Help/Teams & permissions/Workspace roles & project sharing

Workspace roles & project sharing

Two different things in Total Vault: workspace members (Admin or Member) with access to everything, and sharing one project with someone who never gets a seat.

6 min readUpdated 2 June 2026

01Two different kinds of access

Total Vault has two separate ways to give someone access, and it helps to keep them straight from the start.

  • Workspace members belong to your whole workspace. They can browse, upload, and organize across every project. There are two roles: Admin and Member.
  • Sharing a project hands one project (or one folder) to a specific person — without giving them a seat in your workspace. They only ever see what you shared with them.

Rule of thumb: bring teammates in as members; give a guest or a one-off collaborator access by sharing the single project; send a client the project's gallery.

02Workspace members: Admin and Member

A member is someone with a seat in your workspace. Whatever they do, the files live in — and count against — the workspace, not their own account. Members come in exactly two roles:

  • Admin — everything a Member can do, plus manage billing, invite and remove people, change roles, and edit workspace settings.
  • Member — full read and write across every project: browse, upload, rename, organize, search, and share.
There is no separate "read-only member." If you want to give someone limited or single-project access, share the project with them instead (next section) — that keeps them out of the rest of your workspace.

03Invite a member

Inviting teammates is an Admin action. Here's the walk-through:

  • Open Settings → Members.
  • Click Invite.
  • Type the person's email and pick a role — Member or Admin.
  • Click Send invite. They get an email with a link to join; the link expires in 7 days.
Teammates are a Pro feature. Pro includes 3 people, then $10/mo for each extra person. Guests and clients are always free. If you're on Solo, you'll be asked to switch to Pro in Billing first. See pricing for the details.

04Manage members & pending invites

Back on Settings → Members, Admins see everyone in the workspace plus any invites that haven't been accepted yet. Open the menu next to a member to:

  • Promote to admin or Demote to member.
  • Remove from workspace — this revokes their access. Anything they uploaded stays in the workspace; the files belong to the workspace, not the departing person.
  • Revoke a pending invite that hasn't been accepted.
You can't demote or remove the only Admin — a workspace always needs at least one. Promote someone else to Admin first.

05Share a single project

When you only want to give someone one project, like a guest shooter or a collaborator, share it directly. They never take up a seat, and they only see what you shared. Open a project (or folder), then open its Share dialog. A client gets the project's gallery instead.

To give a named person access, type their email under Add people by email and choose what they can do:

  • Can view — look at and download everything in the project.
  • Can edit — everything above, plus upload, rename, and share.

There's also a deeper level — a Manager, who can additionally move and delete — but it isn't offered as a new choice in the dropdown today; it only appears on grants that already have it. For most sharing, Can view and Can edit are what you'll use.

06Share with a link

If you'd rather not list people one by one, the same Share dialog gives you a link under General access. Pick the kind of link and copy it:

  • File browser link — opens the project in a familiar folder view.
  • Gallery link — a clean, full-screen gallery of the photos. Turn it on with Create gallery link.

Links are look-and-download only — anyone who opens one can preview and download, but never upload or change anything. You can set a link to Anyone with the link or Restricted, give it an expiry (7, 30, or 90 days, or never), and remove it whenever you like.

07Which one should I use?

  • A colleague who works across all your projects → invite them as a Member (or Admin if they should manage billing and people).
  • A client → the project's gallery: only the folders you pick, and no sign-in needed.
  • A second shooter or collaborator who needs to upload into one project → share it, Can edit.
Still unsure, or moving a large archive across? Email support@totalvault.ai or reach us from the contact page. We answer within one business day.