Remove a person or a PC

Remove someone from a team library, or one of their PCs, then remove them from the folder's sharing.

Only the library’s primary owner removes people and PCs, on their approving PC (see The primary owner). If you’re not the primary owner, ask them.

Removing switches the library to a new key straight away. People and PCs you remove can’t read edits made after every PC has picked up the change. They keep what they already had: removal never takes back what someone could already read or copy.

Remove a person

1. Click Settings in the sidebar, then Libraries & sharing.

2. Under Libraries, click Manage next to the library.

3. Under Members, find the person and click Remove [name].

   

4. Click OK to confirm.

All of their PCs stop getting new changes. Then do the two follow-ups below.

Remove them from the shared folder too

PromptMason can’t change your cloud storage’s sharing. Until you do, the removed person can still see the folder’s files. The files are locked, so they can’t read new edits. Notifications shows Remove them from the shared folder too until you click Done.

• OneDrive, SharePoint, Google Drive or Dropbox: in your cloud storage, stop sharing the folder with the person, or remove their access to it. Your provider’s help explains how.
• A network drive: ask whoever looks after it to remove the person’s access.

Then click Done on the item in Notifications.

Waiting for PCs to pick up the change

Notifications may also show Waiting for PCs to pick up the change: “These PCs haven’t picked up the new key yet: …”. Those PCs haven’t synced since the library switched to its new key. Anything they save before they do may still be readable by the person you removed. The item clears by itself as each PC syncs. To speed it up, ask the people listed to open PromptMason with their cloud storage running.

Remove one PC

To remove a single PC, for example a laptop someone lost:

1. Click Settings in the sidebar, then Libraries & sharing.

2. Under Libraries, click Manage next to the library.

3. Under Members, find the PC under its person, shown as its code and name (for example “38C5 - Alex’s laptop”), and click Remove this PC.

4. Read the Remove [PC] from [library]? window. That PC still holds its person’s keys, so removing it also replaces them. That’s the only way to lock a lost or stolen PC out for good.

   

5. If the PC confirmed other PCs as its person’s, the window says so (“1 other PC it approved goes too”). They’re removed with it.

6. Click Remove and replace keys.

What happens next to the person’s keys:

• They have another PC in the library. That PC asks them to Replace my keys and save a new recovery kit. You then see A member made a new recovery kit: click Review, then Approve. Until then, their old kit opens nothing new.
• They have no other PC. When they set up a new PC, they join with Yes, but I’ve lost every PC I used it on, and you reset their identity after a quick call. See Lost or stolen PC or kit.
• It’s one of your own PCs. PromptMason goes straight on to make you new keys and a new recovery kit. See Lost or stolen PC or kit.

If the window is titled Two copies of … are writing, the PC’s disk was copied. See Sync problems.

What the removed person sees

Their PC shows You no longer have access to this library: “You have been removed from [library]. Your copy stays on this PC, read-only.” (or “This PC was removed from [library]” for a single PC). When they no longer need the copy, they click Take it off this PC, then OK. This removes it from their PC only.

Changes they made that hadn’t been sent yet when the removal reached their PC aren’t shared. Their PC says Some changes weren’t shared, “… made after this PC was removed weren’t shared. Export them if you need them.” To keep that work, they open each item and copy the text they need into their personal library before they take the library off their PC.