How do I request or grant access to a record's Dropbox folder?
A record's Dropbox folder belongs to the Dropbox account of whoever opened that record first, so a colleague can have full access to the Salesforce record and still see This folder is private in the Dropbox File Manager. Access is requested and granted entirely from Salesforce. The owner never has to go to Dropbox.com.
Requesting access
Choose Request Access in the File Manager. The button changes to Request Sent and stays disabled, even if you reload or come back later. Behind the scenes a Dropbox Access Request record is saved in Salesforce, recording who asked, who can approve, the record, the folder and the status.
The folder owner gets a Salesforce bell or mobile notification and a short email linking to the request. Choosing Request Access again while one is open does nothing new; the owner is not notified twice.
You are notified when the owner decides. If access was granted, open the record again or choose Reload and the files appear. The shared folder is added to your Dropbox automatically, so you do not need to accept an invitation first. If the request was declined, you see who declined it and their reason if they gave one, and Request again becomes available.
Granting or declining access
Open the request from the notification or the email link, or open the record and choose Review in the requested access banner at the top of the File Manager. The approval card shows the requester, the record and the folder path.
• Grant edit access: the requester can upload, rename and delete files in the folder.
• Grant view access: the requester can browse, preview and download only.
• Decline: optionally add a reason, then choose Confirm decline.
Salesforce shares the folder through the Dropbox API using the owner's own connection, sharing it first if it is not shared yet, then adds the requester at the chosen level. If Dropbox needs time to share a large folder, the request shows Processing until it finishes. The approver is the Connected User on the folder mapping, falling back to the user who created it; nobody else can decide the request.
When sharing fails
If Dropbox rejects the share, the card shows a specific message and the request stays Pending so the owner can retry or decline:
• Team policy: the owner's Dropbox team does not allow sharing with that email address. The Dropbox admin needs to change the policy or add the requester to the team.
• Nested shared folder: the record folder sits inside a folder that is already shared. Share the parent folder in Dropbox, or ask its owner.
• View-only on a Basic plan: view-only sharing needs a paid Dropbox plan. Grant edit access instead, or upgrade.
Note: if the same people keep requesting access to many records, share the workspace root folder with them once, or move to a Dropbox Business Team Folder so access is managed centrally in Dropbox.
Related Articles
• Using Dropbox on a Record [Full Guide]
• Does a Dropbox permission set control which files a user can see?
