By default, you’re the owner of any shared folders you create, unless you create a folder inside someone else’s shared folder. However, you can transfer ownership to someone else by changing the parent folder's sharing permissions.
Transferring ownership of the folder will not transfer the ownership of the shared links. View-only shared links are tied to the person who originally created the link. One of the remaining members will need to create a new link to share individual files in the folder.
Note: View-only shared links for web-based files (online-only files like Paper docs or Google Sheets) will remain active.
Learn more about a shared folder owner’s permissions.
Not using Dropbox yet? See how Dropbox helps you effortlessly share files and folders.
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:
- When you transfer ownership of a shared folder, shared links will remain active and link ownership will transfer to the new owner.
- 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.
Change the owner of a shared folder
To change the owner of a shared folder:
On dropbox.com:
- Log in to dropbox.com.
- Hover over the folder you’d like to transfer ownership for and click the “…” (ellipsis).
- Note: You can only transfer ownership of a parent folder. If you want to transfer ownership of a folder inside another folder, you must do so at the parent folder level.
- Click Share.
- Click Share with Dropbox.
- Click [x] people have access.
- Click the dropdown arrow next to the person you’d like to make the owner.
- Select Make owner.
On the Dropbox desktop app:
- Open the Dropbox folder in File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac).
- Right-click or control-click the correct folder and select Share….
- Click the dropdown arrow next to the person you’d like to make the owner.
- Select Make owner.
On the Dropbox mobile app:
- Open the Dropbox mobile app.
- Tap the “⁝” (vertical ellipsis on Android) or “…” (ellipsis on iPhone/iPad) next to the correct folder.
- Tap Share.
- Tap Folder settings.
- Tap the area below [x] members.
- Tap the name of the person you’d like to make the owner.
- Tap Make owner.
Note: If you’re changing the owner of a parent folder with subfolders, the parent folder and all subfolders inside of it will be transferred to the new owner. Read more FAQs about shared folders.
Transfer a folder with no owner
If the owner of a shared folder leaves your team without transferring ownership first, the shared folder will be without an owner.
If you can contact the original owner and they still have access to the folder, ask them to transfer ownership to you.
If you don’t know who the original owner was or you can’t contact them, you can copy the files into a new folder and re-invite members.
Learn how to find the owner of a shared folder.
