What can I do with the admin console?
Everything you need to manage your team in Dropbox is available in the admin console. The admin console saves time by displaying key insights into your team’s activities, and providing shortcuts to essential admin actions.
6 minute read
Dropbox admin console
Whether you’re new to the admin console, or you just haven’t visited it in a long time, it’s always helpful to get a tour. No matter the size of your team, you’ll find plenty of tools here to make your life easier.
Your new best friend
The admin console has a number of features to help you make the most of your team’s Dropbox experience.
Security
Keeping your data secure is our top priority. That’s why you can use Dropbox with existing security tools, like integrating third-party applications you already use as a team, or more custom solutions like using the Dropbox business API to build in-house apps that integrate Dropbox into your business processes. As an admin, you can enable two-step verification, generate activity reports, unlink stolen or lost devices from the Dropbox team account, and even use remote wipe to delete an account off of a team member’s device.
Monitoring
The Dashboard shows how often team members use their accounts. You can view active users on your team, storage space usage, as well as the number of shared links and active shared folders.
You can filter this data to view activity from the past week, month, or six months.
Management
The admin console makes it easy to support and enable your company’s productivity. Dropbox team admins can automate the creation and removal of accounts from an existing Active Directory system. Once integrated, you can use Active Directory to manage membership. Admins can also enable single sign-on (SSO), which allows team members access to Dropbox by signing into a central identity provider already in use.
You can also control how your company uses their Dropbox team accounts on mobile devices. Enterprise mobility management (EMM) allows companies to manage mobile device usage on company apps, networks, and devices. With EMM, Dropbox teams can work with third-party EMM providers to gain even more control over how members use the Dropbox mobile apps.
Note: enterprise mobility management (EMM) is available to Dropbox teams on an Enterprise plan.
Enabling single sign-on (SSO) through the admin console
SSO makes life easier and more secure for your team. You can put the identity management provider you already trust in charge of authentication, and team members can access Dropbox without another password to manage.
Sign into your Dropbox admin account.
Go to the admin console and select Settings in the left sidebar.
Under Authentication, select Single sign-on.
You can choose whether to make SSO optional or required for your team.
After that, if you’re using an existing identity provider, you can enter the sign-in URL and X.509 certificate from your provider.
Note: SSO integration is only available to Dropbox teams on an Advanced or Enterprise plan.
Navigate the console
The admin console is the central place for adding or removing users, monitoring activity, setting your team's security options, and managing your billing information. Depending on your admin tier, you’ll see different tabs within the admin console.
Insights dashboard
Available to all admins, the Insights dashboard allows you to gather insights on your team’s activities, access shortcuts to important functions, and quickly find members to manage their account settings.
Track your team's activity
Activity logs are available in the admin console for certain admin roles of Dropbox teams. A team admin can see the team’s full activity, while other admins can only track the activity of a selected user.
Admins usually want to see their team’s activity to troubleshoot a problem or understand what happened and when. If a team member accidentally deleted a file, the admin can track the team’s activity to see when it happened and work to restore the file.
What is the Activity tab?
The Activity tab is the place where you can see a record of the actions taken by your team. It helps admins see how often their team uses Dropbox, who’s using it, and for what. Admins can also use the Activity tab to investigate and fix minor issues like accidental file deletions.
When should you ask for help?
As the team admin, you’re the first point of contact for your team. But what happens when you need help?
Dropbox has plenty of resources to help you find the answers you need. You can visit our Help Center or community forum if you’re stuck, or check the other learning resources from Dropbox for answers.
You can find all of the help options available to you—and see how to contact us—in the Help page of the admin console.
Tour the admin console
Whether you’re new to the admin console, or you just haven’t visited it in a long time, it’s always helpful to get a tour. No matter the size of your team, you’ll find plenty of tools here to make your life easier.
Select play to take the tour now.