Getting started with Pro Teams

Note: If you purchased Pro Teams prior to March 2023, click here for our legacy teams support guide.

Congratulations on choosing Pro Teams. With Pro Teams you can:

Easily manage separate Sync accounts for each of your team members.
Consolidate existing Sync accounts that your team members may have already created.
Set up centralized folders that your entire team can access.
Enable secure sharing with clients and customers.
Protect your company data by keeping it securely backed up in the cloud.

Additionally, with the Pro Teams+ Unlimited plan, you can:

Create multiple Administrators.
Set up role-based access controls (RBAC).
Enforce 2FA company-wide.
Enable or disable sharing features and permanent deletion per user or group.
Get access to scheduled phone support during regular business hours.

In this article:

Administrator account
What defines a user?
Adding a new user account
Transferring in an existing Sync.com account
Managing and removing users and passwords
Managing roles (RBAC)
Setting up team share folders for centralized file access
Sharing externally to clients and customers
Account security
Increasing the number of user seats
Transferring the admin account to a different user

1. Administrator account

Pro Teams includes an administrator “super-user” account. If you purchased the plan, you’re automatically assigned this role. From the Pro Teams+ admin panel you can:

Set up and manage separate user accounts for each team member (employee).
Create, manage, and assign users to roles, including multiple Administrators (only available on Pro Teams+ Unlimited).
Create and manage permissions (only available on Pro Teams+ Unlimited).
Manage passwords for each team member.
Monitor access and storage space usage per user account.
Manage account billing for all user accounts (single invoice centralized billing).

The account administrator maintains ownership of all user accounts and files.

To access the admin panel:

Sign in to the web panel.
Click the Users tab on the top menu bar, to access the admin panel. The Users tab is only available to Pro Teams+ account administrators (not sub-users).

2. What defines a user?

A Pro Teams user is defined as an internal team member (typically an employee within your organization). External people you share with (such as clients and customers) do not count as users, as Pro Teams+ includes unlimited external sharing.

3. Adding a new user account

Adding your team members as users gives each member their own Sync account and sign-in credentials. If the people you are adding do not have a Sync account, they are considered new users, otherwise skip down to transferring in an existing Sync.com account, if they already have Sync accounts.

To add a new user account:

Sign in to the web panel.
Click the Users tab on the top menu bar, to access the admin panel.
Click + Invite user.
Upload a CSV file or manually enter users (see instructions below).
Click the Invite button.

Uploading a CSV file:

Uploading a comma-separated values file is an alternative option better suited for provisioning multiple users in bulk. Download this CSV template file to get started (fill it in and upload it from the Invite Users prompt).

Manually adding users:

To manually add users, simply type or paste in their email addresses. Hitting enter or tab will confirm and move the email to the bottom of the text box. Click the Invite button to complete the process. This will send an email invite out to each user being added.

CSV file troubleshooting

Make sure there are no empty rows
Make sure the first two columns (email and role) are not blank. Set the role column to Default User.
For custom roles (only available on Pro Teams+ Unlimited) make sure the roles already exist in your account
Make sure you do not have more users (rows) than empty seats within your account

What happens next?

Once you have added users, an email verification will be sent to each user, requesting that they activate their account. Billing and upgrade options for the user will not be visible for users (these features are managed exclusively under your Admin account).

4. Transferring in an existing Sync.com account

Important: Before inviting an existing Sync user, ensure they have installed the latest version of the desktop and mobile app.

You may have team members that previously created their own Sync.com accounts. With Pro Teams+ you can consolidate these accounts, which makes management and billing easier, and ensures that you retain ownership of your organization’s accounts and files.

To transfer in an existing Sync user account:

Follow the add user instructions above.

Accepting a transfer invite:

For security, each user you invite will be sent an email confirmation, which will start a one-time data migration. Users are required to:

Open the email invite.
Click a confirmation link in the email.
Click confirm on the Sync.com website to start the data migration.
Re-authenticate their devices when the migration is complete. Desktop users will need to manually resume the app, and follow the re-activation prompts. For mobile devices users are prompted next time they open the app.
Note: The data migration can take anywhere from a few seconds, to a few hours, depending on the size of the account being transferred (number of files). During migration access to the account is temporarily disabled. Users will be notified via email when the migration is complete, and be prompted to -authenticate their devices to resume syncing.

