Shared Links Settings for Your Enterprise

Account Administrators and co-Admins have the ability to set shared link preferences for all content owned by their managed users. If an option is disabled at the Administrator level, it will not appear for all managed users, and for Collaborators in folders owned by managed users. Change the settings at the Admin level only if you want to restrict sharing access for every file and folder in your account.

 

To access shared link settings from an Admin or Co-Admin account:

1. Open the Admin Console.
2. In the left sidebar, click Enterprise Settings. The Enterprise Settings page displays. From here you can review and change the most common settings.
3. To access the complete set of content settings, at the top of the page, click Content & Sharing.

 

 

From the Content & Sharing settings page, you can control what access options are available for your content, what the default access for newly created shared links will be, and what permissions link viewers (who are not invited collaborators) will have for the content they access.

 

Allow shared links for: In this menu, you can determine what types of content should be accessible to non-collaborators. Collaborators must be explicitly invited into the folder and already have access to the content, regardless of whether a shared link has been enabled.

 

• Folders and Files: (default) All content in your account follow the shared link settings that follow this option.
• Folders only: Folders in your account follow the shared link settings that follow. Shared links for files can be created, but are accessible only by invited collaborators in the folder.
• Files only: Files in your account follow the shared link settings that follow. Shared links for folders can be created, but are accessible only by invited collaborators in the folder.
• Nothing, restrict sharing: Shared links for files and folders in your account are accessible only by invited collaborators in the folder.

Definition of Company

This option is available only for some large enterprises that have worked with Box Customer success get a domain assigned to their EID. It enables you to define whether a link shared with “people in your company” is accessible EITHER:

• to everyone with the same email domain (acme.com)

OR

• Only to people in the same Box Enterprise ID, or EID.

Admins for enterprises with multiple companies sharing one email domain will have created at least one custom subdomain. But other large enterprises instead may have multiple companies that each with a separate EID. To make links shared with “people in your company” available only on a per-company basis, and not across your entire organization, click Enterprise ID.

More on EIDs and email domains.

 

Shared links can be accessed by: Here you can set what access options are available for the content types selected above. By default, all options are enabled, meaning that anyone with appropriate permissions can choose, per item, what access permission to grant their content.

• People with the link, people in your company, and people in this folder: Anyone with the link can access. But people can still set a password or expiration date for these links. There is no login required.
• People in your company and people in this folder only. This is available only if an email domain is added to your account. If you create a link with this setting, everyone in your Box account can see the link, and people within the added email domain who are part of an external Business (or higher) level account can also see the link.
• People in this folder or file only: Only people invited in to the folder can access the content in the folder. Collaborators already have access to their content, but can easily direct one another to a specific file or folder using the shared link.

Changing this setting alters what types of new shared links can be created for content owned by your enterprise. Existing shared links are also affected by this setting -- meaning that previously created shared links with broader access are lowered to the restrictive setting. For example, if you change this setting from people with the link to something more restrictive, your managed users can no longer create open shared links. Further, any pre-existing open shared links would be changed to people in your company.

 

In the unlikely event this setting is changed from a less restrictive setting to a more restrictive setting and then back again, shared links created before the setting changes retain their type.

 

Default Permission for new links: This setting controls the default access level of newly-created shared links. If you have limited the access options in an earlier setting, your options here are limited accordingly.

• People with the link: The content is open to people with the link. File viewers do not have to log in.
• People in your company:  Anyone with the link who's also in your company, or people invited to this file, can access its content.
• People in this folder: Only people collaborating in this folder can access its content.

 

Link Viewers Can:

This option sets whether you allow content viewed through shared links to be downloadable.

• Preview and download the shared item: Enables anyone viewing the link to download the files and folders. With this option enabled, managed users can toggle the download setting at the folder and file level.
• Preview the shared item only: Link viewers can only preview the item. Download is disabled. Managed users cannot toggle this setting at the folder and file level.
• Edit the shared item: Check this box to enable Edit Shared Links in Box Notes. These are shared links that provide editor access to the link recipient. If you leave this check box clear, the Link Viewers Can option defaults to Preview the shared item only. You cannot change this option while it remains disabled. This option is disabled if you have restricted shared links to people in your company or people in the folder only.

 

Default new Box Notes links to:

• Edit the shared note: If you this option, then by default newly-created shared links to Box Notes are Edit Shared Links.
• View the shared note: If you click this option, then by default newly-created shared links to Box Notes are View-only links.

 

Custom Shared Links:

• Allow custom shared link URLs for links with public access: Custom URLs enable people to customize the URLs for created shared links. This applies to content you want to be readily accessible to large groups of people (externally or internally) using a customized URL that is easy to remember. If you make this link available as people with the link, the linked folder or file is publicly accessible. Custom URLs are appropriate for public-facing materials such as product documentation or marketing materials and are not intended for the secure sharing of sensitive content.
• Enabling public custom URL: Check this box to enable the custom URL feature for open public sharing. Example of a custom link: https://.box.com/v/custom-public-link
• Disabling public custom URL: Clear this box to block the creation of custom URLs in your enterprise. If you disable this option, you break any existing custom URLs with people with the link security. However, if you later re-enable public custom URLs, those same pre-existing links again become valid. This setting does not apply to custom URLs with company and collaborators-only security levels.
• Show your custom domain in shared link URLs: If this option is enabled, your custom domain is displayed in shared link URLs.