Can everyone on my team access my files?

Updated Nov 28, 2023
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This article describes a feature available to customers on Dropbox Standard, Advanced, Business, Business Plus, and Enterprise.

Joining a Dropbox team account doesn't make any of your files or folders available to other team members—by default, everything in your team account is private. 

Other team members won't be able to access your files unless you decide to share them with shared folders or shared links.

Not using Dropbox yet? See how Dropbox makes managing file permissions easy.

Will my files be viewable by team members or admins if I join a Dropbox team account?

Certain types of admins have the ability to log in to your account using "Sign in as user."

If you’re a team member of a Dropbox team account, your admin may log in to your account to do any of the following:

  • View a team member's folder structure
  • Share files and folders with others
  • View, open, and download files
  • Delete files, or restore deleted files

Your admin can also remove access to your team account, or transfer its contents to another member.

If you’re a team member, and you linked your personal and team Dropbox accounts, “sign in as a user” doesn’t allow your admin to open and access your linked personal account. However, they can view the name and email address of your linked personal account.

For more information, check out our Dropbox Agreement for teams and Privacy Policy. You may also want to contact your admin to find out more about your team's specific policies and procedures.

How do I collaborate with team members on a Dropbox team account?

To share information with a specific subset of individuals, we recommend using shared folders. Shared folders are ideal for groups of people interested in collaborating on a set of files or folders together.

The owner of a shared folder can control who can invite new members to the folder and remove members of the folder as needed. Owners can also unshare a folder entirely.

Admins can also create team folders to allow team members to share content with each other.

Can I share view-only copies of my files with team members?

You can share a folder or share a link with view-only permissions. Recipients can download the file or folder to a computer or to their Dropbox account. If the user downloads the file or folder to a Dropbox account, any edits made will not affect the original file—access will be strictly view-only.

Can I make a file for viewing only and not downloadable?

Yes, if you’d like to prevent recipients from downloading the file or folder, you can disable downloads for the shared link.

Will my team's admin have access to files on my personal Dropbox account?

Dropbox Standard, Advanced, Business, Business Plus, and Enterprise admins have no control or access to your personal Dropbox account. 

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Note: If you've linked your personal Dropbox account to a organization-owned computer or device, that account will be subject to your organization’s policies.

Can I share folders and links with people outside of my Dropbox team account?

Admins on your Dropbox team account can set your team’s global permissions to determine whether members can share links and/or folders outside of the Dropbox team account. To do so, they can log into the Admin console and click Sharing.

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