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Accidental folder move prevention on Dropbox Business team

Our company uses Dropbox for Business. Currently our folder structure is Lawyers and then under that we have Amy, Brian, Chris, etc (the names of the lawyers). The under each lawyer we have dozens of different subfolders for the different cases. The other day an employee accidentally dragged Chris into Brian and it caused us to be down as thousands of files were moved and then we had to move them back and wait for everything to sync to everyone's computers.

I'm wondering if we can limit this kind of damage by moving Amy, Brian, Chris, etc to the top level and then changing the setting Admin console, Settings, Content, Top-level content management from Everyone to Only Admins. Then they wouldn't be able to move Chris to Brian if they're not an admin. They would still be able to work as they are now and edit the subfolders and files, correct?

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Hannah

Hey @SubSolar, thanks for posting to our Community today!

Indeed, if you change the top level management to 'only admins', team members can’t create or manage team folders at the top level.

But they can add subfolders to the team folders and generally edit the subfolders, if they have edit access.

You can see more info about this here.

Let me know if you have any questions.

SubSolar

@Hannah that is what I thought but I got conflicting information when I talked to Dropbox support. Can you read this below and confirm they are wrong?

( 21:05:52 ) Visitor: If I go to Settings, Top-level content management and change from Everyone to Only Admins
( 21:06:03 ) Visitor: To me it means that only Admins can edit or delete the top level folders
( 21:06:11 ) Visitor: But everyone else can still edit subfolders and subfiles below those
( 21:07:13 ) Tracey: Kindly note this would mean that only admins would be able to make any change through the top level folder.
( 21:08:26 ) Visitor: Yes, but everyone else can still edit subfolders and subfiles right?
( 21:08:37 ) Visitor: They just can't change the Dropbox\TopLevelFolder right?
( 21:08:37 ) Tracey: Please note that a top level folder would give access only to admins.
( 21:08:48 ) Visitor: So if I'm not an admin
( 21:08:59 ) Visitor: I can't delete, move or rename Dropbox\TopLevelFolder
( 21:09:06 ) Visitor: But I can still create files and folders under that right?
( 21:10:00 ) Tracey: This would not be correct. Only certain type of admins have access to these folders and their subfolders.
( 21:10:37 ) Tracey: For example if you create a top level folder, let's say, 1
( 21:10:57 ) Visitor: Create 1 under Content, New Folder right?
( 21:11:26 ) Tracey: That would be correct.
( 21:11:37 ) Visitor: OK so we create 1 there
( 21:11:53 ) Visitor: And then go to Settings, Top-level content management and change from Everyone to Only Admins
( 21:12:24 ) Tracey: And inside the folder one you create sub folders 1.1 and 1.2 in these subfolders only you or the other type of admins will be able to make an changes.
( 21:13:46 ) Tracey: Please note that these folders would not be any kind of folder as you would have to set it as a top level or create it .
( 21:15:01 ) Visitor: So there's no real way to just prevent employees to not accidentally delete or move a top level 1 folder
( 21:15:07 ) Tracey: On the other hand, kindly note that on that same tab you can create a new folder in which you can choose between sharing it with everyone in your team or to specific people.
( 21:15:12 ) Visitor: If they need to be able to use subfolders and files under 1
( 21:15:41 ) Tracey: I this case they would not be able to access that folder.
( 21:15:48 ) Visitor: Basically, we want all employees to be able to access all files, delete, move, rename files and subfolders
( 21:15:52 ) Visitor: Just not the top level folder
( 21:16:40 ) Tracey: Kindly note that your employees won't be able to access a top level folder or its subfolders.
( 21:17:48 ) Visitor: I don't understand the purpose of the Top-llevel content management setting then
( 21:18:03 ) Visitor: If you set it to Only Admins, then no one can edit anything in any folder or subfolder
( 21:18:06 ) Tracey: If you would like to prevent your employees from permanently delete any kind of folders you can change the deletion settings under content tab at settings.
( 21:19:26 ) Tracey: Kindly note that this type of folder would be for example for any possible payroll papers, or something you wouldn't want your employees to have further access to.
( 21:20:08 ) Tracey: As such, only you and certain type of admins would have the option to access it.
( 21:21:15 ) Visitor: Top-level content managementSet who can create, rename, move, or delete items at the top level of the team space.
( 21:21:22 ) Visitor: This makes it sound like what I'm looking for
( 21:21:28 ) Visitor: But you're saying it affect subfolders and subfiles
( 21:21:34 ) Visitor: But it doesn't sound like it would
( 21:22:50 ) Tracey: This would be correct.
( 21:23:29 ) Visitor: So this setting seems useless to me, unless you don't want any non admin to ever delete or move any file anywhere in Dropbox, right?
( 21:23:43 ) Tracey: This would also be correct.
( 21:23:56 ) Visitor: Like if you set to Only Admins, no non admin would ever be able to delete any file or folder anywhere in dropbox right?
( 21:24:39 ) Tracey: That would be correct.

Jay

Hi @SubSolar, if the top-level management setting is set to only admins, provided that you've granted edit access to the team folders, then members can create subfolders.

SubSolar

@Jay, so they will also be able to create, delete and edit subfolders and files under the top level, correct?

Jay

That's correct, you can create a test folder when using the new settings to see how it works from their end.

SubSolar

Well I can't really test it because we have a ton of existing data lol. If I switch the Top-level content management from Everyone to Only Admins I just don't want employees to be locked out of editing all our existing data.

Jay

By making top level access to admin-only, this means that users can't create new folders outside of their personal folder.

If they have edit access to the team folders, then they can add files and folders into those locations.

SubSolar

Oh, that's bad. So there's no way to allow them to edit everything underneath a top level folder, but prevent them from renaming, deleting or moving the top level folder?