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What does it mean to be an admin for Dropbox?

What does it mean to be an admin for Dropbox?

Admins can enable their Dropbox teams with sharing permissions and instance configuration. Learn more about Dropbox admin controls.

5 minute read

What can admins do?

Just about everything.

Who can do what?

Dropbox tiered admins allow Advanced and Enterprise teams to have multiple levels of admins, each with a different set of permissions. Note that Dropbox teams on a Standard plan only have a single admin level.

Team admin

In any Dropbox team account, there must be at least one team admin.

Team admins have all available admin permissions. This means they can:

  • Set team-wide security and sharing permissions
  • Manage team members
  • Manage team folders
  • Assign admin rights to other team members
  • Remove or suspend other admins
  • Enable new features, account configurations, and integrations

Managing your team’s accounts

If you’re a team admin, you can manage your team’s work Dropbox accounts. By using the “sign in as user” feature, you can also access work accounts to do any of the following:

  • View a team member's folder structure

  • Share files and folders with others

  • View, open, and download files

  • Delete files or restore deleted files


Admins can only access team members’ work accounts, even if those accounts are linked with personal Dropbox accounts. Admins do not have access to a team member’s personal Dropbox account.

Filling the admin’s shoes

Stepping into the role of admin for the first time?

It’s best to learn the ins and outs of using Dropbox as a team member before you transition to the admin role.

For more training as a team member, check out our Dropbox team member course.

Watch our tour of the Dropbox Admin console.