Sharing of folders inside the Apps/ folder

Huge upvote!

I also need this capability... Please add it.

This absolutely NEEDS to happen.

I try to avoid +1 pile ons, but I think there's some nuance that's been overlooked in the previous explanations on why this is valuable for various use cases. From the very first benefit statement at the top of the homepage:

"Get to all your files from anywhere, on any device, and share them with anyone."

There needs to be a really big asterisk on that now. My most fundamental expectation of Dropbox is that I can share the files saved on it. And it's a completely broken expectation with these 3rd party integrations. All of the ones I've previously used are now basically worthless to me because their value was riding on an assumption that if/when needed I'd be able to easily share the files (e.g., the iStockphoto integration mentioned previously, every markdown editor on my iDevice, anything that uses Dropbox /Apps folder as a replacement for iCloud).

As an integrator I'm also pretty annoyed (to put it mildly) that I've wasted months refining a Dropbox workflow with this glaring omission feature support. As per the best practices of "use the minimum permissions you need", this limitation should be pointed out as a huge flashing caveat in the documentation (https://www.dropbox.com/developers/reference). It's not even mentioned once.

😡

Things that waste my time:

• A dropbox folder that cannot be shared (in Apps).
• A dropbox API that cannot access files in a particular shared folder (not in Apps).
• A dropbox cloud folder (in Apps) that shows a SHARE button that does nothing but scold you for using it (see below).
• Norman doors.

@adinaz I could not agree more. It is one of our biggest regrets going with Dropbox from the onset. The API is basically useless for us because we already have a large folder  structure in place, and we can't mimic that structure in any third party systems.

For instance, we need to be able to share folders with customers (folders that already exist within our "Team Share" folder), and we'd like them to access the folder through a forward facing Salesforce Community/(Customer Portal). In addition, we'd like certain customers from the same account to have access to only specific folders within their main customer folder.

However, this cannot be done, and it has had a real detrimental impact on how we collaborate with our customers.

In addition, as our company has grown, we have brought in new employees that should only be able to access specific sub-folders from within our main "Team Share" folder. Since this isn't possible we run into serious issues with having to either move the folder to a completely new "Shared Folder", which causes serious confusion with our current employees, or make a copy of the folder, add it to the top of the folder structure as a "Shared Folder" and cross our fingers that revisions don't get made on duplicate files and go unnoticed (which happens.... a lot).

This really is a no brainer. It's both surprising and disappointing that a company which claims to offer "The world's simplest and most powerful platform for collaboration" doesn't offer this functionality. 

Listen to your business users. Having to find constant workarounds for this lack of functionality is not simple. And lastly, I think it is fair to say that some of us are beginning to doubt if Dropbox really is the "most powerful platform for collaboration" after all.

"And that's all I have to say about that."

- (Forrest Gump voice)

Also in dire need for this. We are using Dropbox for business, with an internal app to store some data in the Dropbox FS.

Not being able to share this internal folder with the team is tricky. Ideally we'd be able to share sub-folders within the app-directory individually, but only being able to share the whole app directory would also help.

"it should not be too hard to make this work on Apps folders too"

You'd be surprised. :-)

It may be a bit simplistic, but it looks like it will be QUITE functional.  Thank you New Life F.!!

And, for personal use, it is Free!  

Hi Gregory,

Thanks for giving attention to this topic; however, I feel it is of utmost importance to start supporting this soon. At the root of it is really a security issue.

There is always a tension between security and ease of use; with a coarse grained system like the App folders to restrict access, it is very important that applications get enough functionality. Otherwise, apps will simply always request full access -- you see this all the times with phone apps if the security levels are too coarse.

As soon as  Dropbox supports full sharing of folders whether it is an App folder or not, I can enable my application to use an App folder instead of requiring full access to a user's dropbox. Just a much better solution for every party involved and I hope Dropbox will seriously look at supporting this feature in the near future :-)

Finally, one can actually emulate this behavior right now by opening multiple dropbox accounts and sharing between them... but of course that is not ideal at all. But it gives a clear idea how all of this can be implemented and how the policies should behave. ie.. Users should be able to share folders inside app folders to be accessible by users that do not have the app, and the other way around.

Hope something will happen soon :)  Thanks for making such a great platform!