Dropbox Groups

With Dropbox teams, you can organize members of your team into groups. Share a folder or file with a group to grant access automatically to all group members. There are two types of groups:

• Company-managed groups
• User-managed groups

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

How to create a group

Create a user-managed group

Team members can create user-managed groups if their admin allows it. 

1. Sign in with your work account on dropbox.com.
2. Click your avatar (profile picture or initials).
3. Click View team and groups.
4. Click Create group.
5. Enter a name for your group.
   • Note: This is the name all team members will see and use to invite the group to new shared folders. As the group manager, you can change the group's name at any time.
6. Click Create group.

Create a company-managed group

Only Dropbox team admins can create a company-managed group.

1. Sign in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
2. Click Admin console.
3. Click Groups.
4. Click Create group.
5. Enter a group name.
6. Choose whether the group will be company-managed or user-managed.
7. Click Create.

Is it possible to create a group that includes everyone on the team?

Yes, when you create a Dropbox team, a group named “Everyone at [Your Team Name]” is automatically created. It includes everyone currently on the team and new members will be added automatically as they join.

Notes:

• The “Everyone at [Your Team Name]” group can’t be modified as it is a Dropbox created group.
• If your team exceeds 1,000 members, this feature won't be available due to the 1,000 member limit on team folders.

How to add members to a group

Adding a member to a group will invite them to all shared folders that were shared with the group.

Add members to a user-managed group

Group managers can add or remove members to a user-managed group at any time. 

1. Sign in with your work account on dropbox.com.
2. Click your avatar (profile picture or initials).
3. Click View team and groups.
4. Select the name of the group you'd like to add members to.
5. Click Add members.
6. Enter the name of the person you'd like to invite, and click Add members.

Notes:

• Team members can see all groups created on their team, and they can ask to join a user-managed group, unless this ability was disabled by an admin.
• Team members can only see other group members for groups that they're already in.

Add members to a company-managed group

Only admins can add members to a company-managed group. Team members can't request to join a company-managed group.

1. Sign in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
2. Click Admin console.
3. Click Groups.
4. Select the name of the group you'd like to add members to.
5. Click Add members.
6. Enter the name of the person you'd like to invite, and click Add members.

How to remove members from a group

Remove members from a user-managed group

Group managers can remove or add members at any time.

1. Sign in with your work account on dropbox.com.
2. Click your avatar (profile picture or initials).
3. Click View team and groups.
4. Select the name of the group you'd like to remove members from.
5. Click the gear icon beside the member's name, and choose Remove user.

Removing a member from a group removes the person from all shared folders and team folders the group has access to.

Remove members from a company-managed group

Only admins can remove members from a company-managed group.

1. Sign in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
2. Click Admin console.
3. Click Groups. 
4. Select the name of the group you'd like to remove members from.
5. Click X next to the name of the member you would like to remove.
6. Click Remove.

How to change the name of a group

Change the name of a user-managed group

Group managers can change the name of a user-managed group at any time.

1. Sign in with your work account on dropbox.com.
2. Click your avatar (profile picture or initials).
3. Click View team and groups.
4. Click the group you'd like to edit.
5. Click Edit group.
6. Enter the new group name, and click Save changes.

Change the name of a company-managed group

Only admins can change the name of a company-managed group.

1. Sign in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
2. Click Admin console.
3. Click Groups. 
4. Select the name of the group you'd like to change.
5. Click Edit group.
6. Enter the new group name, and click Save changes.

How to add or change group manager

Only user-managed groups have the ability to add or change group managers. Group managers can edit or delete a user-managed group. They can also add and remove members from the group. A group can have multiple managers.

Add or change a group manager for a user-managed group

1. Sign in with your work account on dropbox.com.
2. Click your avatar (profile picture or initials).
3. Click View team and groups.
4. Select the group you’d like to add a manager to.
5. Click gear icon to the right of the user that you'd like to add as a manager
6. Click Make manager.

