Learn how to make the most out of the Dropbox Community here 💙. 

Forum Discussion

mpedroso's avatar
mpedroso
New member | Level 1
2 months ago

I need advice and have questions on folder structures in Dropbox Business

Hi all -- our small organization is a long-time Dropbox user.  As such, our file structure predates when Dropbox added Team folders.  Currently, all shared folders and each staffer's individual folde...
dropbox business
Organize
Shared Folders
Jay's avatar
Jay
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
2 months ago

Hi mpedroso, thanks for the details!

Could you clarify what you mean by each staff member having a folder in your folder? If you're already in a Dropbox team, then there should be team folders already existing on your Dropbox account.

Depending on your team structure, you might find it helpful to separate team folders for different user groups, like marketing, HR, admin, general information, and so on. It's relatively easy to add users to specific groups to be added to those folders.

Personal folders on a Dropbox team can only be accessed by that specific user. When you delete a team member, you can transfer the files of the user to an existing user on your account, including yourself.

If you need any further assistance, please let me know!

mpedroso's avatar
mpedroso
New member | Level 1
2 months ago

Hi Jay --

Because we want each person to have a folder for their own work when it's not relevant to being put into shared folders, I've created a folder for each person called for example Jsmith-Personal that is shared with the person and with me as admin. It is nested underneath my folder with everything else.  We've had issues where a staffer had to go out on extended leave unexpectedly, for example, and we needed access to their personal folder.  My main concern about the way Dropbox creates the automatic personal folders is that a supervisor or admin can't access if needed.  It's good to know we can transfer them if they are deleted, but there's no recourse if they are on emergency leave for example?  That's why I really hesitate to use these personal folders that Dropbox creates automatically.

And -- as I mentioned, we have Teams but I have never created/used Team folders since we were already set up by the time this came online.  Can you convert a non-team folder/subfolder to a Team folder?  Or do I have to manually move everything from the non-team folder to the Team folder?

Thanks! 

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    2 months ago

    If you are on one of these plans, you can sign in as one of the users on your Dropbox team, allowing you access to their personal folder.

    Currently, it isn't possible to convert a folder into a team folder, you'd need to create it manually and then move the files into the team folder.

About Delete, edit, and organize

Solve issues with deleting, editing, and organizing files and folders in your Dropbox account with support from the Dropbox Community.

Need more support

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!