I want to reorganise all my folders including those containing shared folders

[jameswdcrawford]

We want to reorganise our filing system.

That sounds easy to do but moving shared folders  into new structures is proving problematic.

We have used dropbox for years and have thousands of folders and the structure is getting messy and I want toquickly tidy everything up by moving folders around.

HELP.

[Elixir · Accepted solution]

You cannot put one shared folder inside another shared folder. You can create new folders, and organise them according to your convenience. Then put shared folders in the respective category.

For example, say you have shared folder from your customers (say, two shared folders called customer1, customer2), from family members (say, two folders Jane, Adam) etc.

Inside your Dropbox, you create two folders, say, Customer_info and Family. Next, you can move (drag and drop) customer1 and customer2 inside Customer_info, and Jane and Adam inside Family. Note that you should not share the top lebel folders (in this case Customer_info or Family). In this way you can create a hierarchy of folders and organize your shared folders.  

[Mark · Accepted solution]

Just to add to what Elixir has said.

Moving shared folders around is absolutely fine (with the restrictions as mentioned above), BUT, when you do so you need to be patient. The software will take time to update to say it has happened and in this time will say you've left the share, deleted files, added files and then eventually rejoined. Dont panic. Thats fine, it will sort itself if you just give it time

[Jane · Accepted solution]

Hey jameswdcrawford, thanks for checking in with us on the Dropbox Forum, I hope your week has been productive so far & I’d happily chime in on this inquiry! 

Firstly, I appreciate Elixir’s & Mark’s tips here, as they’ve both sent over some great advice. Taking it from there, I’d like to fire a long shot & see if it’s of any assistance on your folder re-distribution. 

If I were in your shoes (i.e. assuming that you’re working on a Dropbox team account & you’re the account admin), I’d re-shape my content structure in smaller batches & slowly roll the new folder structure using the Team Selective Sync feature. In other words, I’d first replicate my structure, re-arranging my sharing tree or Groups when appropriate (eg. I’d change sharing settings or I’d edit individual member permissions) & then I’d roll out the new scheme to my team. Once again, I’d have to quote AgentJay’s detailed post on Team Folders & team organization here. 

Especially when it comes to the last step above, in order to avoid syncing all the changes at once, I’d apply Team Selective Sync & do it either on each department or for certain content, so as to keep on top of the process (& allow for parallel syncing of any simultaneous changes). 

To re-phrase what Mark has mentioned previously though, give the application some time to sync the changes & from there you’ll be good to go. 

Hopefully this is helpful to you, though let me know how these steps work for you or in case you’d like me to explain any of the above in more detail & I’ll do my best to check back with you. Thanks again & I’m wishing you a fruitful week ahead!