If you’re transferring management, first add a manager with the steps above and then remove your management permissions, or remove yourself from the group entirely.

1. Sign in with your work account on dropbox.com.
2. Click your avatar (profile picture or initials).
3. Click View team and groups.
4. Select a group.
   
5. Click the gear icon to the right of your account.
   • To remove your manager permissions and stay in the group as a team member, select Remove manager permissions.
   • To exit the group, select Remove user.

How to delete a group

Deleting a group is permanent. If you’ve accidentally deleted a group, you’ll have to recreate the group as you created it initially. Deleting a group does not delete any of the files or folders the group had access to.

Delete a user-managed group

Group managers can delete a user-managed group at any time.

1. Sign in with your work account on dropbox.com.
2. Click your avatar (profile picture or initials).
3. Click View team and groups.
4. Select the group you’d like to delete.
5. Click Delete group.
6. Click Delete.

Delete a company-managed group

Only admins can delete a company-managed group.

1. Sign in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
2. Click Admin console.
3. Click Groups.
4. Select the name of the group you'd like to delete.
5. Click Delete group.
6. Click Delete.

How to leave a group

Members of user-managed groups can leave a group at any time. Only admins can remove members from company-managed groups.

Leave a user-managed group

1. Sign in with your work account on dropbox.com.
2. Click your avatar (profile picture or initials).
3. Click View team and groups.
4. Select the group you’d like to leave.
5. Click Leave group.
6. Click Leave.

How to share a folder with a group

Any team member can share a folder with any group, even a group you aren’t a member of.

Share a folder with a group

1. Sign in to dropbox.com.
2. Hover over the name of the folder and click the share icon (rectangle with an up arrow).
3. Type the name of the group you’d like to share with.
4. Set viewing or editing permissions.
5. Click Share folder. 

All members of the group will be invited to the folder.

What happens if I add the group named “Everyone at [Your Team Name]” to a folder?

Adding this group to a folder will share it with everyone who is already on your Dropbox team. It will not send invites to people at your organization who do not already have a Dropbox account.

Can people in a group have different permissions to a shared folder?

Yes. Group managers and folder owners can set permissions on a group or folder to view-only by default and can grant edit permissions to individuals. Users with edit permissions can edit contents of a folder, while the other users cannot.

Will group permissions override individual permissions?

Users are always given additional permissions rather than fewer permissions. If a group and individual's permissions are ever different, the user will always have the permissions that grant them the highest level of file and folder access.

What happens to permissions if a user is listed more than once in a group?

If users are listed in a shared folder more than once due to their group memberships, those users will default to the permissions that grant them additional functionality. For example, if the group is granted edit permissions but a user invited individually to that group has view-only permissions, then the group member will actually have the additional edit permissions granted to the group.

To limit a group member's access, first remove them from the group and then invite them as an individual shared folder member with "viewing" access. Or, invite each member individually to set distinct view or edit permissions for each member.

Admin settings for groups

Control who can create groups

Dropbox team admins can choose whether team members can create user-managed groups. By default, team members are allowed to create user-managed groups.

Note: Only admins can create company-managed groups. Users cannot ask to join a company-managed group.

To turn off the option for team members to create user-managed groups:

1. Sign in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
2. Click Admin console.
3. Click Settings.
4. Click Groups.
5. Toggle User-managed groups to Off.

Edit your team's groups

1. Sign in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
2. Click Admin console.
3. Click Groups.
4. Select the name of the group you’d like to edit.

View and manage a specific team member's groups

As the admin of your Dropbox team, you can also view and manage the groups of any single team member. This can be helpful when onboarding new employees, since you can easily add them to all of the correct groups, as well as when an employee changes roles and you need to adjust their groups.

1. Sign in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
2. Open the Admin console.
3. Click Members.
4. Click the name of the team member’s account you’d like to view.

Under Group membership, you'll see a list of all the groups that team member is a part of.