Understanding Collaborator Permission Levels

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.box.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

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Feature availability by plan

• All accounts: Editor and Viewer collaborator roles.
• Business and Enterprise accounts: Co-owner, Previewer, Uploader, Viewer Uploader, and Previewer Uploader roles. An admin must enable these in Admin Console > Enterprise Settings > Content & Sharing > Collaborating on Content. These additional roles apply only to folders. Single-file collaborations support only Editor and Viewer.
• Paid plans only: Shared link password protection and shared link auto-expiry are not available on free Individual accounts.

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Permissions by collaborator role

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Notes and conditions

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Role-specific behavior

1. Comment deletion: Comments can be deleted only by the folder owner, co-owner, or the person who created the comment.
2. Annotation limits for Previewers: Previewers and Previewer Uploaders can create annotations but cannot highlight and comment.
3. Annotation deletion: Annotations can be deleted by owners and co-owners of the folder containing the annotated document, as well as by the annotation creator.
4. Copy for Viewers: Viewers can download a file and re-upload it elsewhere, or use <kbd>Ctrl+C / <kbd>Ctrl+V to copy a file to another folder they have access to.
5. Copy for Viewer Uploaders: Viewer Uploaders can only copy using keyboard shortcuts. The Copy option does not appear in the context menu.
6. File Request Link: Currently applies only to the enhanced version of File Request.

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Scope and ownership

1. Deleting files and folders: Co-owners and editors can delete sub-folders but not root-level folders. Only owners can delete folders at the root level. If a co-owner attempts to delete a root folder, they receive an option to End Collaboration. Co-owners and editors can permanently delete collaborated content from trash if the owner’s trash settings permit and the content is not retained by a policy.
2. Moving content: Co-owners and editors can move only content within the folder they are collaborating on. For example, if a collaborator is invited to Folder A (which contains Folder B and File C), they can move Folder B and File C but cannot move the top-level Folder A itself.
3. Box Item: When you create a Box Item, Box enables you to define a custom scope for it.

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Admin-configurable settings

1. Offline access for Previewers (mobile): Previewers can save files for offline use on Box Mobile only if the “Preview only” collaborators can save files for offline use toggle is enabled in Admin Console > Enterprise Settings > Mobile.
2. Editor invitation restrictions: If Enterprise-level and folder-level permissions are restricted, editors cannot invite collaborators.
3. Content insights visibility: If the Hide collaborators and their activity from non-owners setting is turned on for a folder, owners and co-owners still see file activity but editors do not. See Managing Collaborators for details. If the admin has enabled the Restrict Content Creation setting, only the primary admin and co-admin can export access stats reports.

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Role descriptions

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Available on all accounts

• A Viewer cannot change who can access a shared link.
• If no shared link exists, the Viewer can only create one with the folder owner’s default shared link setting.
• If a shared link already exists, the Viewer can only share it at the access level currently set (for example, a Viewer cannot change a link set to “people with the link” to “people in the company”).
• If a collaborator holds multiple permission sets, the least restrictive set takes precedence. For example, a Viewer who accesses a shared link set to allow Edit access gets Edit rights on that item.

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Available on Business and Enterprise accounts