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How to use your shared Team Space to manage your organization’s content
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How to use your shared Team Space to manage your organization’s content

Dropbox team accounts make it easy to keep track of all your organization’s data and content. They're designed to grant access to admins, while providing organizations with the security they need.

13 minute read

Activity everywhere

Dropbox team accounts are a great way to share and collaborate with all your coworkers, but all that activity means a lot of movement for your content.

Team spaces and team folders

Looking for a great way to manage company-owned data? Want to organize content by department or function? Managed team spaces are the way to go!

What are team spaces?

With Dropbox team accounts, your team shares a team space that functions like a shared drive for the whole team. Everyone on your team can access the team space, and everyone sees the same folder structure. This structure gives everyone the same context and helps the team stay organized without “shared folder overload.“

What can team spaces look like?

Think of a team space as a replacement for a department shared folder or file server. So, if your sales team is planning a quarterly review meeting and needs a space for content that applies to everyone on the team, consider creating a team folder for them within the team space. Then, everything they need will live in one central location.

What’s my role as an admin in a team space?

When it comes to team spaces, admins are important. They can view, audit, create, and manage access to team content. Admins also have the power to allow users to create their own user-managed groups that can be assigned to team spaces. You’ve got plenty of options!

What are team folders?

In the team space, you have team folders that can be shared with different people, including team members and people not on your team. You can view or edit folders, however you may not have access to some of a folder’s contents.

What’s the difference between team folders and personal folders?

Each user has two different kinds of folders.

Team folders

  • Everyone can create team folders by default, but admins can manage that permission

  • Team folders can be shared with the entire team, certain groups, or individuals

  • Within a team folder, each file or subfolder can be shared with a different set of people

  • Admins can choose to allow others to view or edit the files in a team folder, or block access altogether

  • Team members can create subfolders within team folders, if they have edit permissions

Personal folders

  • A personal folder is your space and is private to the user. However, the user can choose to share files in their personal folder with other members of your team. As the admin on Dropbox team accounts you can view files in a user’s personal folder using log in as member

Who uses team folders?

Often team spaces are organized around functions or departments within a organization, since they give those teams a dedicated space for their files.

But just because everyone on the team sees the same folder structure in the shared workspace doesn’t mean everyone can see everything within those folders. Any Dropbox user on the team can add or remove anyone from any folder they can edit.

Where are team folders?

The top level is where you can find the first set of folders that contain all subfolders. You can see top-level folders in the All files section of your account on dropbox.com.

For team members, this includes top-level team folders and the personal folder. Admins control who can edit team folders at the top level. Team members with edit access to the top level of a team space can convert a shared folder in their personal space to a team folder. Learn how to create a team folder at the top level.

A little structure goes a long way

It’s easy to create a team folder and organize your team spaces. Want to know how? Read on to learn more about team spaces and team folders.

Team spaces

Your Dropbox is organized as a shared team space, Everyone on your team can see the same folder structure in that space, but everyone on your team can customize access, too. If you can edit a folder in the shared workspace, that means you can add or remove users from it as well.

Team folders

As an admin, you can organize the folder structure in the team space. To create a top-level folder in the team space, open the admin console, select Content, and choose Create team folder. From there, you can choose if you want everyone on your team to have access to this folder or only specific members. Certain types of admins can also manage membership of any shared content from the content manager too.

And if you create or move a shared folder in a team space, other members of the team can access it too.

Log in as one of your team members

Looking for another way to manage company data? You can take a look into other accounts if you log in as a member. When you use this feature, you can take any action that users can take in their own account.

It can help when you need to onboard or help set up a new team member, troubleshoot problems, or even keep projects moving if a team member is away.

Monitor Dropbox team activity

The Activity page in your admin console lets you monitor user activity. You can track how data is shared both within and outside your organization from this view.

Dropbox team accounts record all sharing actions, which enables you to see:

  • Who creates shared folders or shared links

  • Who’s joining shared folders

  • Changes made to those folders,

  • Changes in shared link permissions

  • Who’s sharing Paper docs

If you’d like to see more a detailed activity on your team, you can also view team sharing activity.

Need more details? Dropbox team accounts allow you to integrate third-party apps for more comprehensive tracking, like security information and event management software.

Watch our videos on how to manage your data

Take a look at these tutorials to learn more about ways you can manage data.

Creating a team folder

Team folders are a great way to manage team content, and setting those up is easy.

Managing the shared workspace

If your Dropbox account uses a shared team space, you can view, audit, create, and manage access to team content from the Content page.

Reviewing your team’s activity

If you need to monitor a specific action or user, creating an activity report can help you stay on top of what’s happening with your team’s data.

Review shared folder user activity

Keep an eye on what happens inside of shared folders.

Review shared folder user activity - Start at your home base

Start at your home base

Since this is an admin action, start at the admin console. From there, click Activity, you'll see a form at the top of the screen.

Common questions

Got a question about keeping track of data? We’ve likely got an answer. If you have a question that’s not listed here, check our help center for more answers.

What’s the difference between a team folder and a shared folder?

Shared folders are user-managed folders and can be shared with someone outside your team, if your admin allows it. In the team space, you have team folders that can be shared with different people, including team members and people not on your team.

How do I delete or archive a team folder?

Only admins can archive team folders. Go to the admin console, click Content, then click the gear icon next to the folder you want to adjust. From the dropdown menu, click Archive.

Is there a limit to how many collaborators can access a team folder?

There is, and it’s in place to make sure folders still sync properly. If you do reach the limit, you can remove members or reorganize your team folders to help resolve the issue.