How to get started with the team space

Updated Sep 12, 2024

With the Dropbox for teams update, everyone in a Dropbox team account shares a team space. If you're an admin, learn how to manage the team space for your team.

What's the team space?

Everyone on your Dropbox team account can access the team space. The team space contains personal folders and team folders for members of team accounts. It has the same structure for all team members.

What’s the top level?

The top level is where you can find the first set of folders that contain all subfolders. You can see top-level folders in the All files section of your account on dropbox.com. For team members, this includes top-level team folders and the personal folder. Admins control who can edit team folders at the top level. Team members with edit access to the top level of a team space can convert a shared folder in their personal space to a team folder. Learn how to create a team folder at the top level.

What’s the difference between team folders and personal folders?

You have two different kinds of folders.

Team folders

Everyone can create team folders by default, but admins can manage that permission.
Team folders can be shared with the entire team, certain groups, or individuals.
Within a team folder, each file or subfolder can be shared with a different set of people.
Admins can choose to allow others to view or edit the files in a team folder, or block access altogether.
Team members can create subfolders within team folders, if they have edit permissions.

Personal folders

Your personal folder is your space and is private to you. However, you can choose to share files in your personal folder with other members of your team if you’d like.

Note: Admins on Dropbox team accounts can view files in your personal folder using log in as member.

Example of personal and team folders

Your name is Janey Smith, and you're in the design department of an organization named Hanford Inc. You’ve just joined your team’s Dropbox account.

In your Dropbox account, you see several folders:

“Janey Smith” — This is your personal folder. Only you can access the content in your personal folder, unless you choose to share it.
”Design” — This folder contains files and folders for design projects. You can access and view all the files in this folder. This is a team folder that you have access to. If you don’t have access to a team folder, you won’t see it.
“Marketing” — This is a subfolder within the “Design” folder and has a blue folder with a diagonal line in a circle on it. If you try to open “Marketing”, you see an error message: No access to the folder "Marketing”. You don’t have access to this subfolder.

Who can access team folders?

Not all team members have access to all content by default. Admins can grant team members different permissions to team folders:

Can edit: You can view, edit, and manage access to the contents of this folder.
Can view: You can view the contents of this folder.
No access: You can't view the contents of this folder.

By default, anyone with edit permissions to a folder has edit permissions to all subfolders inside that folder as well. For example, if you can edit “Design,” you can edit any subfolders inside “Design,” unless access to a subfolder is restricted.

You can also share a folder by selecting edit or view permissions, clicking Copy Link, then pasting and sharing where desired.

Members of your team that receive an edit link can add the folder to their Dropbox account and collaborate on content. If an edit link is sent to someone who isn’t a member of your team, they’ll need to request and be granted permission before they can add the folder to their Dropbox account and collaborate on content.

Notes:

When you make changes to a folder that other people have access to, the changes are reflected for other people with access too.
If you give an external partner access to a file or folder within a team folder or team member folder, that person can create their own link to share with others. For this reason, only share with people you trust. Learn more about how admins can manage link sharing settings for their team.

Important: Dropbox is moving to an updated shared link architecture where links are based on content rather than on users. This will affect how links are created and shared. The new links can be identified by the presence of an ‘rlkey’ parameter in the URL. For these links, the above behavior will perform differently:

If you have edit access to a file or folder, you can delete any shared links that were created for that file or folder.
Users with view-only access can only create view-only links, but users with edit access can create both edit or view-only links if links have not been created already.
View-only and edit links are different. You‘re unable to change a view-only link into an edit link or vice versa.
If you share a file or folder with an external partner using a link, they can share it with other external parties with the same link. They can’t create their own shared link since each file or folder can only have one edit link and one view link used by all users.

Sharing files and folders with your team

If the file or folder lives in a personal folder

If you’re the owner of a file or a folder, you can share it from your personal folder with groups or individuals in your team. If you share a file or folder that lives in your personal folder, only the file or folder that you select is shared. Nothing else in your personal folder is shared unless you choose to share it.

You can:

Share the file or folder by email.
- Note: Whoever you shared the folder with will receive a folder invite. This invite shows where the folder will be added: either into their personal folder or a team folder.
Send a link to view or edit the file or folder.
Move the file or folder from your personal folder into a team folder. This means that the file or folder will be accessible to everyone who can access the folder you’re moving it to.

Notes:

You must own the file or folder you’re moving and have edit access to the destination folder.
If you want to move a file or folder into a team folder at the top level, you need permission to edit the top-level folder. If you’re an admin, learn how you can grant edit permission to team members.
If you join a Dropbox team account with an existing Dropbox individual account with the same email address, your personal folder will contain all of your existing files from your individual account. You can move any content that should be shared with your team into team folders using the instructions above.

If the file or folder is in a team folder

You can:

Share the file or folder by email.
Send a link to view or edit the file or folder.
Share the team folder by email or via a link.

How to copy or move a team folder

To copy or move a file or folder that lives in a team folder and paste it in your personal folder:

Log in to dropbox.com.
Navigate to the file or folder you wish to copy.
Hover over the folder and click “…” (ellipsis).
Click Copy or Move.
Right-click where you want to paste the folder.
- This can be in your personal folder or in another team folder.
Click Paste.

Notes:

Copying a team folder copies the contents of the folder, but doesn't copy the permissions to that folder.
- If you paste a team folder into a different team folder that you can edit, the folder has the same permissions as its new location.
  - For example, a small brand team can access the "New logo designs" folder. You copy the "New logo designs" folder and paste it into the "Marketing" folder that your entire team can access. Everyone on your team now can access the copy of "New logo designs" in the "Marketing" folder.
Only admins can copy top-level team folders to other locations or to the top level of the team space.
When moving files and subfolders out of the team folder, you’ll see a pop-up, warning you that existing users will lose access to the files and subfolders moved out of the team folder.