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How can I know when someone accesses a shared folder?

I used to be able to share a folder with someone, send them a link, and then be able to hover over their little icon to see if they had accessed the folder. This is very important when I am trying to meet a deadline and want to be sure the link has been received and used. I checked "recents", but it didn't have any lines about people opening shared folders. I also checked "sharing", but according to that page, I haven't created any links since last year sometime, and I know that isn't true. Has dropbox removed the ability to check to see if the link has been used or the folder been joined? Is there some other way to see if someone has accessed a shared folder or used a link that was sent to them? Thanks!

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Rich

It doesn't work that way anymore. When you invite someone, they have access, period. They have the ability to leave* and join the share at will, until they remove it from their Dropbox or you remove them from the share. You can see that they're a member, but you can't see when they leave or join in (until they remove it from their Dropbox).

* Leaving a share does not remove it from their account. It simply takes the share out of their Dropbox. They can no longer access it, but they can rejoin it at anytime. When a user removes a share it is removed from their account completely and it can no longer be rejoined.

Rich

Matt, refer to my reply above. It no longer works that way. As soon as you invite someone to a shared folder, they have access. There is no longer a need to accept the invitation.

mbrandt

No. Just open your folder. Take a look at the picture attached. The files of the folder are listed on the left, and the names of the people on the right. MB is me. The other person I shared the folder with "c" hasn't accessed it yet. I know this by placing my cursor on top of the "c" and the message in grey (I covered her email address to protect her privacy) appears. Screen Shot 2017-07-27 at 1.44.04 PM.png

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Mark

You can see if a shared folder has been joined at www.dropbox.com/share but you could never actually track shared links (https://help.dropbox.com/files-folders/view-only-access) as Dropbox doesnt track that information.

graphicsquirrel

Thanks for the reply, Mark. I know there used to be a way to know if someone had joined the folder because I relied on that for knowing if my ads were being received by the agency in time. Perhaps I am not remembering exactly the way it worked, but I do know that it was accessible from the page where the folders are listed with the little round icons on the right. I'm quite sure it said something like "So and So has joined the folder"... Now all I see is "So and So can edit", but that doesn't tell me if they have actually opened the folder or not. Seems like that would be an important thing to know! :-)

So, just curious, how do I know if a shared folder has been joined on the page you point out? When I go to my Shared page, I see: On the Folders page, a list of folders with only the ... beside them to share or folder settings | Files is completely empty | Links has a few individual files listed, but it only says Delete Link or Link Settings. I hate to waste your time, but this is driving me crazy and I appreciate your help.

Rich

graphicsquirrel

Well it seems Dropbox is heading in the direction Adobe has headed - making changes without thinking about how users will be affected. That's disappointing. Now I will have to email or call until I get an answer from the people I share with - and who has time for that these days?

Mark and Rich, I appreciate your replies very much!!

mattT

You say I can see who joined a shared foleder, but how can I see this? There is no column or other indication at dropbox.com/share that indicates if someone has joined. It appears to me that once I add an email, the system assumes the recipent has joined. Does "Join" mean sync, or access through a browser using a password?

Rich

Matt, refer to my reply above. It no longer works that way. As soon as you invite someone to a shared folder, they have access. There is no longer a need to accept the invitation.

JMRhodes

Seems to me no one has actually answered the question, which is simply this: You share a folder, the person/s you're sharing it wth get an email, OK. How, though, do you know though if that person has responded and accessed the shared folder? That's all there is to it. I recently shared a folder with someone in Poland. I still have no idea if he has accessed or downloaded the file's contents. There really ought to be an icon indicating this.

Rich

JMRhodes wrote:
Seems to me no one has actually answered the question

I have answered it.

How, though, do you know though if that person has responded and accessed the shared folder?

You don't, as the share function no longer works that way. As soon as you invite someone, they have access. You cannot see when they access the files. You can only see if they are a member or not, and they are a member as soon as you send the invitation.

cviegasb

I heartily agree with Graphic Squirrel.

It is really important to know, as we used to, whether someone has actually accepted a share invitation and used it. I have several cases now where I think someone is sharing because I invited them and I have no information to the contrary. I then find they are not, or may not even have a Dropbox acount. It is really important to me - and it seems many, many users - to know whether someone is or is not sharing folders to which they have been invited.

This change seems to have been made without asking users and without any warning or announcement. That is bad - please don't join Adobe in the Awful Customer Service Club.

Let's just get this clear. Sending a link is one thing - we can't usually expect to know if they actually used the link. An "invitation" is another.

