Skip to main content
Troubleshooting shared file issues

Troubleshooting shared file issues

If someone loses track of a shared folder or simply can’t find it, there are different ways you can help track it down.

6 minute read

Get to know Alex

As an ad agency designer, Alex uses a Dropbox team account to work and collaborate with his clients. It’s easy to use and navigate, but what happens when a client can’t find the folder Alex shared?

troubleshooting-shared-file-issues_carousel-1-slide-1

Working together with clients

Alex has been working on a project and it’s critical that he can share design work with copywriters, creative directors, sales, and the client. In order to move forward with his work, Alex needs feedback and sign-off from the client.

Why is this happening?

Files don’t just disappear. There’s often a common explanation as to why a shared folder may not be appearing for one of your team members.


A team member may have left a shared folder. Or, the owner of the folder might have changed the folder name, accidentally unshared it, or moved it out of Dropbox and onto their desktop.


It might also be that the person Alex shared with missed a notification. When someone shares a folder, the receiving user should get a notification about the shared folder, which would ask them to join the folder. Since Dropbox lets users control how they organize and customize their own Dropbox accounts, they may have turned off notifications or missed that specific notification.


Missing the notification means they wouldn’t have added the folder to their own account.
Learn more:

Fix it!

Now that you know why this might be happening, you can resolve the issue in two ways: instruct the user how to troubleshoot the problem or sign in as that user and do it yourself to see what happened.

Lost no more

Since you can control your own Dropbox settings including notifications, you may miss something shared with you—whether it’s missing a notification or looking for a folder that’s been renamed by someone else.


If, like Alex, you can’t find a shared folder, the answer is probably out there!