Convert a Dropbox team member's account to an individual account

Admins Updated Oct 02, 2025

In this article

person icon

The information in this article applies to certain types of admins on Dropbox Standard, Business, Advanced, Business Plus, and Enterprise.

Certain types of admins can convert a Dropbox business account to a personal account by changing a team member's account to an individual one.

The team member's account becomes a Dropbox Basic account that isn't connected to your team account. The team member keeps all shared files and folders they had access to before joining the team, and any private files in their account. You'll no longer be able to manage their files once their account is converted.
highlighter icon

Note: If someone was invited to join the team but never accepted, you only have the option to cancel the pending invite.

How to convert a team member's account to a personal account

highlighter icon

Notes:

  • Converting a team member's account is permanent. After the conversion, you won't be able to restore the account or make any changes.
  • Under some circumstances, converted team members may keep access to content that was shared with them by a previous team member. See above to learn how to prevent converted team members from retaining access.
  • After converting a team member's account, you can reuse the license they occupied and invite another person to the team.
  • Converted team members are displayed as Disconnected in the admin console’s Members page.

To convert a team member’s account to an individual account:

  1. Log in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.
  2. Click Admin console in the left sidebar.
  3. Click the Members tab.
  4. Click  (more options) next to the name of the person you want to remove.
  5. Click Delete.
  6. Click Convert to individual Dropbox Basic account instead.
  7. Click Convert account.

The team member’s account will be converted to a Dropbox Basic account. If they’d like to upgrade, they can do so from the Upgrade page.

Watch this video to see how to remove a team member's account access without deleting their data.

What's transferred to a Basic account

  • All private (not shared) files and folders
  • Shared folders the member owns
  • Shared folders and files owned by people not on the team
  • Shared folders and files owned by the member before joining the team
  • Shared links set to Team Only will be disabled once the team member’s account has been converted
  • Files and folders shared directly with the member
  • Private unshared Paper docs
  • Paper docs shared by external (non-team) users
  • Signatures and Replay content that the team member owns

What won't be transferred to a Basic account

  • Team folders
  • Shared folders owned by other team members that the user was invited to after joining the team, or that have team-only permissions
  • Shared folders, files, and links that have team-only permissions
  • Team files shared directly with the member, not through shared links
  • Paper docs shared between member and the team
  • Membership to groups and folders shared with the member through groups
  • Shared links created by the member to team files and folders will no longer work
  • Shared folder invitations to team content that haven't been accepted will no longer work
  • The member can no longer use single sign on (SSO) and instead must log in using a password
  • Replay content that lives in the team space

Prevent converted team members from keeping access to shared content

If a team member's account is converted to a personal account, the remaining team members will still have access to any folders that person created or shared directly with them. If any of those remaining members are later converted or removed from the team, they'll continue to have access to those shared folders in their individual accounts. 

To prevent converted members from retaining access to shared content, ask the original owner to transfer ownership of their folders to a different team member before converting them to an individual account.

Was this article helpful?

Let us know how why it didn't help:

Thanks for letting us know!

Thanks for your feedback!

Other ways to get help