Linking Personal and Business accounts - Account types?

[devynosborne]

I searched the help and forums, but couldn't quite find the answer to my question.

My wife has a long-held Dropbox Plus personal account, which syncs to her laptop (via the Dropbox app with the standard Dropbox folder). She recently opened a Basic account for limited professional use, which has now grown and in need of an upgrade. Up until now, she's only accessed it through her browser. Ideally, this account can be synced to her laptop, along with the personal one, while keeping the two accounts clearly seperate.

I've gotten as far as discovering that one can *link* a Personal and Business account, which seems to do exactly what we want, but I'm confused on which exact plans have the capability.

Per this page, the Business account for individuals is the Professional. But this page confuses me about whether a Plus account can be linked with a Professional account, or if it has to be a Business Standard. This first screenshot's description makes it sound like the Professional account is not a Business account, when it is clearly listed under Business in the second screenshot...

Help!

Also, just to confuse matters, we already upgraded her professional account to a Plus account, but I think I can easily upgrade further if needed.

Last, if anyone has experience with linking personal and business accounts -- is it pretty easy and foolproof? I believe I read there are actually two different Dropbox folders (presumably labeled appropriately) that otherwise behave like a normal personal one. That would be ideal. Too much fiddling with the app, or logging in and out, will only create confusion.

We're on macOS, if that makes any difference.

Thanks for any and all help!

[Rich · Accepted solution]

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@devynosborne wrote:

But this page confuses me about whether a Plus account can be linked with a Professional account, or if it has to be a Business Standard.

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While Professional is considered a business account, it's an individual account, just like the Basic and Plus accounts. Account linking can only be done with a team plan, which would be Business Standard or Business Advanced. You can't link a Plus and Professional account.

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I believe I read there are actually two different Dropbox folders (presumably labeled appropriately) that otherwise behave like a normal personal one. That would be ideal.

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That's correct. The existing personal account would have its folder renamed to Dropbox (Personal) and the Business account would be in a folder called Dropbox (Team Name), where Team Name is the name you give to the Business team.

[devynosborne]

Thanks for the fast reply!

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@Rich wrote:

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While Professional is considered a business account, it's an individual account, just like the Basic and Plus accounts. Account linking can only be done with a team plan, which would be Business Standard or Business Advanced. You can't link a Plus and Professional account.

 Ah, I see. So it's more accurately described as linking an individual and a team account. This page (which links to the above) uses personal and work descriptions, which was part of the confusion.

Anyway, that's super helpful, thank you!

One follow up: Does the Individual account take up one of the user slots of, say, the Business Standard plan? I don't imagine her needed the team member options, but you never know.

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@Rich wrote:

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That's correct. The existing personal account would have its folder renamed to Dropbox (Personal) and the Business account would be in a folder called Dropbox (Team Name), where Team Name is the name you give to the Business team.

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Great, that's perfect.

[devynosborne]

One more question, if @Rich or anyone else knows.

My wife's personal account is an old grandfathered Dropbox Plus w/ Packrat account. If she links this account to her Business Standard account, will she lose her grandfathered features (namely Packrat)?

My question comes up when I found this thread with @Rob_Cash.

I can't tell if a "linked" account counts as "joining a team", and thus changes the account type. 

Or does a linked account effectively stay separate? 

Maybe another way to ask, is if we still get charged for both. The instruction on linking make no mention of transferring to a team, unlike the team instructions.

[devynosborne]

I figured it out. The two linked accounts remain separate.

[HKC]

This is ridiculous and misleading.

[EMarioC]

Yes, it's confusing and it feels like I'm being punished. I've paid for years what is going on here? So now that they got rid of teams, which I never wanted anyway but used my business account. Does this mean I can't synchronize these once-linked accounts? if this is true then as I've been doing for years I can no longer sync my personal and business accounts to the same PC? 

[Hannah]

Thanks for the nudge, @EMarioC and sorry for any confusion.

If your business account was a free team and you had linked it with a personal account, yes, you won't be able to link these two accounts any more.

A personal account can only be linked to a paid Dropbox Business account. You can read more about what happened here.

[strongroots1]

I'm in a similar situation, though I reversed the account types (Basic for personal, Plus for my business). Because I'm a solo entrepreneur, I don't need the teams function, but would like to functionally separate my personal and business activities. Since I don't qualify for the teams accounts (only 1 person), it looks like the only option is to move all my files into one Dropbox account or move to a different platform altogether for at least one of them, if I want syncing to devices.

[devynosborne]

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@strongroots1 wrote:

 I don't qualify for the teams accounts (only 1 person)

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My wife was able to sign up for her Business Standard account, even though she is just one person. No other team members necessary.

You may mean that a Business Standard account is overkill for you. But I wanted to clarify there's no qualification (unless something changed with the very recent changes to teams).