Getting your account set up
Dropbox business makes it easy for teams to safely share and collaborate, no matter where you are, no matter your device.
13 minute read
Set yourself up for success
Now that you’ve been invited to your company’s Dropbox Business account, you’re one step away from accessing its collaborative and organizational powers.
You're invited
When your company joins Dropbox business, your Dropbox admin can and may send you an invite to join the team.
Dropbox business teams have one or more admins in their organization who manage the security, integration, and sharing settings for their team.
All you need to do is accept the invitation via email to join. Then, you reach your first fork in the road: are you joining Dropbox as a new or existing user?
Are you new around here?
As you work through setting up your account for Dropbox Business, you’ll be asked if you’re setting it up as a new or existing user. Depending on which one applies to you, you’ll follow different steps to complete account set up.
New user
As a new user, setting up your account is easy. Just create an account with your work email address, set a password, and download the Dropbox desktop app.
Existing user
As an existing user, you just need to sign in and then decide what to do with the existing files in your Dropbox. You can either keep them in your current account, or move them into a new personal Dropbox that your company won’t have access to. If you choose to move them, you’ll need to use a different email address for your new personal Dropbox and create a password for that account.
Heads up: If you’re using your work email for Dropbox and your company’s admin has certain settings in place, you may get a web or desktop notification asking you to choose if you want to move your files. Your account will pause syncing until you make that choice.
Should I link my personal account?
Though it’s not required, connecting your two accounts makes accessing all your stuff convenient. You can easily get to your work or personal files from all your linked devices, and you don’t need to worry about logging out and logging in multiple times.
Connecting both accounts keeps your personal stuff private. Your Dropbox admin won’t have access to it.
How to link a personal Dropbox account after installing the desktop app
Once your Dropbox Business account is set up, connecting a personal Dropbox doesn’t take too much time. All you have to do is click your name in the upper right corner of the screen, then choose Add personal account. From there, just sign in with an existing account or sign up for a brand new personal Dropbox.
If you’re using the latest desktop app, you can toggle between your two accounts in the lower left corner of the app.
How to sign in on a new computer as a new user
If you’re installing Dropbox on a new computer and you’re a new user, you need to sign in to both accounts to link them together. Choose either to sign in to your personal or business account to start, then add the other. In this example, this user is logging in to their business account first.
How to link a personal Dropbox to an existing computer
If you’re already using a Dropbox account on your computer, you just need to sign in to your second Dropbox from the Dropbox icon in your computer’s system tray. Click on your profile, then navigate to Preferences. From there, select the Account tab. Depending on which account you’re signed into, choose the tab of the account you’re not in: Personal or the one with your team name.
Then click Link and enter the corresponding password.
Shout out to SSO
If your admin enables SSO, or single sign-on, you can access Dropbox in the same way you access other applications at work: by entering your SSO password on your company’s sign-in page.
When you need to sign in to dropbox.com, type in your email address and click Continue. You’ll arrive at your company’s sign-in page where you can enter your SSO password for work.
On your computer, you only need to sign in to Dropbox once. Once you sign in with SSO on desktop, you're good to go.
Make your Dropbox account your own
Now that you’ve got your Dropbox Business account set up, make it your own by personalizing your settings.
Perfect your profile
Your profile is where you can find your email address, username, and optional profile photo. If you want to change any of that information, sign into dropbox.com, click your avatar at the top of any page, and then click Settings.
Once you’re on the Settings page, you can change your username or profile photo and link a personal account under the General tab. To change your password, select the Security tab.
Update notification settings
Dropbox sends you email notifications to let you know what’s changing in your account, which can be really helpful. But sometimes, you just don’t want so many emails in your inbox, which is understandable.
You can review your email notification settings by signing in to dropbox.com. Click your avatar at the top of any page, select Settings, and then choose Notifications.
From there, uncheck boxes next to the notifications you don’t want to receive anymore.
Link or unlink devices
We all use different devices for work, and managing those devices with your Dropbox business account can be done in one place.
To connect a device, just download the Dropbox app to that device and log in. Everything will start syncing.
When you unlink a device to your account, files and folders won’t be synced. It’s as if you simply turn off Dropbox for that device.
If you want to unlink a device, sign in to dropbox.com, click your name at the top of the page, and select Settings. Then go to the security tab and choose devices. From there, click the X next to the device you want to unlink.
Enable two-step verification
Two-step verification is an optional but recommended security feature that your Dropbox admin may have enabled. If your team isn’t using SSO, the admin may enable two-step verification which requires you to enter a six-digit security code along with your password.
Common questions
Got a question about setting up your account? We’ve likely got an answer. If you have a question that’s not listed here, check out help.dropbox.com for more answers.
Can my admin see my personal Dropbox?
If you're a Dropbox business team member, and you have connected your personal and work Dropbox accounts, the “sign in as user” admin feature won’t allow team admins to access your personal account. Only your business account is accessible to admins.
Should I just copy files from My Documents into my Dropbox?
There’s no need to copy files from one folder to your Dropbox, which would create duplicate copies. Your Dropbox folder works like any other folder, so working on files directly from your Dropbox folder allows you to store that file both on your computer and on the Dropbox website without duplicating it. That saves you hard drive space, and you can never have enough hard drive space, right?
Should I just copy files from My Documents into my Dropbox?
There’s no need to copy files from one folder to your Dropbox, which would create duplicate copies. Your Dropbox folder works like any other folder, so working on files directly from your Dropbox folder allows you to store that file both on your computer and on the Dropbox website without duplicating it. That saves you hard drive space, and you can never have enough hard drive space, right?