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Connecting to Dropbox
Connecting to Dropbox
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Written by Akooda
Updated over 11 months ago

This article provides instructions for connecting Dropbox to your Akooda account. This connection essentially provides Akooda with access to private folders/documents that are manually shared with Akooda.

For more information about how Akooda helps your organization evolve and the inherent privacy and security protections in place, see Akooda Integration Principles.

Before We Begin

Before connecting your organization’s Dropbox account, check that:

  1. You're an Admin in Akooda.

  2. You're a Business Admin for your Dropbox account.

  3. You have a dedicated Akooda email inbox, used for managing access permissions to docs (see the first step in Connecting to Google Workspace, in case you use this platform to manage business emails).

If you don’t have the right permissions as mentioned above, please send this guide to the right individual in your organization (usually this is IT or Info Security personnel). If you require further assistance getting the right permissions, please don’t hesitate to contact our support team at [email protected].

NOTE: At any point, if the Dropbox user is deleted or admin access permissions are revoked, your Akooda sync will stop working and will require re-connecting by following this guide’s steps.

How to Connect

Step 1: Create an Akooda Dropbox User

  1. Head over to your Dropbox Business Admin console.

  2. Add a new account by going to "Members" and "Add new user" (as instructed in Dropbox's Invite people to your Dropbox Business team guide) and enter akooda@[YOUR_EMAIL_DOMAIN] (the dedicated Akooda email inbox, mentioned in this guide’s prerequisites).

  3. Go to this user’s inbox, search for the Dropbox invite email, and click “Join the team".

NOTE: This account will be visible in the Admin console and to all team members and will be used to select folders/documents processed by Akooda.

Step 2: Link the Dropbox User with Akooda

  1. Sign into Akooda (app.akooda.co) with your admin user.

  2. Navigate to the “Apps” page under the Account Settings (app.akooda.co/settings/apps).

  3. Click on the “Connect” button for Dropbox.

  4. Sign in with the newly created Akooda user (with akooda@[YOUR_EMAIL_DOMAIN] email).

  5. Click "Allow" to provide consent for Akooda to view the information needed to connect to Dropbox Business

NOTE: The permissions granted include reading file content and their share settings. Additionally, Akooda requires permissions to team users, structure, and group membership in order to map the user activity to the respective employee.

Step 3 (optional): Invite the Akooda User to Private Folders/Documents

With Akooda’s respect to privacy, only interactions that are fully public will be processed by Akooda. Many organizations use Dropbox Business such that they have private drives/folders/docs that are shared with specific teams (aka Groups) or individuals. In such a case, members with invite permissions must opt-in those shared content to Akooda, by adding the user created in the previous step.

  1. Head over to the private drive/folder/doc in Dropbox Business, right-click “Share”.

  2. Add akooda@[YOUR_EMAIL_DOMAIN] as a viewer.

NOTE: The user will be shown as a member to all drives/folders/docs participants, much like any other member, and can be removed by the owner at any time. This is key to allowing everyone participating to maintain their right for privacy. Once removed, the processed data history will also be purged from Akooda. Moreover, private interactions will be descriptively shown only to members with view permissions and above within the Akooda app.

Next Up

Processing your organization's data post initial integration may take up to 24 hours. Once done, you will be able to see tagged Dropbox interaction data in your Akooda account (according to each individual user’s access permission).

If you run into any problems, we’re here to help. Reach out to [email protected] to get assistance for your organization.

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