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Problems sharing photos

I’ve shared photos in the past, but not successfully recently. Using Windows 10, I set up a folder to be viewed by anyone with a link to it, moved in some photo files, downloaded the link and emailed it.

I got a response that DropBox was asking the recipient to login.

I checked the website, only to find that although the folder is shown for viewing by “Anyone with link”, each of the JPEG files within it was listed under “Who can access” as “Only you”.

Why are the settings for the individual files not aligned with the folder I moved them into, and how can I align them?
Why is the link user being asked to log in, and how can I avoid this?
How can I check myself that future links work as expected, rather than annoying recipients with links that don’t work?

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Hannah

Hi again, Chris!

It sounds like you're doing a search for the link, instead of opening it.

You'll need to paste it in the URL box and hit "Enter" to open the link itself; hopefully that'll do the trick.

As for the permissions and who can access the folder, it will only show that it's shared, if you invite people to become members of the folder.

Creating and sharing a "view-only" link gives the recipients access to view the folder, but it doesn't allow them to become members of the folder, that's why you see "Only you" in "who can access".

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Walter

Hey @Chris J Newman - sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

Can you please clarify if you're creating a shared link to the folder with view-only or edit rights in the first place?

Have you considered using a Dropbox Transfer instead perhaps?

Let us know more and we'll take it from there, Chris.

PS: You can check how your shared links would look to recipients by opening them in an incognito window.

Chris J Newman

I intended to create a view-only folder and then a link to it, I thought I’d done it correctly, and it doesn’t look wrong to me on the website (other than the files within it being inaccessible to others).

Is Dropbox Transfer what appears when setting the folder or creating the link, allowing email addresses to be inserted? I thought it would be more straightforward to download the link and then email it when and where I wanted, and I expected the link to work.

Please can you translate “an incognito window” for someone who’s not computer-savvy? (It does appear like something to be done from my own computer, despite that having the settings for me to log in to DropBox.)

Hannah

Hi from me as well, @Chris J Newman.

A "view-only" shared link should be accessible by anyone with the link, without the need to login to a Dropbox account.

You can find the steps on how to create a view-only link here.

After you create it, you can test it with the incognito window Walter suggested, which is basically a private browsing window on the Chrome browser.

Otherwise, you can simply open the link from a browser that you haven't logged in to your Dropbox account on.

I hope this helps!

Chris J Newman

Thank you for explaining “an incognito window”.

I tried creating a fresh link. When I hover over an icon that looks like two links of a chain, ‘Copy link to the folder name’ appears.

That’s the same link as I get when I <Click> on the permanent [Share folder] button, yet looks very different to the link I got previously from doing that!

I normally use Firefox, with Google searches, but the laptop happens to have a link to Opera, which is never normally used (perhaps my son used it years ago). That is also set up for Google searches. I put in the link, it added a couple of spaces after “%20” and it came up with:

Dropbox.com

https://www.dropbox.com

Discover Dropbox – secure, easy cloud storage for file sharing and collaboration. With Dash, save time and organize all your company content in one place.

‎Login · ‎Dropbox Sign · ‎Dropbox Essentials · ‎Experience Dropbox

and

Dropbox.com

Discover Dropbox – secure, easy cloud storage for file sharing and collaboration. With Dash, save time and organise all your company content in one place.

It didn’t find my folder.

When I tried the offered alternative of searching without the spaces it came up with:

“No results containing all your search terms were found.”

Also, you haven’t addressed the issue of the folder being shown as set to share, but the files within it being shown as “Only you” can access them.

Hannah

Hi again, Chris!

It sounds like you're doing a search for the link, instead of opening it.

You'll need to paste it in the URL box and hit "Enter" to open the link itself; hopefully that'll do the trick.

As for the permissions and who can access the folder, it will only show that it's shared, if you invite people to become members of the folder.

Creating and sharing a "view-only" link gives the recipients access to view the folder, but it doesn't allow them to become members of the folder, that's why you see "Only you" in "who can access".