Some types of Dropbox Business admins can keep track of how certain data is shared both inside and outside the organization.
How to view shared activity
- Sign in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
- Click Admin Console in the left sidebar.
- On the Activities page, shared activities will appear alongside other types of activities. To only show shared activities, select Sharing from the dropdown menu.
The Activities page displays a summary of the team's most recent activities. It does not show all the actions performed by the team. You can generate a full activity report for a given period by clicking Create full report on the Activity tab . You can also view recent sharing activity for a specific team member by clicking Members in the left sidebar, then clicking the member's name in the list.
What happens if an unknown person joins a shared folder?
If someone unknown joins a shared folder, administrators will be able to see this information and also see who sent the invitation to that person from the Activity tab .
What kind of activities are recorded?
Activities related to shared folders are logged when someone:
- create a shared folder,
- invite someone to a folder,
- binds to a folder,
- remove someone from a folder,
- modify someone else 's role in a folder,
- transfer ownership of a folder to someone else,
- stop sharing a folder,
- change shared folder permissions,
- change the general shared folder permissions in the admin console.
- moves a shared folder from a work Dropbox account to a personal account (or vice versa), especially when folder-level settings and team-level settings allow sharing outside the team.
File sharing activities are logged when a file:
- it adds
- it downloads
- is edited
- is previewed
- is eliminated
- is permanently deleted
- is restored (when a file is undone or a file is returned to its original location)
- rollbacks (when a file is rolled back to a version prior to a series of modifications)
- the name is changed
- moves (when a file is moved from one folder to another)
- It is copied
- recovers (when someone's account is reverted to an earlier point in time, as well as the affected files)
Shared link activities are logged when:
- a team member creates or shares a link,
- a non-team user creates or shares a link from a shared folder owned by a team member,
- a link is created or shared through a third-party application,
- a team member removes a link,
- a team member changes the visibility of a link,
- a team member sets a password or expiration date for a link,
- an administrator changes the general permissions related to shared links in the administration console,
- Someone opens or saves files from a link to team-owned content.
File request activities are logged when:
- A team member creates a file request.
- A team member receives files in a file request.
Paper sharing activities are logged when:
- A Paper doc or folder is shared or unshared with a team member.
- A team-owned Paper doc or folder is shared or unshared with someone outside the team.
- A team member views a Paper doc.
- A person outside the team views a Paper doc.
- A team member is mentioned in a Paper doc.
- A person outside the team is mentioned in a Paper doc owned by the team.
- The default sharing option for Paper docs changes.
- Permissions are changed for a member of a Paper doc.
- A team member or someone outside the team requests access to a Paper doc.
Activities such as opening a link or adding files to a Dropbox account are only included in the full activity log . An event will be logged whenever a user, team member or not, opens the link or adds it to their Dropbox.
The sharing activity log does not record the fact that a member leaves or adds a shared folder, because the member still has access to the folder and can add it at any time.
View shared activity in the statistics panel
If you want detailed information about your team's sharing activity over time, take a look at the statistics dashboard . Shows overall usage statistics, such as the number of shared links created and the number of active shared folders. Learn more about the statistics panel
View and manage external sharing
You can see which files, folders, and shared links are being shared with people outside of your team, as well as information about how they were shared, including:
- Shared elements: type, size and path
- Security: level of access and whether they are protected with a password or an expiration date
- Sharing: who has shared the content, when and with whom
- Activity: whether the content has been viewed or edited
You have the option to download a report or check the external sharing page to see this information. You can also manage access to those files and folders from a specific external sharing page.
Note: both the specific page and the report:
- They only include files and folders that are shared directly. For example, if a folder is shared, the folder will be included, but the files it contains will not.
- They include files and folders for which a team member has created a shared link.
- They're only available to teams with less than 5 million external shares.
- They do not contain Dropbox Paper docs.
Download an external sharing report
You can click Create report to create an external sharing report from the external sharing page and statistics panel . The report contains all the external sharing information for the team and cannot be filtered.
View, filter, and manage external sharing
You have access to a dedicated external sharing page in the admin console, where you can view, filter, and manage externally shared files and folders.
Note: Although Dropbox works to keep this page as up-to-date as possible, the most up-to-date information will be found in the report.
To open the external sharing page:
- Sign in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
- Click Admin Console in the left sidebar.
- Click Security in the left sidebar.
- Click External Sharing .
You can search and filter externally shared files by criteria such as the file name, the date it was shared, the person who shared it, and the file type.
To manage an externally shared file or folder from the external sharing page:
- Follow the steps outlined above to open the external sharing page.
- Hover over the name of the file or folder you want to manage.
- Click on “ … ” (three dots).
- Click Manage access .
If the file or folder is in a folder on your computer, the sharing window will appear. If the file or folder isn't in a team folder, you'll see the option to sign in as a team member . In either case, once you have the sharing window open for the file or folder, you can manage access the same way you would manage access to any shared file or folder on Dropbox .
