Securing your Dropbox devices

Updated Mar 06, 2025

The information in this article applies to all Dropbox users.

A password is always necessary to connect a device to a Dropbox account. If you see a device you don't recognize, it's possible you logged in to your Dropbox account on a new device and authorized it by mistake. It's possible that someone has access to your email and password account. This can happen if you ever shared your email and password with other people.

If you see a device you don't recognize, secure your Dropbox account by following these steps:

Find out the location of the device.
Remotely log out of the device.
Secure your Dropbox account and email address.

Find out the location of your device

Dropbox logs the IP address of each device that accesses your account. You can use the IP address to discover the login location and the internet provider used.

Log in to dropbox.com.
Click your avatar (profile picture or initials) in the bottom-left corner.
Click Settings.
Click Security.
Hover over ☑ (info) icon next to the device to see the last recorded IP address. The IP address is updated whenever a device you've signed into connects to the internet.

You can use any IP address lookup service for more detailed information.

Note: The location information isn't always accurate. Some IP addresses might be associated with the wrong country. If the country isn't correct, you can check it using any online IP address lookup tool.

Secure your Dropbox and email account

Change your password for your Dropbox account. Be sure to use a strong password that you don't use for any other service. When hackers obtain sensitive information from one service, they use it to access accounts at other services. This is made possible by the fact that many people use the same password across multiple services.
Change the password to the email account that you use for your Dropbox account.
Remotely log out of other unfamiliar devices and disconnect web sessions and apps
Set up two-step verification, which can protect your account even if your password is compromised.

Note: The Dropbox folder is just a normal folder on your computer, so it's no more or less secure than every other folder on your computer. We recommend that you follow good security practices to protect your entire computer. This includes requiring a password to log in to your account, and to resume from sleep, screen savers and lock screens.

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