How Do Admins Create and Manage Guest Accounts

How Do Admins Create and Manage Guest Accounts

In addition to collaborating and sharing content with internal users, end users can also share files and folders with outside third parties. These outside users are called guests. Guest accounts are intended for users who are not members of the specific organization. These guest users have limited access to the system for a fixed period of time, allowing for the transfer of files or folders, or for group collaboration on specific content.

When an end-user sends a secure share to a person outside of their organization, they are automatically creating a guest account within the system, and giving that guest access to the file or folder that was shared. For more information, please reference the Individual Shares and Guest Uploads Knowledge Base article.

Administrators can see and manage all guest accounts that have been created in the system; administrators can also manually create guest accounts for temporary users, such as consultants or temporary employees. Optionally, these guest accounts can be turned into standard user accounts, if necessary.

As a security feature, administrators can also delete these guests, thereby revoking all access to shared files or folders.

Creating and Managing Guest Accounts from the Administrative Web Portal

To manually create guest accounts:

1. In the Organization navigation menu, select the organization in which you want to manually create guests. The selected organization displays.
2. Click the Guests tab. The Guest Accountspage displays, listing all of your existing guests.
3. In the Guest Accounts page, click the Create Guest Account button.
   
   The Guest Settings page displays.
4. In the Guest Settings page, enter information about the guest account, including:
   • In the First Name field, enter the user’s first name.
   • In the Last Name field, enter the guest user’s last name.
   • In the Email field, enter the guest user’s email address.
   • In the Password field, enter password credentials; alternatively, click the Auto-Generate checkbox to allow the system to automatically generate a password for the guest user.
   • In the Confirm Password field, retype to confirm the password if it was manually typed into the Password field.
   • Use the Password Expires field if you would like to generate a time-sensitive password for the new guest user. You can select from 6 hours, 12 hours, or 24 hours. If you do not want to generate a time-sensitive password, leave this drop-down field set to Never.
   • By default, the Send Welcome Email checkbox is selected, which will send a welcome email to the new guest, containing information about how to access the system. Uncheck this checkbox if you do not wish to send a welcome email.
   • Click the Save button when you are finished.
     
5. Optionally, to send a message to a guest user, select the checkbox next to the appropriate account, and click the Send Message button.
   
   An Email Guests dialog box displays, allowing you to compose an email message directly from your web browser. You can also click the Send reset password link checkbox to provide the selected guest account with a link to reset his or her password.
   
6. To delete a guest account from the system, and revoke access to all items that were shared with that guest, click the Delete button.
   

Converting Guest Accounts to Standard Accounts

You can also convert a guest account to a standard user account.

1. In the Guests page, click the Edit button.
   
   The Guest Account Settings page displays, allowing you to edit the guest account.
2. In the Guest Account Settings page, click the Convert to Standard Account button.
   
   You will be asked to confirm this change.