To collaborate more effectively with your team on Dropbox, you need to upgrade an individual account to a business team. Moving your existing files from your personal to the business account is also possible.
Want to know how? Just follow this guide.
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Things to do before transferring your account from dropbox personal to business plan
When you move dropbox personal over to dropbox business, the existing files on your account get transferred to the team account, and admins will have access to those files [can share, delete or edit those files].
If you don’t want to share all files data with admins, here are a few things you need to do before adding dropbox for business to an existing account:
- Remove any files/folders you don’t wish to share on your dropbox business account.
- Ensure all the files and folders you wish to transfer to your business account are in your personal dropbox.
For your existing data on dropbox personal, there are two options when you move to dropbox business, i.e.:
- Transfer to [Team Name]If you go for this option, all your existing files/folders get shared on your dropbox business account, and the team admin can access & edit, share, and delete them.
- Keep Separate from [Team Name]
By choosing this option, you create a secondary personal dropbox account to move important files and folders there so that other admin cannot access them.
- Reset your dropbox personal account password if you have shared it with other colleagues. So that when you upgrade dropbox to a business account, they cannot access it. To change your account’s password, follow these steps:
- Log into your personal dropbox account and click on your avatar or profile icon to access the “Settings” option.
- Go to the “Security” and under the password section, tap on the “Change Password link” to reset your password. Now you are good to go for an upgrade.
- If you have already enabled the “hide my email” option in your dropbox account by signing in with apple, you first have to add your real email address to the personal dropbox account and then upgrade to the business account.
How to move your Dropbox Personal account to a Business Team account?
Now once you are all set, follow this step-by-step guide to upgrade and set up your account from a dropbox personal to a business team account:
Step 1: Purchase the required business account plan
- Go to the dropbox business plan page and buy any one of the three plans: Standard, Advanced or Enterprise, per your requirement.
- After upgrading, go to dropbox.com and sign into your business individual account with admin credentials.
Step 2: Invite your team members
- From the left sidebar of your dropbox account, access the “Admin Console” and go to the “Members” page.
- There click on the “invite members” option for adding workers’ dropbox business account
- Enter the email addresses of your team members whom you wish to invite (use their individual email IDs) and click on the “invite to team” option.
Step 3: Wipe unwanted devices from your dropbox business account remotely
- To remotely wipe the unwanted connected devices on dropbox, under the “Security” tab in the settings, hover over the “connected devices” list.
- Choose the device you want to remove or unlink and click on the “x” or trash icon next to it.
Once you remote wipe the devices, they no longer have access to your account and changes you made in it afterward unless you approve their device again to be linked with your account.
Step 4: Wait for team members to accept invitations and then share files/folders with them
Once you invite members to join your team on a dropbox business account, they get an invitation email. To successfully join your team, they have to accept your invitation and then login into their accounts with the same email address.
After they do so, they can access files/folders you share with them afterward.
Step 5: Set permissions for shared files/folders
After removing unwanted devices from your account, you can now decide with whom you want to share any file or folder and up to what extent. You can set permissions for every file or folder you share with your colleagues by creating “team folders”.
To create a team folder in your business account, follow these steps:
- Go to the admin console and click on the “Content” tab under it or alternatively, go to the “files” tab on the left sidebar of your account.
- Click on the “New Folder” option to create a team folder and choose whom you want to add to this folder. You can add all or some specific members to your team folders.
- Give them “can view” or “can edit” access at your convenience and click on “create”.
Similarly, if you don’t want your team members to share content externally, you can change the sharing settings by following these steps:
- Go to the Settings of your account under the admin console.
- Hover over the “Sharing” option and choose the OFF button next to the “Sharing links externally” to prevent the external sharing of links.Alternatively, if you are a team member and received an invite to join the team business account, you can click on it and upgrade your account.
How to move files between a Dropbox Personal and Business account?
If you have both dropbox personal and business accounts, you can move files/folders between them on your PC through drag-and-drop. To do so, first, you have to link both accounts.
Steps to link your dropbox personal and business accounts:
Log into your dropbox business account through dropbox.com and go to the settings tab under your profile icon. If you are using a desktop app, open the dropbox desktop preferences and follow these steps:
- Under the General settings of your account, click on the “Add personal dropbox option.”
- Click on the “Set up personal account” option and sign into your existing dropbox individual account with its credentials to link both accounts.
Steps to move files between dropbox personal and business accounts:
- Now once your accounts are linked, login into your dropbox account from where you want to move files and click on the “Create new shared folder” on the right side of the home screen. Alternatively, you can find this option under the “Shared” tab.
- Create a shared folder and add another dropbox account as a recipient with “can view” or “can edit” access.
- Now log into your secondary dropbox account and under the “Shared” tab, click on the “Add” icon to add that shared folder in your account.
- Refresh the screen and now the added folder will be shown under your “My files” section to move files between two accounts.
Is it possible to merge Dropbox Personal with a Business account? Or multiple Dropbox Business accounts together?
No, you cannot merge a dropbox personal account with business or multiple team accounts together. However, you can link two dropbox accounts together and move files/folders between them by following the above-mentioned steps.
Benefits of Upgrading from Dropbox Individual to a Business Account
If we talk about a dropbox personal vs business account, both hold their own advantages and features. However, upgrading to a business account gives access to some advanced team control & security features that you won’t get with an individual account.
Here are major benefits of a dropbox business account that gives you a reason to upgrade from a personal account:
- Enhanced Storage Space & Security Features: Dropbox business account offers you more storage space (from 5TB to unlimited) than an individual account (2-3TB). Also, you get advanced security features like:
- Device approvals
- Multi-factor authentication
- Single admin login for multiple team management
- Remotely device wipe, etc.
- Better Team Collaboration: Better Team Collaboration: Collaborate with your teams in real-time, assign them tasks and track their progress through team activity logs. With the admin console and content team management settings, the admin can control who can access which files, how and for how long.
- Low Data Loss Risk: With a dropbox business account, you can recover the deleted files or folders by restoring their version history for up to 180 days. Admins can also access file history and activity logs of any event for 180 days.
- Better Business Scaling: With advanced user management tools and unlimited API integrations, you can scale your business by staying in sync with your team members.
- Better Control over Data Sharing: In your dropbox business account, you get features like tiered admin roles and file locking to manage control over data sharing. You can also check the list of connected devices on dropbox and restrict the number of devices team members can connect for data & account protection.
Also Read: How Do I View Dropbox Logs? (Complete Guide)
Conclusion
You can collaborate with your team in real-time without compromising data sharing controls with a dropbox business account. You can invite members, delete them or even sign in as a user to the account of any one of your team.
Upgrading your dropbox personal account to a business account is pretty straightforward, and you can do it by following this guide. For any further queries related to this topic, connect with us in the comments.
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