Dropbox is a file hosting service and collaboration space. Onna integrates with Dropbox Business' API to extract all related data and metadata from entire company Dropbox accounts and/or specific user accounts.  

This article describes our integration with Dropbox Business, which is a type of enterprise account that Dropbox offers.

For a short video overview of collecting from Dropbox Business, please see below:

Integration Features

Type of Account Needed
To start a collection, you'll need a Team Admin account on a Dropbox for business account. 

All files are synced, including, but not limited to: 

• Native files that have been uploaded

• Microsoft Office files created in Dropbox 

• Dropbox Paper Files

• Related Metadata (create date, folder path, and revision id)

Limitations
Currently the integration does not collect Google Drive files that have been created in Dropbox.

Onna Sync Modes

We currently support 3 syncing modes - one-time, auto, and auto-sync & archive.

• One-time is a one-way sync that collects information only once.

• Auto-sync means that Onna will perform a full sync first and will keep the data source and Onna in mirrored sync.*

• Auto-sync and archive means that Onna will perform a full sync first and continuously pull any changes into an archive. 

*Please note that permanently deleting a file from Dropbox (without moving it to the Trash folder) will not delete it from from Onna due to a limitation in Dropbox's API.

Note: Pay As You Go users and Free Trial users can only create one-time sync datasources. If you would like to upgrade your account for archive collections please contact our customer success team.

Data Exports

Yes, you can export data and metadata in eDiscovery ready format. Load files are available in a dat file, CSV, or custom text file.  

How to Guide

For this integration, you'll need to be an admin within your Onna account. We also recommend signing into your Dropbox Business account in your browser. If you are using a service account, we recommend signing out of your regular account and signing back in with the service account credentials before running the collection. 

Either from within a workspace or My Onna, click to add a source. Select Dropbox Business

First, you'll be asked to name your source. This is the source's title on the Onna platform. If you're naming for eDiscovery purposes a common convention is to name it after the company or account individual. 

Onna Sync Modes

We currently support three syncing modes - one-time, auto-sync, & auto-sync and archive.

• One-time is a one-way sync that collects information only once.

• Auto-sync means that Onna will perform a full sync first and will keep the data source and Onna in mirrored sync.

• Auto-sync and archive means that Onna will perform a full sync and archive the information collected. Onna will then automatically sync and archive any new information after the original sync. 

Once you've named your source and added dates if needed, click 'Connect.' 

Note: If you're adding dates, note that the platform will use the server modified date from the Dropbox API to collect files. This may not be the date modified visible on the Dropbox UI. Dates do not apply to Dropbox Paper files. 

You will then have the option to manually add Dropbox users by copying and pasting a list of emails or selecting to 'Load users list' which will give you a list of all of the accounts available.

Select to load all users may take a few minutes, depending on the size of your organization. Afterwards, you'll see a list of accounts. These will be listed by alphabetical order and will include there name and email. The emails below have been blurred out.  

You can select all accounts with the 'Select All' button. You can also select multiple accounts by using the checkbox. Once you've selected the accounts you'd like to sync, click 'Next'

By default all folders are selected to sync. The total number of top level folders available to sync for each account will be to the right of each account.

You can choose to 'Deselect all' folders on the top right side and individual accounts can now be selected by using the checkbox. By clicking on the checkbox next to the account name all folders will be selected to sync. Clicking on the arrow to the left of the account name will display the current folder structure for the account. Individual top level and sub-level folders can be selected by using the checkbox. If subfolders exist within a top level folder you will have the option to 'Remove Children'. Removing children will deselect all subfolders that exist within the top level folder.

On this page you can also choose whether to sync future top level folders created in the future if your source is in auto-sync or auto-sync and archive. New folders and any future subfolders belonging to the selected folder that are added to Dropbox will automatically be added to Onna. 

After finalizing your selection, click "Next."

You can choose to sync all Dropbox files or all Dropbox and Dropbox paper files
Once you have completed the file selection, click 'Done'. 

If you have selected to sync all folders for an individual account & all Team folders you will have the option to retrieve a list of dropbox files and filter the source based on specific key terms.

As seen in the below screenshot you can click the ‘get list’ button to retrieve the count of the number of files available for the account. Once the count is returned you can download the metadata of the files by clicking ‘download’.

When you choose the option to ‘Filter Dropbox files’, results are based on the search terms provided. Multiple search terms can be added, but must be separated by a comma. Once you have provided a key term click ‘Test results’ to confirm the number of files that will be returned and the approximate size. In addition a CSV can be downloaded to view the metadata that was retrieved from the search that was previously run. Examples of metadata fields included in the CSV are File name, File Path, and File Size. Clicking ‘Done’ will create the E-Dropbox source based on the search terms that were provided.

Note: Filters are done with the set of metadata provided by Dropbox that does not include OCR of images and has less processed fields.

The account will begin synchronizing. This integration will now appear in your Sources page and within your workspace if you've added it there. Files will be processed and indexed so that all are searchable. When you click on the Dropbox source, you will start seeing results being populated. Below is a sample notification you'll see in your notification panel.

Once your data source sync has completed, you'll receive an email notification. When you click on the Dropbox Business data source, you will start seeing results being populated.

From this screen, you are able to filter results by date range, file type, label, and/or owner in Onna using the menu on the left. 

Onna now supports viewing the folder structure from Dropbox in your Onna. By default this will be the view when entering the data source:

You can click into a folder to navigate your structure, or search within by right-clicking:

You can learn more about accessing and navigating the source's collection audit logs in this article.

Interested in collecting from Dropbox Business?

FAQ

Will Onna collect files shared via Dropbox, or only files within the actual Dropbox account?

Onna will collect all files in Dropbox the user has access to.If the file was created & shared via an external organization, the Dropbox user must add the shared folder to their account in order for Onna to collect the folder/files.