Invite external partners to a project group or to a folder

Employees and students of the FAU and its partner universities can also invite external partners to transregional projects using the FAUbox. External partners will then be temporarily (2 years) added to the system and receive a guest account which will be closed by default once the project has ended. External partners do not get any personal storage space assigned but they can upload and/or create files and sub-directories (in the top-level folder that has been shared with them) while the occupied storage space is deducted from the storage quota of the inviting person.

1. To invite an external partner to a top-level folder:

1. Visit the FAUbox web interface and log in.
2. Click on the link sign or on the information regarding the member number for the top-level folder that you want to invite the external partner to.
   
3. First, make sure that the person you wish to invite does not already have an account in the FAUbox. It might be that the given person has already been invited in the context of a different FAUbox project. Enter the email address of the external partner into the search field. It is important that you use a working email address since the external partner will receive his FAUbox login credentials via that email address.
   
   Decide on the permission (that the partner should have to the top-level folder) by selecting one from the drop-down menu next to the search bar and click on the plus sign to send off the invitation.
4. Afterward, the invited guest will appear on the member list. The paper plane next to the name implies that the invitation has been sent but was not yet accepted.
   
5. Meanwhile the invited partner will receive two emails, one welcoming him and asking for registration, while the other one contains the folder invitation link.
6. As soon as he has accepted the folder invitation, the member list will change into the following display:
   
7. Done! The external partner has been successfully invited to the FAUbox and is now a folder member.

2. Extension of project duration

Every account is automatically extended for two years with every login. This would theoretically mean that an account never expires in case of regular usage. However, the expiry dates of internal accounts are controlled and limited via SSO while the accounts of external users are closed once the project (which they were working on via FAUbox) has come to an end. However, if there is a need for further cooperation within the group, the access of the external partner to the project can be extended on request of the inviting person. In this case, please email your request to the FAUbox Support Team.

3. Inviting internal users to trans-regional project-groups

You can give internal users access to the files and folders of the project group by either inviting them to the group or giving them explicit rights to the folders in the group. You can find a detailed guide on how to do that here:

Before inviting an internal person using their email address, please make sure that that address already exists, and that it is the official university email address of the person you wish to invite. You will otherwise end up creating a second account without storage space for that person!