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# Accessing your Files Using the ownCloud Web Interface

You can access your ownCloud files with the ownCloud Web interface, as well as create, preview, edit, delete, share, and re-share files.

Important

Your ownCloud administrator has the option to disable these features. If any of them are missing on your system ask your server administrator.

The ownCloud Files view UI.

## File Controls

When you mouseover, or hover, over a file in the Files view, as in the image below, ownCloud displays three file controls. These are:

- Marking Favorites
- Sharing Files
- The Overflow Menu

### Marking Favorites

Click the star to the left of the file icon to mark it as a favorite, and quickly find all of your favorites with the Favorites filter on the left sidebar.

### Sharing Files

The sharing files control is a shortcut to the file and folder sharing functionality within ownCloud. ownCloud sharing supports:

- Sharing files and folders with users or groups
- Creating public shares with hyperlinks
- Listing recipients of existing shares
- Deleting existing shares

Note

New in 9.0: you can see all re-shares of your original file shares.

### The Overflow Menu

The Overflow Menu allows you to:

- Display file details
- Rename files
- Download files
- Delete files

#### Display File Details

When you display details about a file, by clicking “Details” in the Overflow Menu, a set of tabs (or views) are available. These are:

View | Description
--- | ---
Details | This shows details about a file, such as its name, size, and when it was created or last updated.
Activity | This shows a history of activity on the file, such as when it was created, updated, and shared.
Sharing | It’s here that shares are managed. To know more, refer to the Share Files section.
Version | This shows a history of all the versions of the file. This is not available for folders.

You can see an example of the Activity view in the image below.

## Navigating Inside ownCloud

Navigating through folders in ownCloud is as simple as clicking on a folder to open it and using the back button on your browser to move to a previous level. ownCloud also provides a navigation bar at the top of the Files field for quick navigation.

### Create and Upload Files and Directories

Upload or create new files or folders directly in an ownCloud folder by clicking on the New button in the Files app.

The New button provides the following options:

Option | Description
--- | ---
Up arrow | Upload files from your computer into ownCloud. You can also upload files by dragging and dropping them from your file manager.
Text file | Creates a new text file and adds the file to your current folder.
Folder | Creates a new folder in the current folder.

### Select Files or Folders

You can select one or more files or folders by clicking on their checkboxes. To select all files in the current directory, click on the checkbox located at the top of the files listing.

When you select multiple files, you can delete all of them, or download them as a ZIP file by using the `Delete` or `Download` buttons that appear at the top.

Note

If the `Download` button is not visible, the administrator has disabled this feature.

### Filter the Files View

The right sidebar on the Files page contains several filters for quickly sorting and managing your files.

Option | Description
--- | ---
All files | The default view; displays all files that you have access to
Favorites | Files or folders marked with the yellow star
Shared with you | Displays all files shared with you by another user or group
Shared with others | Displays all files that you have shared with other users or groups
Shared by link | Displays all files that are shared by you via public link
External Storage | Files that you have access to on external storage devices and services such as Dropbox, Google, and Amazon S3

### Move Files

You can move files and folders by dragging and dropping them into any directory.

## Share Files

Clicking the share icon on any file or folder opens the Details view on the right, where the Share tab has focus.

### Sharing Status Icons

Any folder that has been shared is marked with the `Shared` overlay icon. Public link shares are marked with a chain link. Un-shared folders are blank.

If your ownCloud server is the Enterprise edition, you may also have access to Sharepoint and Windows Network Drive file shares. These have special status icons. An icon with a red plugin and background means you have to enter a login to get access to the share.

### Create A Share

To share a file or folder, immediately below the Share tab, you will see a text field. In this field, you can enter any number of users (whether local to your ownCloud server or remote) or groups who you would like to share the file or folder with.

If username auto-completion is enabled, when you start typing the user or group name ownCloud will automatically complete it for you, if possible.

After a file or folder has been shared, Share Permissions can be set on it. In the image below, you can see that the directory “event-Photos” is shared with the user “pierpont”, who can share, edit, create, change, and delete the directory.

#### Sharing Files with Guest Users

Users can also share files and folders with guest users. To do so, your ownCloud administrator will need to have installed the Guest application.

If it’s already installed, in the “User and Groups” field of the Sharing panel, type the username of a user who is not already a user in your ownCloud installation. You will then see a popup appear with the suffix `(guest)`, as in the screenshot below.

After you click the username in the list, you’ll see a modal dialog appear, where you can add the new user to the list of guest users.

