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Can I access someone else's Dropbox without adding their whole Dropbox to my own account?

Hello Community.

I have been asked to use/add files to another organisation's Dropbox and they have sent me a link inviting me to edit their folder. However, the link from Dropbox suggests that I need to 'Add to Dropbox' - that is, adding that organisation's whole folder to MY Dropbox. That company's Dropbox is going to be HUGE and I obviously don't want to add their whole company Dropbox to my own private Dropbox. Is there a way they should be inviting me to EDIT or ADD to their Dropbox that doesn't mean their whole Dropbox needs to be added to MY Dropbox?

Many thanks in advance,

lane_RHL

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Accepted answers

Rich

@lane_RHL wrote:
Surely I can just be provided ACCESS to their Dropbox without having to bring over their whole Dropbox to my own Dropbox though?

No, you can't.

To be clear, you're not getting access to their entire account. You're likely being invited to join a specific shared folder (an entire account can't be shared). When you join a shared folder you get your own COPY of that folder in your account, so you need to have enough available space in your account to hold the entire folder plus anything you upload to it. You're not uploading directly to their account. You're adding files to a folder in your own account which then syncs with their copy of the same folder.

https://help.dropbox.com/storage-space/storage-space

There's no way to get edit access to a folder without it being added to your own account.

All comments

Walter

Hey @lane_RHL, thanks for using Dropbox and welcome to the Community!

Instead of sharing a folder with edit rights, have you considered asking them to open up a file request for you from their end?

Let me know if this helps!

lane_RHL

Hi Walter and thank you for the suggestion. I'm not sure that this would work as the company wants me to create a new folder each time I provide them with the document that I create (I'm creating documents in Word and PDF and then uploading those documents to a file I create in THEIR Dropbox). Surely I can just be provided ACCESS to their Dropbox without having to bring over their whole Dropbox to my own Dropbox though? Having to have their whole Dropbox IN my own Dropbox folder makes no sense at all and practically forces me to purchase the very highest level of Dropbox available in terms of space and storage JUST to be able to access the other company's Dropbox, which is totally out of my financial reach. I'm really confused.

Rich

@lane_RHL wrote:
Surely I can just be provided ACCESS to their Dropbox without having to bring over their whole Dropbox to my own Dropbox though?

No, you can't.

https://help.dropbox.com/storage-space/storage-space

There's no way to get edit access to a folder without it being added to your own account.

lane_RHL

Rich, that's a really helpful explanation, thank you.

So as an individual who is being provided access to a very very large folder on a company's account, I do not want to have to purchase a very large Dropbox subscription to just access that company folder in order to create a new subfolder and put things into it (that is out of my financial reach). Should I be asking the client if they would be willing to allow me a login to THEIR Dropbox instead? Might that be an option?

Jay

Hi @lane_RHL, you can ask them to create a file request so that you can upload files to their Dropbox account directly.

A shared link to the folder will also allow you to view the files in that folder.

Dakota_F

Hello,

I've recently joined a company and need access to their Dropbox files. The owner has invited me but when I go to access the files from my account it says I need to upgrade my account. There must be a way to access the files without upgrading my personal account. I'm new to DropBox and am feeling overwhelmed looking for an answer. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Rich

@Dakota_F wrote:
The owner has invited me but when I go to access the files from my account it says I need to upgrade my account. There must be a way to access the files without upgrading my personal account.

You've been invited to join a shared folder. If you need edit access to the files then you need to have enough space available to hold the folder, otherwise you can't add it to your account. If you don't have enough space, you would need to upgrade your account.

https://help.dropbox.com/storage-space/storage-space

If you only need view access, ask them to send you a view-only shared link instead.

Dakota_F

Thanks Rich! This clears up my confusion, I appreciate you taking the time to answer my question.

Nibot007

Actually there is a way. The company would have to create a request link. That way you can upload to them via the link they send to you. I had to figure this out due to a similar situation. It is ridiculous that dropbox tries to trap you with upgrading by putting the folder into your account. The work around is the request link.

Rich

Nibot007 wrote:
The company would have to create a request link. That way you can upload to them via the link they send to you.

That works just fine, if all you need to do is upload files to someone that you already have. In the context of this thread, people were being invited to join a shared folder so they could access and edit files already located within the share. In that case, they would need to upgrade their own account in order to access the files and edit them within the folder, if they didn't have enough space.

The alternative would be a view-only shared link to the folder so they could download, then a file request to be able to upload.