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skepticalthinker's avatar
skepticalthinker
Helpful | Level 6
2 years ago

Shared link asks viewers to request access. Why does this happen?

Greetings.  I have a shared file set to be viewable by anyone with the link, and I've sent the link to those I want to view the file (see screenshot).  However, when they access the link, Dropbox sta...
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  • JasonSilverDBX's avatar
    JasonSilverDBX
    2 years ago

    Hi skepticalthinker ,

     

    Jumping in here as a Product Manager for Dropbox Sharing to help out Hannah.  Reading through your thread, this is very strange indeed.  You've done everything right and I appreciate your patience in working through what is no doubt a frustrating experience.  The best I can suggest here is to contact support for help.  They'll be able to go through your specific situation and troubleshoot your specific link.  Sharing a View Link with access set to "Anyone" should allow anyone - signed in or not - to access a web based preview of your content, and then from there to take further collaborative action like downloading, asking to join the content, etc.

     

    Jason

paulcardon's avatar
paulcardon
Helpful | Level 5
12 months ago

Would love to re-invigorate this thread as it seems that, at the heart of our issues, there has been a key change to viewing-link functionality that breaks certain expected behaviors, not just for us Dropbox users, but by clients we're sending external links to. Would be nice to know from staff if this is THE structural change moving forward, or if there is room to have this change revised in some way in the near future (or at least have a toggle-able option to re-introduce the old behavior?).

 

As I predicted earlier in the thread, this change IS causing friction in our delivery processes and communications with clients that other deliverable platform options just don't have. Some clients have even recently asked us to not send them deliverables over Dropbox anymore to avoid the headaches they've been dealing with while they attempt to distribute content amongst their team members and beyond.

 

If it's more helpful, I could make a separate thread pin-pointing the viewing link URL change directly as @skepticalthinker's issue seems to be a more specific issue.

  • anniecdigitals's avatar
    anniecdigitals
    Helpful | Level 6
    12 months ago

    I agree. Customers are getting upset and leery of buying templates that are shared by Dropbox. I haven't been able to figure out what to do and am looking at using Google Drive. Sure wish it would go back to the old way 😮

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