Transfer a deleted user’s files

Q: What should I do if an account transfer fails?

A recipient can only receive files from a single deleted user at a time. If you've deleted several team members and transferred their files to a single user within a short period, then the file transfer may fail temporarily. You should be notified via email if a transfer fails, at which point you can attempt the transfer again. To prevent file-transfer failures, it is best to request a single account transfer, wait a few minutes, and then request the next transfer for the next account, and so on until all of the files or accounts are transferred. Alternatively, the admin or the previous file owner can <a href="/content/dropbox/www/en-us/help/share/share-with-others.html">share individual files or folders</a> as needed.

Q: What will account transfer look like for the recipient?

The deleted member's files will appear in a new folder named “[Deleted User’s]” at the top level of the recipient’s Dropbox work account. You will also see three subfolders within [Deleted User’s] files:<ul><li>"Shared", this is content that is owned by someone on your Dropbox team</li><li>"Previously Shared", this is content owned by someone not on your Dropbox team</li><li>"Home", this is content created by the [Deleted User] that hasn't been shared</li></ul>

Q: I want to transfer a team member’s files to multiple people

If it doesn't make sense to transfer all of a former team member's files to a single person, the admin can transfer the content to their own account and then share the files with various different users who need access.

Q: What’s been transferred on my team?

To view account transfer activity:<ol><li><a href="/content/dropbox/www/en-us/login.html">Log in</a> to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.</li><li>Click on Admin Console in the left sidebar.</li><li>On the Activity page, view the Activity feed to confirm if the deleted member's files were transferred to another team member.</li></ol>You will receive a confirmation email whenever an account transfer occurs.

Updated Sep 21, 2023

Certain types of Dropbox admins can transfer a deleted team member’s files and folders to someone else on their team.

Notes:

You can only transfer a deleted member’s files once.
You can only transfer files from a team member's account within your version history limit.

What’s transferred during an account transfer

What is transferred:

All existing folders and files.
All deleted files.
Ownership of shared folders that the former team member owned.
Membership to shared folders owned by other members of your Dropbox team account.
Shared folders owned by someone outside your team account that don't exceed the maximum file count
Ownership of Paper docs created by the former team member.
A copy of the "Apps" folder containing third-party application data.
Existing Signature documents (including Pending Signature, Pending your signature, Declined, and Signed)
Existing Signature templates

What isn't transferred:

Groups can't be transferred via account transfer. Instead, the account admin or a group member will need to manually add new team members to groups.
Shared links created by the former member (the links will no longer work).
Previous versions of files.
You can’t transfer Dropbox Shop, Dropbox Collections, or Dropbox Backup content.
Membership to shared folders owned by people outside of your Dropbox team account. Only copies of these folders are transferred.
Shared folders owned by someone outside your team account that exceed the maximum file count.
Access to Paper docs the deleted member didn't own.
Datastores (a type of data that some third-party apps may use to store their data).

Note: If you use account transfer some time after a member's account was deleted from the team, the remaining content in the folders can vary from the moment when you complete the transfer to the moment the member’s account is deleted.

How to delete a member's account and transfer

To delete a team member:

Log in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
Click Admin Console.
Choose the Members tab.
Click the gear icon next to the name of the person you want to remove.
Select Delete member.
Choose when to transfer this member’s file content to another team member and whether to delete content from this member’s devices next time they come online.
- Under Do you want to transfer this member’s file content and signature activity to another member?, select either Transfer now or Transfer later.
- Under Do you want to delete content from this member’s devices next time they come online?, select Yes or No.
Click Continue.
Review the Delete account completely screen to confirm selection.
Click Delete Account.

How to transfer files from a previously deleted member

Log in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
Select Admin Console from the left sidebar.
Click the Members tab.
Under Member type, select Deleted from the dropdown.
Click the gear icon to the right of the former member's name and select Manage files from the menu.
Select the option to Transfer them to another team member.
Enter the recipient's name or email address and click Submit (the recipient must be a member of your Dropbox team account).

Note: You can only transfer files from a deleted member's account within your version history limit. After this limit is reached, there will be no way to recover or transfer any files that belonged to the delete member.