How to add, delete, and import suggested contacts to Dropbox for sharing

Updated Mar 10, 2025

The information in this article applies to all Dropbox users.

When you go to share a file or folder in Dropbox, you’ll see a list of suggested contacts that you can search by email, name, or group. This article explains how to add, import, and delete your suggested contacts.

How to add contacts to your list of suggested contacts

There are several ways that names and emails get added to your list of suggested contacts.

To add someone to your list of suggested contacts:

Share a file or folder with that contact, or open a file or folder that the contact has shared with you
Tag that contact in a Paper doc, or be tagged by them
Invite someone to Dropbox, or accept an invitation to Dropbox from that contact

Following one of these actions, the contact you have interacted with will be added to your list of suggested contacts.

Note: If you’re on a Dropbox team, team and/or group members will be automatically added to your list of suggested contacts.

How to delete contacts from your list of suggested contacts

If you have linked two Dropbox accounts, deleting your contacts will delete your contacts for both accounts.

To delete all of your contacts from Dropbox at once:

Log in to dropbox.com.
Click your avatar (profile picture or initials) in the bottom-left corner.
Click Settings.
Click the General tab.
Scroll to Preferences.
Click Clear.

Note: There are several types of contacts that won’t be deleted by this action:

If you belong to a group, your group contacts are not deleted
If you're a member of a team that’s on a Dropbox team account, your team members aren't deleted
- Contact your admin if you need to remove team members from your team
If you imported your contacts from Gmail or Outlook, those contacts are not deleted
- To delete Gmail or Outlook contacts, disconnect the third-party application

How to import contacts in bulk from Gmail and Outlook

You can import your contacts to Dropbox from Gmail or Outlook. To import all of your contacts from one of these third-party apps:

Log in to dropbox.com.
Click ☑ (dense grid organization) in the left sidebar.
Click App Center.
Click Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar and Contacts.
- If you don't see what you're looking for, use the App Center search bar.
Click Connect, and follow the prompts.

How to delete contacts that were imported from Gmail or Outlook

To remove contacts that were imported from Gmail or Outlook, you have to disconnect that third-party app from Dropbox. To do this:

Log in to dropbox.com.
Click your avatar (profile picture or initials) in the bottom-left corner.
Click Settings.
Click Connected apps.
Click the app you’d like to disconnect.
Click Disconnect.

Note: When you remove your Outlook account from Dropbox, Dropbox can no longer access any of your Microsoft data. However, if you check in your Microsoft account, it may still show that Dropbox is connected to your account. This is a Microsoft API limitation, and Dropbox doesn’t have access once you remove Outlook from your account.

Can I delete individual contacts from my list of suggested contacts?

No. You can’t delete contacts individually from your suggested contacts list, with the following three exceptions:

If the contact that you would like to delete was imported from a third-party app. You can disconnect the third-party app, delete the contact from that third-party app, and then re-import your contacts to Dropbox.
If you’re a Dropbox team member, you can contact an admin to remove a member from your team. They'll then be deleted from your list of suggested contacts.
If you’re using the Dropbox API (available on Dropbox team accounts).

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