Dropbox free teams: an overview
This article discusses a feature available to some Dropbox Basic or Dropbox Pro users. If you're interested in our subscription workplace solution, learn more about Dropbox Business.
Free teams are built for Basic and Pro users who work together at the same company or on the same projects. When you create or join a free team, you get access to:
The team folder
Each free team receives one team folder to organize and manage access to shared content.
A separate work and personal Dropbox
Team members can connect work and personal Dropbox accounts, and easily toggle between the two. Both accounts are accessible on dropbox.com, and on any connected computer or mobile device.
Groups
A group is a preset list of members. By creating a group you can share files or folders with everyone in that list with a single click, rather than adding colleagues one-by-one.
Sharing controls
Team members can limit access to shared folders and links to team members only.
Sections in this article:
- How do I create a free team?
- Who is the admin of a team?
- Who owns my data when I join a team?
- How do I add members to a free team?
- How do I remove free team members?
- How do I change a free team name?
- How do I join a free team that someone else created?
- How do I leave a free team?
- How do I change the email address between my work and personal account?
- What happens if a member of a free team goes over their individual storage quota?
- I left a free team and now don't have access to a shared folder—what happened?
- Can I earn bonus space for referrals sent from my free team?
- What’s the difference between a free team and Dropbox Business?
- How do I upgrade my free team to Dropbox Business?
- My cancelled Dropbox Business subscription became a free team—why, and what does this mean?
- What happens if I upgrade my free team to a Dropbox Business free trial and then decide to cancel that trial?
How do I create a free team?
If you are using a Dropbox account with a personal email address:
- Sign in to dropbox.com.
- Click the Team tab from the left sidebar.
- You will be prompted to enter a work email address, if you have one.
- If you don't have a work email address—in other words, you're using your personal email address for work—click create a team now.
- Enter your company or organization name.
- Invite members to join your team.
- Click Create team.
If you created your Dropbox account using a business or work email address:
- Sign in to dropbox.com.
- Click the Team tab from the left sidebar.
- Click Create free team.
- Enter your company or organization name.
- Invite members to join your team.
- Click Create team.
Who is the admin of a team?
By default, the team creator is the admin of the team. This original admin can then make any other team member an admin. Admins have the following permissions:
- Upgrade the team to Dropbox Business
- Delete the team
- Change team settings (for example team name, discoverability settings, and Dropbox Paper)
- Remove invited and current team members
- Make other members admins
- Remove other admins from the team
- Remove members from groups, delete groups, and invite members to groups
Who owns my data when I join a team?
When you create or join a team, all your unshared files remain private unless you share them. You also retain full ownership over your data and your account.
Note:
- If a team admin upgrades the team to Dropbox Business, the admin will have full administrative control over your account.
- If you are the team creator, you are the default admin: no other member can upgrade the team to Business unless you make them an admin.
How do I add members to a team?
- Sign in to dropbox.com.
- Click the Team tab from the left sidebar.
- Select the Members tab.
- Click Invite members.
- Enter the email addresses of the colleagues you’d like to have join your team, and click Invite to team.
How do I remove free team members?
Only the admin of a team can remove team members (the admin is the person who created the team). If you are the admin of a team and would like to remove members:
- Sign in to dropbox.com.
- Click the Team tab from the left sidebar.
- Click the X beside the name of the team member you’d like to remove.
How do I change a free team name?
- Sign in to dropbox.com.
- Click the Team tab from the left sidebar.
- Click Change name beside the team name at the top of the page.
How do I join a free team that someone else created?
You can search for a team, and join if one exists, using the domain name of the email address associated with your Dropbox account. This may be a Dropbox Business team or a free team. To join a team if one exists on your domain:
- Sign in to dropbox.com.
- Click the Team tab from the left sidebar.
- Click Join team.
How do I leave a free team?
When you leave a team you lose access to the team folder and any groups you were a part of. Your work files are also moved to your personal Dropbox. If you would like to leave a team:
- Sign in to dropbox.com.
- Click Team in the left sidebar.
- Click Settings.
- Click Delete team.
How do I change the email address between my work and personal account?
- Sign in to dropbox.com and change the email linked to your personal account from Email A to the placeholder Email C.
- Click on your name in the top right corner of the page, click Settings, and then click the Account tab.
- Change your work email address from Email B to Email A, again by clicking Settings and then the Account tab.
- Once these changes have been made, you can change your personal email address from Email C to Email B by following the instructions in step one above.
What happens if a member of a free team goes over their individual storage quota?
When a member of a team goes over their individual storage quota, shared folders or files stop syncing for that team member only. No files are deleted, and syncing will resume when the team member is under quota again. A single team member going over quota does not affect any other members of a team.
Learn more about what to do if you go over your storage quota
I left a free team and now don't have access to a shared folder—what happened?
When you leave a team you lose access to the company team folder. To regain access to the contents of this folder, you can rejoin that team.
If the folder you’ve lost access to is not a team folder, then that folder likely had sharing permissions that limited access. By leaving the team, you also lost access to this shared folder. To regain access you can either rejoin the team, or ask the shared folder owner to update the folder permissions to allow non-team collaborators.
Can I earn bonus space for referrals sent from my free team?
You cannot receive referral bonuses on your work team account. If you would like to apply this bonus to your personal account, contact Dropbox support.
What’s the difference between a free team and Dropbox Business?
A team is a good place to start organizing company files and collaborating on projects with colleagues. As your team grows, so will the number of files, folders, and shared items. It is likely that at least one member of the team will encounter storage limitations.
With Dropbox Business your team gets as much space as it needs, so projects always move forward.
Dropbox Business has other tools that keep your data safe and secure, too—a suite of admin features that give you visibility into account and member activity, and control over sharing. And with Dropbox Business your company owns the data in work accounts, so company files always stay in the right hands.
How do I upgrade my free team to Dropbox Business?
Team admins can upgrade a team to Dropbox Business:
- Sign in to dropbox.com.
- Click Upgrade to Dropbox Business at the top of the page.
- Click Purchase or click Start a free trial.
Note:
- Upon upgrade, all admins of the team will become team admins on the new Dropbox Business account. Not sure who on your team is an admin? Go to your Team page and look at the status of each team member to see if they are an admin.
What happens if I upgrade my free team to a Dropbox Business trial and then decide to cancel that trial?
Canceling a Dropbox Business subscription removes your access to as much space as you need and other features exclusive to Dropbox Business.
You will also no longer have access to the Team folder manager, which is used to manage membership of team folders. That means that a team folder not automatically shared with the entire team (Everyone at [team name]) will become inaccessible to the users it's shared with.
After canceling, your groups and sharing relationships remain.