The Name field will be pre-filled with the username you supplied. All you need to do is add the user’s email address, and click “Save and Share”. After you do that, the content will be shared with the user with all permissions applied, except for the ability to share with other users.

### Update A Share

To change any of the properties of a share, again, you first need to view the Share tab. From there, you can:

- Delete a user’s access to a share
- Give more users access to a share
- Change a user’s share permissions
- Add or remove password protection
- Set or remove a share’s expiration date

As this functionality is already described in other parts of the Sharing Files section, it won’t be specifically covered here.

### Delete A Share

Despite the name of this section, you don’t actually delete a share. Rather what you do is remove the access of user’s to whom it’s already been shared with. When all users access to a shared resource has been removed, the resource is no longer shared.

To do that, you need to click on the rubbish bin icon, on the far right-hand side of the name of each user it’s been shared with, who should no longer have access to it.

### Password Protect Files

It’s also possible to password protect shared files and folders. If you want to do so, then you need to enable this functionality. Specifically, click the checkbox labeled “Password protect” under the “Share Link” section.

When you do so, you’ll see a password field appear. In there, add the password that the user will need to enter to access the shared resource and press the return key.

### Using Private Links

Another way to access a file or folder is via a private link. It’s a handy way of creating a permanent link for yourself or to point others to a file or folder, within a share, more efficiently. To access the private link, in the Sharing Panel for a file or folder, next to its name you’ll see a small link icon (1), as in the screenshot below.

If you click it, a new textbox will appear above the “Collaborative tags” field, populated with the link’s URI (2).

Note

Only people who have access to the file or folder can use the link.

### Change The Share Expiration Date

In older versions of ownCloud, you could set an expiration date on both local and public shares. Since the most recent version three, key, changes have been made:

- You can only set an expiration date on public shares
- Local shares do not expire when public shares expire
- A local share can only be “expired” (or deleted) by clicking the trash can icon

### Create or Connect to Federation Share Links

Federated Cloud Sharing allows you to mount file shares from remote ownCloud servers, and manage them just like a local share. In ownCloud 8 the process for creating a new sharing link is easier and more streamlined. See Using Federation Shares to learn to how to create and connect to new Federated Cloud shares.

### Share Permissions

Shares can have a combination of the following five permission types:

Permission | Definition
--- | ---
can share | Allows the users you share with to re-share
can edit | Allows the users you share with to edit your shared files, and to collaborate using the Documents app
create | Allows the users you share with to create new files and add them to the share
change | Allows uploading a new version of a shared file and replacing it
delete | Allows the users you share with to delete shared files

## Custom Groups

In previous versions of ownCloud, if you wanted to share a file or a folder with more than one person, you had to share it either with many people individually, or share to one or more groups. However, you could only share with groups which your ownCloud administrator had already created.

This wasn’t the most efficient way to work. To address that, as of ownCloud 10.0, you can now create your own groups on-the-fly, through a feature called “Custom Groups”. Here’s how to use it.

### Creating Custom Groups

Assuming that your ownCloud administrator’s already enabled custom groups; under the admin menu, in the top right-hand corner, click “Settings” (1). Then, in the main menu on the settings page, in “Personal” section, click the option: “Customgroups” (2). This will take you to the “Custom Groups” admin page.

To create a new custom group, in the text field at the top where you see the placeholder text: “Group name”, add the group name and click “Create group”. After a moment or two, you’ll see the new custom group appear in the groups list.

Note

Please be aware of two things: 1) Custom groups are visible only to members of the group, but not to anyone outside the group and 2) ownCloud administrators can see and modify all custom groups of an instance.

### Managing Group Members

To add or remove users in a custom group, click your role (1), which will likely be “Member” (at least at first), and you’ll see a panel appear on the right-hand side listing the group’s users and their roles. In the “Add user to this group field” at the top of the panel (2), start typing the name of the user that you want to add.

After a moment or two, you’ll see a list of users that match what you’ve typed appear (if there are any) in a popup list. Click the one that you want, and they’ll be added to the group. Finally, you’ll see a confirmation at the top of the page (3), indicating that the user’s been added to the custom group.

Note

Members can only use a group for sharing, whereas group admins can manage a group’s members, change a group’s name, change members’ roles, and delete groups.

### Sharing with the Group

To share a file or folder with your custom group, open the sharing panel (1). Then, in the “User and Groups” field (2), type part of the name of the custom group and wait a moment or two.

The name of the group should be displayed in a popup list, which you can see in the screenshot above. Click on it, and the file or folder will then be shared with your custom group with all permissions initially set.

