Sharing folders and subfolders: what is normal setup and viewer observation?

[murrayatuptown]

Hello:

Maybe I am making this more complex than necessary, but I am finding it more work than expected to share a folder, especially with sub-folders. Or I am misinterpreting what I observe. Or the main person I share with confuses the situation.

I am curious whether my observations below are normal, or if there is a different way to accomplish what I wish to accomplish.

1) I find that I have to share every sub-folder, as giving permission to the top level folder does not show any shared permissions when I am logged in. I create sub-folders typically because I capture video with multiple cameras and microphones the same evening at the same location. The top level folder identifies the venue, date and personnel. The sub-folders contain the individual files, so they can be distinguished and evaluated without ambiguity.

2) Each time I share a folder, I change the permission type from EDIT to VIEW, to prevent a viewer from deleting anything. The default link created has EDIT permission. Every time I change it and then add the first e-mail address, it is changed back to EDIT permission AGAIN. I have to change it again. I also observe that I cannot add a second e-mail address by clicking after the first added address, unless I change the permission again.

3) The primary shared view user sometimes reports he cannot access the folders and has to request permission. This is after me sending him a VIEW link, which seems, to me, to be literally permission granted. Other view permission recipients usually do not provide any feedback to me, which suggests to me they are not even looking.

Or I'm wrong, and they do not proceed because a permission request intervenes and they exit. I am not sure what reality is because the primary reviewer only occasionally says he had to request permission. One possibility is that I did not realize earlier than today that giving top-level folder view permission was not 'globally' extending to subfolders, (when used. I don't always need sub-folders). 

Thank you

Murray

[Megan]

Hey there, @murrayatuptown, let's jump right into this! 

I'm going to try and touch base with all of your points here, but let me know in case I forget something. 

Sharing the top level folder, should allow access to all the individual nested folders. 

It's important to keep in mind that there are two ways to share a folder with someone: you can either add them to the folder directly as shown here, or you can share a link with them,

I believe that the second point you mentioned has to do with a shared link, is that right? 

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.

Feel free to have a look here too. If you try to preview your shared link, in an incognito tab on your browser while you're logged out of your account, are you able to do it, or not? 

Let me know more, and we'll take it from there! 

[murrayatuptown]

Adding people with the method that requires them to have an account and log in is too complicated for Viewers, so I use the share a link method, almost always as VIEW. I don't know who has an account or how much storage they have & who doesn't have an account at all. This is a 'below non-profit-level' project so only I pay for storage.

I DO add e-mail recipients to the Dropbox 'list' with a VIEW link and sometimes paste in the hyperlink in the comment field also, but wonder whether each link is only for a specific subfolder because of how I see the permission status in my account. From your answer, it is clear I should not have to send out multiple permissions (for each sub-folder).

The occasional request for "permission" may come from someone who has a Dropbox acct. and requests to JOIN. They will run out of space quickly with a free account. I want them to view and download to their device if desired. I don't expect others to NEED online space on Dropbox.

All the difficulties I posted about are my actual experience sharing folders. I do NOT see sub-folders update when top level is shared, and I don't think content added later to a shared folder gets shared, or there is a time lag. I have tried updating my browser page and there are still 0 people other than myself.

So last might I sent 4 sets of folder View sharing notifications with several re-selections of VIEW instead of EDIT. With each share there were still multiple defaults back to EDIT I had to change. I didn't time how long it took me to do this but it was more time consuming than the steps to add content (excluding the upload time).

It was painful enough to prompt me to ask what I am doing wrong. 

The sharing action not spanning subfolders and not including content added later to a shared folder might require some time to sync.

But the reversal from VIEW to EDIT is a real-time phenomenon I have to change each time I find it in the 'wrong' configuration. 

Thank you

Murray