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Forum Discussion
Shared link asks viewers to request access. Why does this happen?
Greetings. I have a shared file set to be viewable by anyone with the link, and I've sent the link to those I want to view the file (see screenshot). However, when they access the link, Dropbox sta...
Hi skepticalthinker ,
Jumping in here as a Product Manager for Dropbox Sharing to help out Hannah. Reading through your thread, this is very strange indeed. You've done everything right and I appreciate your patience in working through what is no doubt a frustrating experience. The best I can suggest here is to contact support for help. They'll be able to go through your specific situation and troubleshoot your specific link. Sharing a View Link with access set to "Anyone" should allow anyone - signed in or not - to access a web based preview of your content, and then from there to take further collaborative action like downloading, asking to join the content, etc.
Jason
Hannah
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHey vrdesign, thanks for reaching out to the Dropbox Community.
Can you please check to see if the link you're creating is a "view-only" or a "can edit" one?
If it's a link that gives edit permissions, it would make sense, if you used a certain email address to invite the user, but they're signed in to a Dropbox account under a different address.
The "view-only" link should give access to anyone, without the need to request permission.
We have ours set to default to 'view-only' plus we double check it before each link is created and it still gives us the same trouble. It's been going on for months for my company.
- Hannah
Hey Bm22782, sorry to hear about this.
Are you on a Dropbox team or an individual account?
If you have a Dropbox team, are the people that have this issue members of your team, external users or both?
JasonSilverDBXDropbox Product Manager
I'm a Product Manager in the sharing area here at Dropbox and sometimes chime in to help out. Sometimes these specific cases are easier for support to debug, but I can provide some insight into how things should work.
Depending on the content you're sharing there are two types of shared links - edit and view - granting those respective permissions to your recipients. At a high level, folders offer both, most files only offer view links. To answer your question about how to tell what type of link it is - you can't tell by the URL alone. (something for us to think about adding in the future 🤔)
We also offer the ability to secure your links further with settings for each link. For your link to be accessible to anyone including recipients who don't have a Dropbox account, the link audience must be set to "Anyone with Link". Anything else - only those invited, team members - would require the recipient to login. That's how Dropbox knows the visitor meets your security requirements.
And btw, vrdesign , the links will work the same no matter how they are shared (i.e. email, text, slack, website, etc.). Just in case you thought that might be causing an issue.
Bm22782 it's curious that you've noticed the problem off and on? Is it only certain types of recipients - i.e. people outside your team?
Hannah fyi, these are both members of our Standard Team plan.
Tip: One way to check that a link can be accessed by anyone is to try visiting it from a private or incognito browser window.We are a Dropbox team and we all have had this issue. I have been told it's a problem on Dropbox's end.
