Why can't I invite people to a board?

[jackie.yourflexibleoffice]

I've invited people previously to my boards, but when I click on invite this time, it wants me to create a team rather than just letting me put in an email to invite that person, why is it doing this?

[Iain Dooley · Accepted solution]

@jackie.yourflexibleoffice I haven't seen that behaviour can you post a screenshot?

[jackie.yourflexibleoffice]

Hi Iain, I've checked and it is a private board, and this is what comes up.

[Iain Dooley]

@jackie.yourflexibleoffice Okay, well I guess they want you to create a team :)

I already have a team or two so I don't see this, but you can create a free team and then continue creating personal boards and inviting people to them.

[jackie.yourflexibleoffice]

Thanks Iain, weird as I've never seen this before, but I'll give it a go and create teams.  Would anyone I invite have to be a team member, or can I go back to inviting individuals by their emails?

[Iain Dooley]

@jackie.yourflexibleoffice You just need to create at least one free team. You don't need to invite anyone to it, or pay for it, you just need to have one (I assume anyway). And yes, once you've done that, you can just keep using personal boards and inviting people by email to them.

[jackie.yourflexibleoffice]

That's worked, thank you, your advice has been much appreciated. 

Kind regards

Jackie

[Michael Pryor]

We are moving to a model where you can think of Teams as Workspaces and all boards will be in a Workspace. There are a lot of small changes we need to make (and some big ones) to get there but you can imagine the end state as all boards are in a Workspace (and a Workspace is essentially what we call a Team today). 

One of these changes is that you will be prompted to put your board into a Team if you are collaborating with other people. (It’s rolling out in stages)

[jackie.yourflexibleoffice]

Thank you Michael for giving the heads up, I must admit it was confusing me as I hadn't seen that before.  Are you able to send out notifications of changes we can expect when we log on, that would have helped me today, but I appreciate your explanation.

[Jill]

@Lian_Dooley Can you possibly help? 

Each month I create boards for my clients... I need to be able to add them to a board by inviting them. 

I tried creating a team. But when I went to do the NEXT month, it says that I will have to pay for each member?! 

I need to be able to send to the same people each month... but they are clients, not really team members. ??? 

[Michael Pryor]

You only have to pay for guests in a team if you add them to more than one board in the team. If they are only on ONE board, you won’t have to pay for them. 

This hasn’t changed recently. It’s been this way for over a year. 

You can read more here: https://help.trello.com/article/1123-multi-board-guests

[Jill]

Right... but I used to be able to create PERSONAL boards and add people. I work with some people EACH month. 

I make a board for the 2 of us. So each month they need a board. Now that I can't just add then to a personal board, I am at a loss... PLEASE HELP!

[Iain Dooley]

@Jill my question would be: do you really need a new board each month? Or could you just reset your existing board and keep an archive for your own purposes? Can you describe in a bit more detail what you're using the boards for each month with each of your clients? The other option is just to add $15/month onto whatever you bill your clients, then you can have them as guests on as many boards as you like and they're effectively paying for the fact that they're members of a business class team. If you're working with people in a consulting engagement, $15 doesn't sound like too hectic of a price increase ... 

[Jill]

I really do need new boards. It would be WAY too much work to edit the current ones - different subjects each month. I used trello on purpose, as I work with people that can't afford much. I work at a huge discount for everyone.

AND quite honestly using the teams is way more of a hassle. Can't we go back to the other way? I don't feel like one additional person on a board is a "team"... can we make it so that you can add ONE person?

[Iain Dooley]

@Jill I don't really understand the specifics of how you're using the boards so it's difficult to say, but it seems like unless your clients need historical access to all boards from all previous months, then the amount of work involved in this would be pretty minimal, you just need to remove them from the previous month before creating this month's board.

If they do need historical access to all boards, then a simple solution would just be for them to copy the board, then it would be *their* personal board, it wouldn't be part of your team, you'd remove them from your team copy before creating next month's board, and Bob's your uncle. You both have a copy of what you worked on in previous months, and you have your current month's board that you're both a member of. You can have your business class team that you only pay for yourself on, and each of your clients is a single board guest.

[Jill]

Oh, ok. That is helpful, thanks. I guess they could copy it and I can remove them... I have been playing with other things tonight. Thanks for your help. 

I have that now... Business class team... single board guest (each of them)... 

Thanks again! 

