is the shared folder you're trying to move created by the member themselves, or was it shared with them?

Let me know and we'll take it from there. Thanks!

[Co-laboration]

Thanks for your prompt reply -

"If the user is asked to merge their account with the team, that means you've invited them to join the team itself. "

The only invitation I sent was to share a specific file (GUI asks for email, name or group - I chose email with privileges 'Can Edit')

"Since only team members can access top level team folders, you'll have to create sub-folders and share those with users outside the team. "

I created a shared folder right under the root directory of the Team Dropbox, which I shared as per above

"Also, if you are seeing that someone has a purple folder, then that means that they are a member of the team, and that is their personal team member folder."

The purple folder was, in fact, the (personal) folder of the administrator - top level of the Team Dropbox. The invited non-member created (and is owner of) a folder which landed right under the purple folder of the administrator, of which he (the administrator) is the sole member (Members: Only You) - not sure how that happened, or what other resourced under this folder the non-member has access to (I would hope none)

[Lusil]

If the user has a purple folder, it means that they are now part of the team.

Upon accepting the invitation to the team, they chose to merge their own account to it. The purple folder holds all their personal files and folders, nothing that belongs to the team. 

They can still share their files and folders normally, by following these steps.

How would you like to continue from this point on?

[Co-laboration]

There seems to be a misunderstanding: The (only) purple / personal folder I was refering to belongs to the administrator. It sits at the top level of the hierarchy and advertises no third party privileges (ie: only you)

The surprise is that folders created by non-members can even land in this folder; I would have assumed this space, just like any other private (purple) user folder, is not read/writable by anyone else than the owner (in this case the administrator). My questions with respect to this are:

1/ Since the non-member was allowed to create a folder under the private (purple) folder of the adminitrator, what else does the non-member have access to within this folder, either with read or read/write privileges? Can he for example view the hierarchy / other files folders which live side-by-side with the folder he just created?

2/ Is there a way to force non-members to create any new folders / files in a specific sharedspace?

[Daphne · Accepted solution]

Thanks for getting back to us here @Co-laboration.

If someone outside of the team shares a folder with a team member (the admin account in this case), then the folder is owner by someone outside of the team.

The shared team space outside of the purple folder can only hold folders that are owned by the team itself, this is why a folder shared to the admin account from outside the team appears in the personal folder.

This, however, doesn't meant they have access to the while purple folder. They can only see the content of the folder that is shared with you and nothing more than that (eg. the hierarchy within the folder).

If you want the folder with the non-team member to appear in the team shared workspace outside the purple folder, you can create a folder in the location you want it to be, and then share the folder to them to add the content.

This way, a team member is the owner of the folder so the data can be outside the purple folder.

Otherwise, you can ask them to transfer the ownership of the shared folder to the admin account, and then you can move the folder outside the purple folder.

I hope this helps clarify the matter, please let me know if you have any questions!

[Co-laboration]

Daphne,

Your answer clarifies the matter - thanks!

I therefore assume I cant force non-team members to create folders only in specific and predetermined by me locations / spaces