Share with another user
You have three ways to let someone see your stuff. They are different on purpose:
| Method | Recipient | Duration | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Share with another user | Specific paid ItemTrack user | Until you revoke | "My partner should see this box and only this box" |
| Public link | Anyone with the URL | 24 hours | "Show this item to a buyer / show insurance one inspection" |
| Household co-owner | Family-tier members of your household | Until you remove them | "My spouse manages everything with me" |
This article is about the first one — per-resource sharing with another paid user.
How to invite someone
Open the resource you want to share — a location, a box, or an item — and scroll to the Share this box / location / item card.
The card has two tabs at the top: With another user and Public link (24h). The first tab is what you want.
Enter the recipient's email, optionally add a short note ("here's what you asked about"), and hit Send invitation.
What happens next
We don't email the recipient — they get an in-app notification instead. When they next open ItemTrack and look at Messages (top nav), they'll see "Your name invited you to view Box label" with Accept and Decline buttons.
If they accept, they immediately gain read access to that one resource. The unread count on their Messages link goes up by 1 until they read the notification.
You also get a notification telling you the invitation was accepted, so you don't have to keep checking.
What the recipient can see
When the recipient opens a shared resource:
- They see exactly what you'd see if you opened the same page — title, description, brand/model, photos, items inside (for boxes), boxes inside (for locations).
- Encrypted private fields like serial number and purchase price are NOT visible to the recipient. Sharing doesn't give them the decrypt key — those fields stay private to you.
- A "Shared with me" badge appears at the top-right of the page where Edit/Delete buttons normally live, so the recipient knows this isn't their own resource.
What the recipient cannot do
- They can't edit anything. Any attempt to POST changes returns a "you can only view this" error.
- They can't delete the resource.
- They can't see other resources in your account. If they try to guess a URL of a different box, they get a 404.
- They can't share the resource further (no chain-sharing).
- They can't print QR labels or rotate QR Labels.
Recipient must be on a paid plan
The recipient's email must match an existing ItemTrack account, and that account must be on a paid tier. If you try to invite someone on a Free or Trial plan, you'll see "That user is not on a paid plan and cannot receive shares."
This is intentional. Persistent shared access is a paid-tier feature on both sides — both you (to invite) and them (to receive).
If the recipient doesn't have an account at all, you'll see "No registered user with that email." — ask them to sign up first, then re-invite.
Revoking access
The invite list at the bottom of the share card shows everyone you've invited. Each row has a Revoke link. Click it and access ends immediately:
- The recipient gets a "Your access to X was revoked" notification.
- Any open page they had loaded keeps showing data until they refresh, at which point they 404.
- The original invite notification is removed from their inbox so they don't have a stale "you have access" message floating around.
The recipient can also self-revoke from their own Messages → notification → Decline.
Multiple recipients
You can share the same resource with multiple users. Each invite is independent — revoke one without affecting the others.
Re-inviting someone after a revoke is allowed. The system creates a fresh invite, separate from the old (now-revoked) one. Audit log records both.
What's the difference between this and a household co-owner?
Different feature, different model:
- Per-resource share (this article): cross-tenant. Recipient stays in their own account, with their own inventory. They get a window into one of your boxes/items/locations. They can't see anything else of yours.
- Household co-owner (Inviting family): same tenant. Recipient joins your account as an additional user. They see everything in your household, can edit, can decrypt private fields. Family-tier feature.
Use per-resource share when you want to give targeted access. Use household co-owner when the relationship is "we own this together."
Audit trail
Every invite, accept, revoke is logged:
- sharing.invite — when you create the invite
- sharing.accept — when the recipient accepts
- sharing.revoke — on revocation (with revoked_by: owner or revoked_by: recipient)
The recipient's read access also updates a last_accessed_at timestamp on the share record, so you can tell when they actually viewed it.