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Forum Discussion
Can you restrict selective sync by device, instead of by user?
Long story short, I need the user of an iMac in our office to have full dropbox access. I need that same user to have access to only certain folders on an iPad. On both the iMac and iPad, the user account is the same. If I selectively sync certain folders to the iPad, any iPad user can simply click the dropbox app, selectively sync all folders, and then have full access to the entire dropbox folder. This is obviously not acceptable from a security standpoint.
Is there a way to restrict which folders sync based on which device dropbox is used on, rather than by which account is logged in? I'm really surprised I can't find a solution. This is a security dealbreaker for us and will cause us to move to a different file sharing app if syncing can't be restricted by device.
Hi Admin2020
No there is no way to do this. Simply put because the idea of Dropbox is that its single user per account (its actually against T&C's to use it otherwise and can/does cause accounts to be wiped without notice). So, from a Dropbox point of view there is no security issue because person A on computer is same as on iPad / web - they are just not putting everything locally from a space / structure point of view.
- Mark
Super User II
Hi Admin2020
No there is no way to do this. Simply put because the idea of Dropbox is that its single user per account (its actually against T&C's to use it otherwise and can/does cause accounts to be wiped without notice). So, from a Dropbox point of view there is no security issue because person A on computer is same as on iPad / web - they are just not putting everything locally from a space / structure point of view.
Got it. Yikes! I guess I understand why Dropbox does it but that leaves a giant hole in security at least with how I need to use my devices! Thank you for your response clarifying that. At least now I can stop spending time trying to find a solution and instead find a cloud service with that security option! Thank you!
- Mark
The one work around I could think of would be to create an iPad account per device and just share the folders to that device that is needed
e.g. ipad1@hahah ipad2@hahaha etc.
And instead of using selective sync to restrict use sharing to do it.
- Hannah
Dropbox Staff
Hey Admin2020, thanks for posting your question to our Community.
Selective sync is indeed a device specific feature, but it's only available on the Dropbox desktop app.
Like Mark mentioned, there's no way to restrict folders on the Dropbox app on a mobile device, like an iPad; you'd have to remove the user's access from the folders altogether.
I hope this clarifies things, but let me know if you have any questions.
