We are aware of the issue with the badge emails resending to everyone, we apologise for the inconvenience - learn more here.
Forum Discussion
skepticalthinker
2 years agoHelpful | Level 6
Shared link asks viewers to request access. Why does this happen?
Greetings. I have a shared file set to be viewable by anyone with the link, and I've sent the link to those I want to view the file (see screenshot). However, when they access the link, Dropbox sta...
- 2 years ago
Hi skepticalthinker ,
Jumping in here as a Product Manager for Dropbox Sharing to help out Hannah. Reading through your thread, this is very strange indeed. You've done everything right and I appreciate your patience in working through what is no doubt a frustrating experience. The best I can suggest here is to contact support for help. They'll be able to go through your specific situation and troubleshoot your specific link. Sharing a View Link with access set to "Anyone" should allow anyone - signed in or not - to access a web based preview of your content, and then from there to take further collaborative action like downloading, asking to join the content, etc.
Jason
vrdesign
Explorer | Level 3
During the last month I have been experiencing recipients having difficulty accessing file links.
Dropbox is requiring them to ask for permission when sent by email. some but not all.
We are generating the link from MS Explorer.
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.
Hannah
4 months agoDropbox Staff
Hey vrdesign, thanks for reaching out to the Dropbox Community.
Can you please check to see if the link you're creating is a "view-only" or a "can edit" one?
If it's a link that gives edit permissions, it would make sense, if you used a certain email address to invite the user, but they're signed in to a Dropbox account under a different address.
The "view-only" link should give access to anyone, without the need to request permission.
- vrdesign4 months agoExplorer | Level 3
Hannah,
Thanks for responding.
How do I determine if it is a "view-only" link?
How best to set that so others inside our company can still edit?
We don't invite the Users from Dropbox. These links are typically sent in the body of an email to multiple people. Some can and others cannot open them.
Thoughts?
- Hannah4 months agoDropbox Staff
Hey vrdesign!
You can see your default sharing settings here, and if you follow these steps, you can change the settings or create new links for your files individually.
However, keep in mind that with view-only links, the recipients won't be able to edit the files; only view and download them.
Perhaps you can send "can edit" links to people that need to edit and "view-only" ones, to the ones that just need to view the files.
- Bm227824 months agoExplorer | Level 3
We have ours set to default to 'view-only' plus we double check it before each link is created and it still gives us the same trouble. It's been going on for months for my company.
- Hannah4 months agoDropbox Staff
Hey Bm22782, sorry to hear about this.
Are you on a Dropbox team or an individual account?
If you have a Dropbox team, are the people that have this issue members of your team, external users or both?
- JasonSilverDBX4 months agoDropbox Product Manager
I'm a Product Manager in the sharing area here at Dropbox and sometimes chime in to help out. Sometimes these specific cases are easier for support to debug, but I can provide some insight into how things should work.
Depending on the content you're sharing there are two types of shared links - edit and view - granting those respective permissions to your recipients. At a high level, folders offer both, most files only offer view links. To answer your question about how to tell what type of link it is - you can't tell by the URL alone. (something for us to think about adding in the future 🤔)
We also offer the ability to secure your links further with settings for each link. For your link to be accessible to anyone including recipients who don't have a Dropbox account, the link audience must be set to "Anyone with Link". Anything else - only those invited, team members - would require the recipient to login. That's how Dropbox knows the visitor meets your security requirements.
And btw, vrdesign , the links will work the same no matter how they are shared (i.e. email, text, slack, website, etc.). Just in case you thought that might be causing an issue.
Bm22782 it's curious that you've noticed the problem off and on? Is it only certain types of recipients - i.e. people outside your team?
Hannah fyi, these are both members of our Standard Team plan.
Tip: One way to check that a link can be accessed by anyone is to try visiting it from a private or incognito browser window.
About Create, upload, and share
Find help to solve issues with creating, uploading, and sharing files and folders in Dropbox. Get support and advice from the Dropbox Community.
Need more support
If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.
For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.
If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!