5. Managing and removing users and passwords

You can manage user settings from the Pro Teams user admin console. If you want to manage granular permissions per user, per folder, you would do so by creating team shared folders.

To access user settings:

Sign in to the web panel.
Click the Users tab on the top menu bar to access the admin panel.
Click the (ellipsis) icon beside the user you want to manage and choose one of the following settings.

Password reset: This allows you to choose a new password for each user.

Change role: This will allow you to choose a new role for the user (only available on Pro Teams+ Unlimited).

Remove user: There are two options here. The first allows the user to keep their account open but downgraded to a free account with all the files and data still available. The second option destroys the whole account, including all its data. Both options free up a seat on your team.

Once you have removed a user, if you no longer require the user seat, contact Sync support to have it removed, so it doesn’t renew at the end of the current billing term.

6. Managing roles (RBAC)

The Pro Teams+ Unlimited plan includes role-based access control. Administrators can create roles (such as Sales, HR, Management, etc.) and assign different permissions for each role. Each user can be assigned to one role. Role permissions include:

Purge Files – Permanently delete data (Administrator).
Manage Users – View, add, and edit users (Administrator).
Manage Roles – View, add, and edit roles (Administrator).
Can Share Links – Enable link sharing (Administrator, Default User).
Link Password – Make passwords a requirement when sharing links.
Link Expiry – Make shared links auto-expire after a set time.
Can Create Team Shares – Enable folder sharing and collaboration (Administrator, Default User).
Force 2FA – Enforce email-based two-factor authentication.

Default roles:

Pro Teams includes two non-configurable out-of-the-box roles:

Administrator – super-user permissions with the ability to control all aspects of the account.
Default User – a non-admin default role for additional users added or transferred into the account. Default users cannot purge files, cannot add or manage other users, and cannot add or manage roles.

With the Pro Teams+ Unlimited plan you can clone the Administrator role (by creating a new role named ‘Administrator 2’) and assign the cloned Administrator 2 role to multiple users. Pro Teams Standard supports only one Administrator, which is automatically assigned to the account owner (first account).

7. Setting up team share folders for centralized file access

Once you’ve set up user accounts you will want to create team shared folders, which enable centralized file access and collaboration. With team shared folders you can:

Automatically synchronize folders and files to some or all team members.
Manage view only or view and edit access permissions per user, per folder.
Track file changes per user.
Revoke access anytime.

You can create and manage team shared folders yourself, or delegate the management of shared folders to any other user.

See the creating team shared folders article for more details.

8. Sharing externally to clients and customers

Pro Teams includes unlimited external file sharing with links, and the people you share with do not need a Sync account. With shared links you can:

Send files or folders externally, to just about anyone.
Request files (get people to upload / send you files).
Set access permissions including custom passwords, download restrictions (preview only), expiry dates, activity notifications and more.
Revoke access anytime.
Share large files without bulky email attachments.

You or any team member can create shared links.

See the creating shared links article for more details.

9. Account Security

Users can enable security settings such as two-factor authentication from their account settings tab:

Instruct your users to sign in to the web panel. You could also sign in on their behalf if you set their password when creating their account.
Click the Username on the top right side of the menu bar
Select Settings
Click the Security tab.

10. Increasing the number of user seats

If you have used up your existing user seats, you can add additional seats as follows:

Sign in to the web panel.
Click the Users tab on the top menu bar to access the admin panel.
Click + Purchase user.
Choose the number of additional users to add.
Click Add user.
Enter your billing details and click Next step to process the order.

Increasing the number of seats requires Administrator role access. When you add additional user seats, billing is pro-rated for the remainder of the current term. This ensures that the renewal date for all users is aligned, which makes single invoice billing on renewal easier to understand. You would then be billed the full amount at the end of the term (on renewal, if you choose to renew the user seat).

11. Transferring the admin account to a different user

The Pro Teams administrator can transfer ownership as follows:

Sign in to the web panel as the current administrator.
Click the Email address or display name at the top right corner of the blue navigation bar, and select Settings.
Click Edit beside the administrator email address.
Enter the email address of the new administrator.
Enter the existing account password.
A verification email will be sent to the current administrator with further instructions.

To transfer ownership of your account you will need to change the email address as outlined above, as well as update/remove your billing profile, and enable email-based password reset (allowing the new owner to reset the account password easily).

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