How to monitor Dropbox team sharing activity

Certain types of admins can track how certain data is shared inside and outside your organization. This article goes over how to monitor sharing activity in the admin console, generate external sharing reports, and manage externally shared content.

Learn how to set link restrictions across your team.

View sharing activity

1. Log in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
2. Click Admin console in the left sidebar.
3. Click Activity in the left sidebar.

The Activity page shows a summary of the team’s most recent activity. However, it doesn’t show all actions taken by your team. To generate a full activity report from a specific period, click Create report.

To view the recent sharing activity for a specific team member, click Members in the left sidebar, then click the member’s name in the list.

View and manage external sharing

You can view what files, folders, and shared links are shared with people outside your team and see how they were shared. This includes:

• Items shared: type, size, and path
• Security: access level and whether they’re protected by password or expiration
• Sharing: who shared the content, when, and with whom
• Activity: whether content was viewed or edited

Teams with fewer than 5 million external shares can view these by downloading a report or visiting the external sharing tab in the Security page of the admin console.

You can view these by downloading a report or viewing the external sharing tab in the Security section of the admin console:

1. Log in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
2. Click Admin console in the left sidebar.
3. Click the dropdown beside Dropbox, under Products.
4. Click Security.

You can also manage access to those files and folders from the External sharing tab.

The report and external sharing tab only include files and folders that were directly shared. For example, if a folder is shared, the folder is included, but its contents aren’t. This includes any files or folders that team members created a shared link for.

How to download an external sharing report

You can create an external sharing report from the External sharing tab on the Security page. The report contains all external sharing data for the team and can’t be filtered.

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. You can filter using details like file names, file types, shared date, and the person who shared them.

To create an external sharing report:

1. Log in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
2. Click Admin console in the left sidebar.
3. Click the dropdown beside Dropbox, under Products.
4. Click Security.
5. Click the External sharing tab.
6. Click Create report.
7. Check the box next to the report types you want to generate:
   • All shared links, and all content shared by email
   • Unique views of links with no expiration, created over 3 months ago
   • Unique views of links with no password
8. Click Generate.

You’ll receive an email notification once your external sharing report is ready. Your external sharing reports are stored in your Dropbox as CSV files.

Types of data included in an external sharing report

The external sharing report may include the following data:

• Item type: The type of content shared.
• Name: The name of the shared content.
• Shared by: The name of the user who shared the content.
• Last shared on: The original date that the content was shared. Additional shares at a later date won’t change this field if the link remains external and unchanged for link sharing, or if the recipient still has access permissions for direct sharing.
  • Create date is used for links instead of Last shared on.
  • Time of share is used for direct shares instead of Last shared on.
• Shared with: The name of the user who received the content.
• Access: The level of access granted (for example, “edit” or “view-only”).
• Recipient’s domain: The email domain of the recipient.
• Last activity: The most recent activity related to the shared content. An activity is registered as a change to the content itself, and is not based on link activity.
  • Note: Only displays the most recent activity for files. 
• Date of activity: The most recent date of the activity referenced in Last activity.
• Path: The location of the item within the shared drive or system.
• Folder type: Type of folder, if applicable (like the Member folder).
• Number of items: The count of items within the shared folder or file.
• Extension: The file extension (e.g., .doc, .paper, .pdf) of the shared item.
• Size: The data size of the shared item.
• Sharing method: How the item was shared (e.g., link or direct share). 
• Who accessed: Email addresses of the people who accessed the shared item. Only applies to files shared directly or using a link.
• Expiration: The expiration date of the shared link or access permissions. Only applies to links.
• Password: Indicates if a password was required to access the shared item. 
• Download setting: Specifies whether downloading is allowed for the shared item. Only applies to links.

How to manage externally shared content

To manage an externally shared file or folder from the External sharing page:

1. Log in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
2. Click Admin console in the left sidebar.
3. Click the dropdown beside Dropbox, under Products.
4. Click Security.
5. Click the External sharing tab.
6. Hover over the file or folder you’d like to manage.
7. Click ☑ (more options).
8. Click Manage access.

If the file or folder is in a team folder, you’ll see the sharing window. If the file or folder isn’t in a team folder, you’ll see the option to sign in as a team member. Once you open the sharing window for the file or folder, you can manage access to it in the same way as any shared file or folder.