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Forum Discussion
Creating a shared file system with user-specific object-level access, which plan is good?
Dear all,
I want to create a synchronized file system across two users working on different platforms. I need to control users' access to folders and files, while preserving the team's folder structure. Specifically, I want to give access to specific parts of the file system to different users without requiring them to reorganize their folders manually in order to reflect the team's hierarchy. Is there a way to set up such a structure ? If so, which subscription plan is required, and how should I proceed to implement this ?
As it is for a personal (family) purpose, is Dropbox Family adapted ?
I thank you in advance for your help.
The Dropbox desktop application can only affect content existing in the Dropbox folder itself, so you would be able to control that structure on any Dropbox team plan, and files would sync normally. Business and Business Plus are the two plans that are useful depending on your requirements.
However, if you're planning on also having the Dropbox folder itself be located in the same location on each machine (for instance, C:\Dropbox), in order to inherit local file paths on each machine (perhaps for a specific file or app) then you wouldn't be able to manage this as an admin.
You'd need to manually make these changes yourself on those machines, and regardless, the users themselves would still be able to move the Dropbox folder to another location on their computer.
- Jay
Dropbox Staff
Hi eresthina, thanks for providing these details!
When you say the team folder structure and file system, are you only referring to folders on the Dropbox site and folder, or are you referring to the actual user level on their machine (such as C:\users\john\Dropbox)?
In general, Dropbox Family is only meant for a family, and wouldn't be suitable for a team, or your requirements, since the family manager cannot make any changes to the other users' accounts or folders. Their only input is to invite people to the Family plan and to remove them.
Additionally, members of the Family plan can choose to leave the plan whenever they want. On a Dropbox team this wouldn't be possible, since only the admin can remove them.
If you have any further queries, feel free to message back.
Dear Jay,
Thank you very much for your fast and useful reply.
When you say the team folder structure and file system, are you only referring to folders on the Dropbox site and folder, or are you referring to the actual user level on their machine (such as C:\users\john\Dropbox)?Ideally, I would like that each user's machine inherits from the global structure of the team, but with user-specific content in it. I thought it would be automatic with automatic synchronization, as soon as the folders on the Dropbox site are shared and set up for the different users, is it correct?
Given the family plan is not appropriate, which alternative would you suggest?Thank you again for your support.
- Jay
The Dropbox desktop application can only affect content existing in the Dropbox folder itself, so you would be able to control that structure on any Dropbox team plan, and files would sync normally. Business and Business Plus are the two plans that are useful depending on your requirements.
However, if you're planning on also having the Dropbox folder itself be located in the same location on each machine (for instance, C:\Dropbox), in order to inherit local file paths on each machine (perhaps for a specific file or app) then you wouldn't be able to manage this as an admin.
You'd need to manually make these changes yourself on those machines, and regardless, the users themselves would still be able to move the Dropbox folder to another location on their computer.
You can possibly use AnchorPoint in combination with dropbox to define permission at a macro level. That is what I'm setting up right now 🙂
Dear Lunre,
Thank you for sharing your solution. I would be very interested if you can detail your approach. Indeed, I have already heard about AnchorPoint before, but I never digged into this tool.