Perhaps I can help with use of English here. "Invitation" is an English word which means a polite offer to someone, who then has the choice to accept or refuse. In normal society we expect to be able to find out whether they have accepted or not; we cannot assume they have accepted just because we have invited them. Dropbox now assumes if they invite someone they will always come. Their parties must be really amazing!

So, Dropbox, given you've changed the way "invitations" work without bothering to ask us how WE actually work, please stop abusing the English language (same for invitación, convite, einladung...and all the other language versions), and call it it something which is not misleaading. Even better, much better, go back to how it was, so we can see whether someone has accepted our invitation ot not shared or not.

That is what your users, many paying well for usage, actually want. It matters to US.

JMRhodes

I think I'm going back to HighTail. The recipient doesn't have to have an account either.

mbrandt

When you place your mouse on top of the name of the person you shared the folder with and her/his name appears normal and says for example "XXX can edit" (if you granted that person editing privileges). Otherwise, a message pops out saying: "xxx@xxx hasn't added this to their Dropbox yet".

TenkoTsunami

Hi - this change in functionality has really been a huge hassle for me as well. You cannot even see or sort files when they were last opened - as opposed to being 'modified' - there is a few significant functions such as this that have been paired back. I hope more people will enquire - otherwise I struggle to see all the benefits over other options available.

cviegasb

@mbrandt wrote:
When you place your mouse on top of the name of the person you shared the folder with and her/his name appears normal and says for example "XXX can edit" (if you granted that person editing privileges). Otherwise, a message pops out saying: "xxx@xxx hasn't added this to their Dropbox yet".

Thanks mbrandt but that isn't working for me. When you say "on top of the name", I assume you refer to names in the list of people appearing when you click on the "Share" button to the right of the shared folder, right? I am not getting any kind of popup or indication about the user. The dropdown at the right only shows the setting I applied (edit/view/owner) and never shows that a user hasn't added the folder to their Dropbox - even wher I know they haven't.

Mark

cviegasb - myself and another SuperUser have also tried and we cannot find it either.

cviegasb

@Rich wrote:
@JMRhodes wrote:
Seems to me no one has actually answered the question

I have answered it.

How, though, do you know though if that person has responded and accessed the shared folder?

You don't, as the share function no longer works that way. As soon as you invite someone, they have access. You cannot see when they access the files. You can only see if they are a member or not, and they are a member as soon as you send the invitation.

Rich, you are correct but, whatever your good intentions, not helpful. "It no longer works like this" means Dropbox decided, unilaterally, to get rid of a functionality that is important to many people.

I share key folders around the world (literally - 82 countries), and no longer being able to know if specific indivdiuals have acessed the folders is a significant problem for me. I don't need to track their accesses, just know thay have actually, as we used to say in the old days, "accepted the invitation". We are seriously reconsidering whether Dropbox, which is otherwise excellent and, importantly, ubiquitous, is the right solution for our organisation. As far as I can tell, the "new way" doesn't even tell me if the other person has Dropbox installed or not - although we try to check, its tricky for us in all situations.

I am curious to hear Dropbox's justification for this change - it certainly doesn't to seem to be about a better user experience.

Rich

cviegasb wrote:
As far as I can tell, the "new way" doesn't even tell me if the other person has Dropbox installed or not

Neither did the old way. You could never tell if the other person had installed Dropbox, and installing Dropbox isn't required for access to a shared folder. Only an account is needed. The person could access the share through the website.

Mark

cviegasb wrote:
I am curious to hear Dropbox's justification for this change - it certainly doesn't to seem to be about a better user experience.

Sadly you wont get one - believe me we've tried for lots of other things.

Dropbox, however, just seem hellbent on removing functionality at the moment, or "enhancing" it and thus, removing functionality....

cviegasb

Good points Mark, if sad.

cviegasb

Quite right - I was conflating having an account with having Dropbox installed locally. The effect of Dropbox policy is the same though. See Mark's points - he's right, sadly.

mbrandt

DigitalDawg

Cviegasb,
You have expressed it so well that I can't add anything to your portrayal - except that I very much agree. Question: is anyone at DropBox listening?

JMRhodes

Know what? I've gone back to using Hightail. No complications, works a dream.

M_RET

I totally agree that this is a problem, I work with people around the world in many time zones, with different levels of understanding of how dropbox works and sometimes with limited internet. Not knowing if they have accessed the folder is a huge pain, as I cannot pinpoint when someone is having problems. I like dropbox a lot, but just cannot imagine why anyone would want to remove this function... Especially, it works with files! if you select a file (not a folder) you can go in the activity log and check if someone has viewed it. So this gives you some indication about the folder (if they have viewed a file in it, they have accessed the folder). But still, it does not give a garantee of access to the folder if there are not files in it yet. If we have it for files, why not for folders?