What can I do with the admin console?

Everything you need to manage your team in Dropbox is available in the admin console. It saves time by displaying key insights into your team’s activity and providing shortcuts to essential admin actions, including security settings.

6 minute read

Dropbox admin console

Whether you’re new to the admin console, or you just haven’t visited it in a long time, it’s always helpful to get a tour. No matter the size of your team, you’ll find plenty of tools here to make your life easier.

Dropbox admin console features

The admin console has a number of features to help you make the most of your team’s Dropbox experience.

Security

Keeping your team’s data safe is our top priority, and Dropbox comes with built-in tools to help you do just that.

As an admin, you can take key actions to help protect your team and their content:

These controls are designed to give you peace of mind and help your team stay focused on the work that matters.

Monitoring

The Dashboard shows how often team members use their accounts and gives you a high-level view of team activity. You can view active members, shared links, active shared folders, and storage usage.

Use the Storage details section of the admin console dashboard to see how much storage space your team uses, how much remains, and where usage is concentrated across team folders and members. These insights can help you decide when to export a report, follow up with members, clean up files and folders, or set storage limits for top-level team folders.

Management

The admin console simplifies managing your organization’s productivity tools.

As a team admin, you can:

  • Automate account management: Integrate with an existing Active Directory system to create or remove accounts automatically, and manage membership directly through Active Directory.

  • Enable single sign-on (SSO): Allow team members to access Dropbox using your central identity provider.

You can also manage how your organization uses Dropbox team accounts on mobile devices. With Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM), you can oversee app usage, networks, and devices. Partnering with third-party EMM providers gives you even more control over how members use the Dropbox mobile app.

Note: Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) is available to Dropbox teams on the Enterprise plan.

Enabling single sign-on (SSO) through the admin console

SSO makes logging in more quickly and more securely for your team. You can put the identity management provider you already trust in charge of authentication, and team members can access Dropbox without another password to manage.

  1. Log in to dropbox.com with your admin credentials.

  2. Click Admin console in the left sidebar.

  3. Click Settings in the left sidebar.

  4. Under Security, click Single sign-on.
    Choose between making SSO optional, or required for your team.

  5. If you’re using an existing identity provider, you can enter the sign-in URL and X.509 certificate from your provider.

Note: SSO integration is only available to Dropbox teams on an Advanced or Enterprise plan.

Navigate the console

The admin console is the central place for adding or removing users, monitoring members' activity, setting your team's security options, and managing your billing information. Depending on your admin tier, you’ll see different tabs within the admin console.

In the left sidebar, you’ll find both the Team section and the Products section.

  • The Team section gives you a unified view of your organization. Here, you can see data and take actions across all the products included in your plan.

  • The Products section focuses on a specific product. When you select Dropbox, you’ll see product-specific data and settings, and can take actions related only to Dropbox.

The Team section

Dropbox | Admin | Admin Console | Dashboard

Dashboard

Available to all admins except Billing and Content admins, the Dashboard gives you a quick, high-level view of your team’s usage, plan tools, and security.

You can also use the Dashboard to monitor team storage. See how much storage space your team uses, how much remains, where usage is concentrated across team folders and members, and how it changes over time.

For a closer look, export a team storage report to review storage usage by folder and file path across team, shared, and member folders. You can also use:

  • A member data report to review a member’s storage usage and related account data.

  • A member access report to see what a specific member can access and identify access or storage patterns.

These insights can help you decide when to clean up files and folders, follow up with members, or set storage limits for top-level team folders.

Note: The storage tools and reports available to you depend on your admin role and team plan.

The Products section includes:

  • The Content page lets certain admins view and manage all team content in one place. They can access member folders, review folders they wouldn’t normally see, and use Manage access to control who can open a folder, what permissions they have, and adjust folder settings.

  • The Security page helps team admins and security admins monitor and respond to potential risks. Admins can set up alert policies and receive email notifications when suspicious activity, risky behavior, or possible data leaks are detected (available on eligible plans).

  • The Classification page helps admins keep track of files that contain personal information (PII)in team folders. Dropbox scans and labels sensitive content, alerts admins if it’s shared outside the team, and allows them to export a CSV report for review.

  • The Settings page allows admins to control how Dropbox works for their team:

    • External sharing: Manage how content is shared outside the team, including link settings, external collaborators, Replay, Sign, Transfer, and Dash.

    • Content: Control sync behavior, backups, file tools such as locking and Rewind, and top-level folder management. Depending on their admin role, admins can also manage storage settings, including storage limits for top-level team folders.

    • Integrations: Manage app connections, device policies (including EMM), third-party integrations, and access to features like Sign and templates.

Track your team's activity

Activity logs are available in the admin console for certain admin roles of Dropbox teams. A team admin can see the team’s full activity, while other admins can only track the activity of a selected user.

Admins usually want to see their team’s activity to troubleshoot a problem or understand what happened and when. If a team member accidentally deleted a file, the admin can track the team’s activity to see when it happened and work to restore the file.

Dropbox | Admin | Analytics | What is the Activity page?

What is the Activity page?

The Activity page is the place where you can see a record of the actions taken by your team.

It helps admins see how often their team uses Dropbox, who’s using it, and for what. Admins can also use the Activity page to investigate and fix minor issues like accidental file deletions.

You’re here to support your team—we’re here to support you

As a Dropbox team admin, your team looks to you for answers. But you don’t have to figure everything out on your own.

We’ve got plenty of resources to help you feel confident and supported.

  • Visit our help center for step-by-step guidance.

  • Use the search bar in the admin console to quickly find help articles, settings, and team members.

  • Connect with other admins in the Dropbox Community to swap tips and get advice.

  • Explore product walkthroughs and admin-specific courses at learn.dropbox.com.

Need more direct help? Go to the Help page in your admin console to see all your support options and how to get in touch.

You're not alone—we’re here to help every step of the way.

Previous
4/18
Next