Getting Started with U-M Dropbox

U-M Dropbox is available to all active faculty, staff, students, emeritus faculty, and Type-1 sponsored affiliates on the Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint campuses and Michigan Medicine. Individual accounts have a storage limit of 5TB.

Create a U-M Dropbox Account

Important: If you also have a personal Dropbox account, ensure you are logged out of that account on the web and the desktop application before creating your U-M Dropbox account. Additionally, if your personal (non-UM) Dropbox account is associated with your @umich.edu email address, you will be prompted to change the email on that account in order to join U-M Dropbox (do not select "Join the umich.edu account" when prompted in this scenario).
  1. Go to dropbox.umich.edu.
Caution: Do not go to dropbox.com to sign in to U-M Dropbox. Do not select "Sign in with Google" or "Sign in with Apple," as neither of these options will sign you into U-M Dropbox.
  1. Sign in with your uniqname and UMICH password via U-M Weblogin.
  2. Click Continue on the "Single sign-on" page after login.
  3. Confirm your name is listed correctly and check the I agree to the Dropbox Business Agreement box on the "Welcome to University of Michigan's Dropbox Business" page.
  4. Click Finish joining the team.

After following these steps, your account will be automatically created, and you will be taken to the U-M Dropbox homepage.

Migrate an existing account associated with your @umich.edu email address to U-M Dropbox

Caution: It is not recommended that you choose to migrate/combine your personal @umich.edu account with your U-M Dropbox account. When you leave the university, you lose access to U-M Dropbox, which means you also lose access to any personal data that you migrated to your U-M account. There is no way to separate the two accounts after they've been combined. You will have to manually download any data you wish to keep before you leave the university.

We recommend you keep the accounts separate by changing the @umich.edu email address associated with your personal Dropbox account before joining U-M Dropbox.

There are two possible scenarios you may encounter:

Scenario #1

  1. Go to dropbox.umich.edu and log in via U-M Weblogin.
  2. Select Transfer to University of Michigan when prompted.
  3. Click Join University of Michigan.

You will then be taken to the U-M Dropbox homepage, where your files and folder structures should be. Your collaborations will remain untouched when the accounts are combined.

Scenario #2

  1. Log in to your account from dropbox.umich.edu.
  2. Enter your @umich.edu email address and your personal account password. You will receive an email invite to migrate your account to the U-M Dropbox domain. You will be given the option to Combine Accounts or keep them separate.
  3. Click Combine Accounts to migrate your personal Dropbox account to the U-M Dropbox domain. Your collaborations and folder structures will remain untouched when the accounts are combined.  
Note: If you choose to keep the accounts separate, you will need to change the email address for your personal Dropbox account so that it is no longer associated with your U-M email address.

If the invite in Scenario #2 fails:

The invite will fail if you are already a part of a non-UM Dropbox Team. You can choose to:

Toggle between your personal Dropbox and U-M Dropbox accounts

Once you've created your U-M Dropbox account, you can link a personal Dropbox account so you can toggle between the two. Before adding your personal Dropbox account, ensure you are not logged in to the Dropbox desktop application.

Click your icon/initials in the top right corner of your U-M Dropbox homepage and select Add personal account. This will open a new page with the option to create a personal account to link with your U-M Dropbox account or sign in to your existing personal account. Refer to Switch between linked Dropbox accounts for more information.

Additional Information

Note: In U-M Dropbox, there is a limit of five connected computers (e.g., Mac, Windows, Linux) and five mobile devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, iOS, Android). These limits cannot be exceeded.