Dropbox Groups

Updated Aug 07, 2024
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This article describes a feature available to customers on Dropbox Standard, Advanced, Business, Business Plus, and Enterprise.

Want to use Dropbox with your team? Learn more about Dropbox team plans.


With Dropbox teams, you can organize members of your team into groups, then 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

 

See the table below for the differences between these types of groups.

 

Company-managed groups

User-managed

groups

Group creation

Only admins can create groups

Admins and team members can create (if allowed by admins)

Ask to join

Team members can't request to join

Team members can request to join

Leave a group

Team members can't leave a group on their own

Team members can choose to leave a group

Add/remove members

Only admins can add or remove team members to or from a group

Both admins and group managers can add or remove members to or from a group

Transfer group ownership

Admins can change a company-managed group to a user-managed group, and assign a new manager

Admins can change a user-managed group to a company-managed group to take control of it

Watch this video for a quick overview of Dropbox groups.

How to create a group

Team members can create user-managed groups if their admin allows it. To do so:

  1. Log 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.
  6. Click Create.

Only Dropbox admins can create a company-managed group. To do so:

  1. Log 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.
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Note: To learn how to Modify access, visit the Admin settings for groups section.

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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.

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

  1. Log 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 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.
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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.

Only admins can add members to a company-managed group. To do so:

  1. Log in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
  2. Click Admin console.
  3. Click Groups.
  4. Click 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.
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Note: Team members can't request to join a company-managed group.

How to remove members from a group

Group managers can remove or add members at any time. To do so:

  1. Log 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 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
  6. Click Remove again to confirm.

 

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

Only admins can remove members from a company-managed group. To do so:

  1. Log in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
  2. Click Admin console.
  3. Click Groups
  4. Click 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

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

  1. Log 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.

Only admins can change the name of a company-managed group. To do so:

  1. Log in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
  2. Click Admin console.
  3. Click Groups
  4. Click 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. Log 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 add a manager to.
  5. Click the gear icon to the right of the user that you'd like to add as a manager.
  6. Click Make manager again to confirm.

 


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. To do so:

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

How to delete a group

Group managers can delete a user-managed group at any time. To do so:

  1. Log 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 delete.
  5. Click Delete group.
  6. Click Delete.

Only admins can delete a company-managed group. To do so:

  1. Log in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
  2. Click Admin console.
  3. Click Groups.
  4. Click 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. To leave a user-managed group:

  1. Log 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 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. To do so:

  1. Log in to dropbox.com.
  2. Hover over the name of the folder and click Share.
  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.

Admin settings for groups

Admins can manage the following settings for groups:

  • Control who can create groups
  • Edit your team’s groups
  • View and manage a specific team member’s groups
Dropbox admins can choose whether team members can create user-managed groups. By default, team members are allowed to create user-managed groups.
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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. Log in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
  2. Click Admin console.
  3. Click Settings.
  4. Under Members, click Groups.
  5. Toggle User-managed groups to Off.
  1. Log 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.

Dropbox admins can modify permissions within each group.  

  1. Log in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
  2. Click Admin console.
  3. Click Groups.
  4. Click Modify Access next to the group you’d like to manage access for.
  5. Check or uncheck specific Team Folders you want the group to have access to.
  6. Click the dropdown menu on the right to select permission level for each team folder.
  7. Set the group’s sharing settings.
    • This setting depends on if your team can Share files via email outside of your team or not:
      • If Share files via email is set to On (Anyone), you can choose to override this setting for external email shares.
      • If Share files via email is set to On (Team + approved) or Off, you can limit who files and folders can be shared to via email.
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Note: If you belong to multiple groups with different external sharing settings, the least restrictive setting will apply to your sharing ability.

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. Log 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.

FAQs about groups

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.

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 the 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.

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