If you give people edit access to a folder in your Dropbox, it becomes a shared folder. Changes to the contents of these shared folders are synced to everyone who has access to the shared folder.
People with edit access can:
- View files
- Comment on files
- Edit files
Not using Dropbox yet? See how Dropbox helps you easily share folders.
Give edit access on the desktop or mobile apps
Click the drop down menu below, and select the computer operating system or mobile device that you’d like to see instructions for.
Give edit access on dropbox.com
- Sign in to dropbox.com.
- Hover your cursor over the folder you want to share.
- Click the blue Share button that appears.
- Enter the email addresses of people who need edit access to the folder.
- Select Can edit from the pull-down menu.
- Add a message about the files and click Share.
Shared folder FAQs and troubleshooting tips:
Can I share a folder that's inside of another shared folder?
You can't share a folder inside of another shared folder. If you try to do this from your computer, the application will automatically send you to the sharing options of the top-level shared folder.
One workaround for this is to share a link to the parent folder of the shared sub-folder. While this would give recipients of the link access to all folders in that path, any changes they make to files in that folder won't sync with your Dropbox. If you'd like to give them read-write access to the parent folder instead, you can unshare the sub-folder, share the parent folder, and then share a link to the sub-folder.
What happens if two people edit a file at the same time?
If two people both open and edit a file in a shared folder at the same time, Dropbox will save both of their changes, but in separate files. It does not try to automatically combine or merge changes. See our article on conflicted copies to learn more about how this works.
Can I reuse an invitation message after I've sent it?
Unfortunately if an invitation to a shared folder has already been sent, there is no way to go back and copy the initial shared folder message.
Is there a limit to the number of files that can be in a shared folder?
Creating a shared folder from a folder that already contains a very large number of files will often result in an error. This error only affects the creation of a shared folder and won't affect future invitations to the folder.
The simple workaround is to create and share a new empty folder in your Dropbox and then move all of the files from the existing folder into the new shared folder.
- Note: Make sure you pick a good name for the shared folder as the name of a shared folder can't be changed once it is created (you can change it locally but new and existing members will see the original name).
I got a message that I sent too many invitations—what should I do?
To prevent abuse, there is a limit on how many shared folder invitations you can send in one day. If you hit the limit, wait 24 hours before trying to send another invitation.
What if my shared folder has too many files?
Sharing very large folders can cause dropbox.com to time out. If you get an error that your folder has too many files, try the following:
- On your computer, rename the folder you're trying to share (for example, add a "1" or the word "temp" to the folder).
- Create a new, empty folder with the name you want for your shared folder.
- Share the empty folder with the people you'd like to invite.
- On your computer, move the files from the renamed folder (the one that was too big to share) into the new, empty shared folder.
- Let Dropbox sync this move.