[lylemuller]

Dear Iain and Michael,

Thanks for your posts in this thread - I recently was having the same issue with my personal Trello boards, and this cleared everything up. I'd just like to quickly follow up on these points.

The key point in this modification is that personal boards are now, in effect, a Team. While this likely will not affect many users (most people probably only have a few personal boards), for those who have many personal boards this is not a minor change. In fact, this is fundamentally changing the freemium model originally introduced by Trello, which they specifically promised would not ever change.

I realize that I can create any number of Teams to get around this change; however, I still would like to note that this will require me to fundamentally restructure the way I work with Trello. I'm disappointed as this has been central to my workflow for many years.

I apologize, as well, for posting this in a public comment - at the same time, however, I think it's important this point be noted clearly.

[Sarah]

I have had the same issue. I have a board for each client and now instead of inviting them to a board, I have to create a team and invite them. Not the end of the world, but has been confusing and creates an extra step. 

[geoffrey auzou]

I use board to follow up on projects. Each board has it's own set of members. now with the Team approach it looks like I will have to create 1 team for each board with a single board in each team... it seems a bit futile, silly and more work ... :( #disapointed. 

[Michael Pryor]

No, you don’t need to do that. 

Make one team called Geoffreys Boards and put all your boards in there. Then just continue inviting people to those boards like you did before. 

All boards will eventually be in a team. And most people will only ever have one team. 

[geoffrey auzou]

Thanks for your prompt reply Michael. Some people I work with are members of more than 1 board and some others are part of a single board (at least with me)

However what is important is that there is an element of confidentiality within a team / board f/ project or a specific client. If I put all the boards in a single team and then invite members to differents boards all in that "space" will they be able to see each other, join or even see other boards ... It just seems more complicated than it actuallyis today, and for what purpose ?  It's a bit frustrating to discover this evening (based in Paris, France) when creating a new board that this has been rolled out with very limited communication (I might have missed it but I don't think so)

Beside this hickup, keep up the good work. Trello is awesome (please don't break it ...) and I do recommend it all around me, including in the trainings I give. 

Kind regards

Geoffrey

[Michael Pryor]

Invites and permissions work same as before. If you invite people just to boards, they only see the board they are on.  

If you put them on the team then any board you made team visible would be visible to them. 

As I said, this change is a step to having all boards in teams. This will be a change for existing users, but new users will just start with a team in place so there will be no change for them. Once you have the team and the boards are in it, the actions you do now are the same as before. 

[Megan Ly]

This is very disappointing and completely changes the freemium model.

[sergey]

The additional point of confusion and frustration is that documentation is not up to date with that mess. :)

For example, this article here still suggests you can add people to the private board https://help.trello.com/article/717-adding-people-to-a-board , not mentions of mandatory teams. 

[onlineKarma]

It does not make any sense. Please switch back to the old and useful model. USD 10.- per User and Month is way too expensive to make an upgrade.

[Rose McClelland]

@lylemuller hits the nail on the head. This update removes the ability to create unlimited boards for free with collaborators. We currently do not use a Business Class team, as we have been able to operate using personal boards, adding other individuals (internal & external), and upgrading specific individuals to Trello Gold when appropriate/needed. 

Limiting 10 boards to a free team, essentially forces anyone who wants to collaborate on >10 boards to upgrade to Business Class (many businesses/individuals operate using more than 10 boards) - a much more costly endeavour than Trello Gold. To be honest, it seems to be forcing free/Gold users onto Business Class teams - without the notification that this change was coming. 

As Lyle mentioned, one could create multiple free teams as needed, but this does affect one's workflow & process. 

During a time when most businesses are in a period of belt-tightening, this change is disheartening as many who have already paid for Trello Gold (~$45p/annum) will soon need to commit to a pricier monthly subscription.

[Vedmant]

This looks like an end of Trello for me, I just tried to create a personal board and add two people and I couldn't as it asks for the team, when I don't use any teams as I work mostly with one two persons on different boards, mostly different clients. I had to search for alternative and started to use Github projects instead of Trello. I was actually expecting something like this would happed after Atlassian's acquire.

[ollydix]

This is how you ruin a nice simple product. I don't want to make teams; I just want to manage people and clients. Now I don't know if they will be hidden from one another with this teams crap.

[MarkB]

Yep - it's all about "Monetizing the asset". Painful but as old as the internet - build a loyal user base who like the features and help develop them - then take it all away until you pay.