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Forum Discussion

luriet's avatar
luriet
Explorer | Level 3
2 years ago

Sharing a folder and giving someone editing access

I want to share a folder that contains photos and I'd like the person I'm sending it to to have editing access so they can save to their own personal folder and be able to edit, crop or send the photos to others. If they make changes to any of the photos, are the changes only in their personal folder on their PC, or do their edits also appear in my folder, or affect the photos in my personal Dropbox folder. I am the owner of the file. I don't want their edits to affect my original photos in any way. I did not see this answer online.

Thank you.

  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II

    luriet wrote:

    I want to share a folder that contains photos and I'd like the person I'm sending it to to have editing access... If they make changes to any of the photos, are the changes only in their personal folder on their PC, or do their edits also appear in my folder ...


    If you invite someone to a shared folder with edit access, any changes they make within the folder will apply to all members of the folder, including you. If you don't want them to make changes to your original files, send them a view-only shared link and they can simply download the files and edit them as needed on their own device or in their own Dropbox account without affecting your originals.

    • luriet's avatar
      luriet
      Explorer | Level 3

      Thank you very much for your response.  When reading the Dropbox explanation for view only, it sounded like they could download, but not edit anything. I interpreted that to mean they couldn't edit at all, even when saved to their pc. I would like them to be able to edit, but not if that meant it would also change things in my folder. The person I shared with does not have a Dropbox account. 

      • Jay's avatar
        Jay
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

        Hi luriet, you can share a view-only shared folder to the user, and the files will download to their machine (if installed), and they won't be able to edit files. They'll have to copy them to another folder on their machine to make any changes to them.

         

        Bear in mind, however, that if they don't have a Dropbox account, they'll need to create one, and then add the shared folder. The folder itself cannot be larger than their quota either, (which is 2 GB on a Basic plan), as it won't allow it to be added.

         

        The best option would be to follow the advice from Rich to create a shared link to a folder, which can be accessed by anyone, even those users without an account.

  • Engram's avatar
    Engram
    New member | Level 2

    Hello,

    i own a Dropbox Plus subscription and i need to create some shared folderes where other persons can upload/download files.
    I try to share that folder inviting someone via email, sending copying the link. I would expect that the other person is now able to edit the content of that folder and upload/download files.
    This does not see to work since it looks like they must have a paid subscription instead.

     

    So, questions is:

    - Is Dropbox Plus enough in order to do what i need ? In case, what i'm doing wrong ?
    - If it's not enough, which is the lowest subscription plan which allows me to invite external users as Editors on specificfolders, even if they do not have a dropbox subscription ?

     

    I find the whole docs / plan scheme very confusing since it's not clear what "User" means.

    Basically my plan has one user, which is me, but it's not clear if each guy i invite to edit a folder must be an "user" himself. in this case i would need a subscription for a lot of users and at that point Dropbox would not be a conveniente solution anymore.

     

    thank you in advance,

    Paolo

    • Mark's avatar
      Mark
      Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II

      Hi Engram 

       

      Plus will allow you to do this, but, not with Links. Dropbox links are designed as read-only / download links. You need to send somebody a Shared folder which will allow them to edit. The only key thing to note with this is that if the folder is, for example, 5gb in size the person you send it to also needs 5gb of free space in their own account. 

      https://help.dropbox.com/share/share-file-or-folder

      • Engram's avatar
        Engram
        New member | Level 2

        Hello,

        thank you for your answer.
        Some more information:

        - Basically i should send an email invitation to that person, instead than a Link. can you confirm ?

        - What if i need to invite persons that do not use dropbox, or which do not have enough space on their account ? Is there a way to get rid of this limitation ?

        thank you again,

        Paolo

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