### How to Change Group Names

If you want to change the name of the custom group, mouseover the group’s name in the custom groups list, where you will see a pencil appear to the right of the existing name. Click it, and a text field will appear, pre-populated with the existing name. Change the name and click enter, and the name will be changed.

## Tag Files

In ownCloud, you can assign one or more tags to files and folders. To do so, go to the “Details” view, inside The Overflow Menu. There, you’ll see a text field, with the placeholder text “Collaborative tags” if no tags have yet been added, below the file’s icon, name, and other details.

In that field, type the tag’s name, which can be composed of one or multiple words, and press the return key to complete it. If you want to use multiple words, there is no need to use single or double-quotes. Type as many words as you want for the tag, and when you press the return key, your tag will be completed.

Note

All tags are system tags, so they are shared by all users on your ownCloud server.

When you place the cursor inside the tags field, and as you type the tag name, a list of the system tags will appear. If you type a new tag name, the visible tags list will be filtered, based on the text that you’ve typed.

If you see a tag in the list which is what you had intended to type, or is a better fit than what you had in mind, click on it, and it will be added to the file or folder’s tag list. This can save you a lot of time and effort.

### Untag a File or Folder

If a file or folder is already tagged, the tag names in the popup list will have a check mark to the left of the tag’s name. To remove that tag from the file or folder, click the tag’s name. You will see that the check mark disappears.

### Edit Tags

To edit a tag, click the pencil icon on the far right-hand side of the tag’s name, in the tags popup list. This will display a text box, containing the tag’s name. Be sure that you want to change the tag’s name, as it will be updated for all users.

### Delete Tags

To delete a tag, as above, click the pencil icon on the far right-hand side of the tag’s name, in the tags popup list. Next to the text box containing the tag’s name, you will also see a delete icon.

Click this to remove the tag from the system tag’s list. As with renaming a tag, remember that deleting a tag removes it for all users. So please be sure that you want to do this.

### Filter By Tag

To filter by tag, use the Tags filter on the left sidebar of the Files page. There are three types of tags:

Tag | Description
--- | ---
Visible | All users may see, rename, and apply these tags to files and folders
Restricted | Tags are assignable and editable only to the users and groups which have permission to use them. Other users can filter files by restricted tags, but cannot tag files with them or rename them. The tags are marked (restricted)
Invisible | Visible only to ownCloud admins

When you use the Tag filter on your Files page you’ll see something like the following image. If you do not have Admin rights then you will not see any invisible tags.

## Comments

In ownCloud, you can add one or more comments on both files and folders. This section describes how to add, edit, and delete comments.

### Add Comments

Use the Details view, in The Overflow Menu, to add and read comments on any file or folder. Comments are visible to everyone who has access to the file or folder. To add a comment, as in the example below, click the Comments tab in the Details view, write a comment in the New Comment field, and click “Post”.

### Edit Comments

To edit an existing comment on a file or folder, hover the mouse over the comment and you will see a pencil icon appear. By clicking on the pencil, the “Edit Comment” field will appear, pre-filled with the comment text. Change the text as necessary and click “Save”. If you change your mind, just click “Cancel”.

### Delete Comments

To delete an existing comment on a file or folder, as with editing comments, hover the mouse over the comment and you will see a pencil icon appear. Click the pencil, and a rubbish bin icon appears on the far right-hand side of the comment author’s name, above the “Edit Comment” text field. Click the rubbish bin, and the comment will be deleted after a few seconds.

## Play Videos

You can play videos in ownCloud with the Video Player app, by clicking once on the file. Please note, video streaming by the native ownCloud video player depends on your Web browser and the video’s format.

If your ownCloud administrator has enabled video streaming, and it doesn’t work in your Web browser, it may be a browser-related issue. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Supported_media_formats#Browser_compatibility for supported multimedia formats in Web browsers.

## Settings

The Settings gear icon, in the lower left-hand corner of the ownCloud window, allows you to show or hide hidden files in your ownCloud Web interface. These are also called dotfiles, because they are prefixed with a dot, e.g. `.mailfile`.

The dot tells your operating system to hide these files in your file browsers, unless you choose to display them. Usually, these are configuration files, so having the option to hide them reduces clutter.

## Preview Files

ownCloud can display thumbnail previews for image files, MP3 covers, and text files, if this enabled by your server administrator. You can also display uncompressed text files, OpenDocument files, videos, and image files in the ownCloud embedded viewers by clicking on the file name.

There may be other file types you can preview if your ownCloud administrator has enabled them. If ownCloud cannot display a file, it starts a download process and downloads the file to your computer.

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