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Groups

With groups you can create and manage lists of members who need access to the same information. Group members are automatically added to all shared folders that the group has been invited to.

There are two types of groups:

  • Company-managed groups
  • User-managed groups

Company-managed groups

User-managed
groups

Group creation

Only admins can create

Admins and team members can create (if allowed by admins)

Ask to join

Team members cannot request to join

Team members can request to join

Leave a group

Team members cannot leave a group on their own

Team members can choose to leave a group

Add/remove members

Only admins can add/remove team members to a group

Both admins and team managers can add/remove members to/from a group

Transfer group ownership

Admins can change a company-managed group to a user-managed group, and assign a new manager

Admins can change a user-managed group to a company-managed group to take control of it

Sections in this article

Create a group

Team members can create user-managed groups to share quickly and easily with other team members. Any member you add to a group will be automatically invited to all shared folders that were shared with the group.

Note: Only Dropbox Business admins can create a company-managed group.

  1. Sign in to dropbox.com with your team account.
  2. In the sidebar, click Team.
  3. Click the Groups tab.
  4. In the upper right corner, click New group.
  5. Enter a name for your group.

    • Note: This is the name all team members will see and use to invite the group to new shared folders. As the manager of this group, you can change the group's name at any time.
  6. Click Create group.

If you don't see the New group button, your Dropbox Business team admin may have restricted your team's ability to create groups.

Add members to a group

If you're the manager of a group, you can add or remove members at any time.

  • Adding a team member to a group will trigger invites to each individual folder available to that group.
  • Team members can see all groups created on their team, and they can ask to join a group, unless this ability was disabled by an admin.
  • Team members can only see other group members for groups that they are already in.
  • Only admins can add members to a company-managed group and team members cannot Ask to join a company-managed group.
  1. Sign in to dropbox.com.
  2. Click the Team tab.
  3. Click the Groups tab, and select the name of the group you'd like to add members to.
  4. Click the Add members button.
  5. Enter the name of the person you'd like to invite, and click the Add members button.

Remove members from a group

If you're the manager of a group, you can remove or add members at any time.

Note: Only admins can delete members from a company-managed group.

  1. Sign in to dropbox.com.
  2. Click Team.
  3. Click the Groups tab, and select the name of the group you'd like to remove members from.
  4. Click the gear icon next to the member's name, and choose Remove user.

    • For company-managed groups, the gear icon is replaced by an X.

Removing a member from a group removes the person from all shared folders and team folders the group has access to.

Change the name of a group

For user-managed groups, group managers can change the name of a group at any time.

For company-managed groups, only admins can change the name of a group.

  1. Sign in to dropbox.com.
  2. Click Team.
  3. Click the Groups tab.
  4. Click the name of the group you'd like to edit.
  5. Beside the name of the group, click Change.
  6. Enter the new group name, and click Save changes.

Transfer management of a user-managed group or add a manager


Note: It is not possible to transfer management or add a manager to a company-managed group.

If you’d like to allow others to manage a group that you already manage, you can add them as a manager without affecting your status.

  1. Sign in to dropbox.com.
  2. Click Team.
  3. Click the Groups tab.
  4. Select the name of the group you’d like to add a manager to.
  5. Click the gear icon to the right of the user that you'd like to add as the manager
  6. Select Make manager.

If you’re transferring management, first add a manager with the steps above and then remove your management permissions, or remove yourself from the group entirely.

  1. Sign in to dropbox.com.
  2. Click Team.
  3. Click the Groups tab.
  4. Click the gear icon to the right of your name.

    • Select Remove manager permissions to revoke your manager status and remain in the group, or
    • Select Remove user to remove yourself from the group

Delete a group

How to delete a group depends on the type of group you want to delete.

  • User-managed group: admins and group managers can delete
  • Company-managed group: only admins can delete

Once you delete a group, you cannot undo this action. If you’ve accidentally deleted a group, you’ll have to recreate the group as you created it initially.

  1. Sign in to dropbox.com.
  2. Click Team.
  3. Click the Groups tab.
  4. Select the name of the group you’d like to delete.
  5. Click the … button.
  6. Click Delete group.

This permanently deletes the group, but it does not delete any of the files or folders that the group had access to.

Leave a user-managed group

Members of user-managed groups can leave a group at any time.

Note: Only admins can remove members from company-managed groups.

  1. Sign in to dropbox.com.
  2. Click Team.
  3. Click the Groups tab.
  4. Select the name of the group you’d like to leave.
  5. Depending on your role in the group, you will either:

    • Click …, and then click Leave group, or
    • Click Leave group

Sharing and groups

You can share a folder with any group, even a group that you aren’t a member of. Simply share a folder, and in the "Invite members to share this folder" field, enter the name of the group you’d like to share with.

You can set viewing or editing permissions, and once you click Share folder, all members of the group will be invited to the folder.

Team members can create groups to give multiple users access to files and folders at the same time. This article includes information on managing file access permissions for groups.

Can I have different permissions in the same group?

Yes. Group managers and folder owners can set permissions on a group or folder to view-only by default and can grant edit permissions to individuals. Users with edit permissions can edit contents of a folder, while the other users cannot.

Will group permissions override individual permissions?

Users are always given additional permissions rather than fewer permissions. If a group and individual's permissions are ever different, the user will always have the permissions that grant them the highest level of file and folder access.

What happens to permissions if a user is listed more than once in a group?

If users are listed in a shared folder more than once due to their group memberships, those users will default to the permissions that grant them additional functionality. For example, if the group is granted edit permissions but a user invited individually to that group has view-only permissions, then the group member will actually have the additional edit permissions granted to the group.

To limit a group member's access, first remove them from the group and then invite them as an individual shared folder member with "can view" access. Or, invite each member individually to set distinct view or edit permissions for each member.