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You are reading the documentation of FileRun 2026.4.0, which is not released yet. It is subject to change, so do not use it for planning. Go to the documentation of FileRun 2026.3.0

Shared drives: special cases and limits

This page describes what happens to a shared drive when its people, its groups or its folder change. It also lists the common problems, with their reasons, and what the shared drives do not do. For the main ideas, see Shared drives.

People and groups

The account of a member is deleted

  • The direct memberships of the account are removed.
  • Its web links, its folder notification rules, its collections and its own trash are deleted.
  • The files that the member uploaded stay in the drive.
  • The shares that the member made from the drive stay, because they belong to the drive.
  • Its comments stay. They show its name followed by "(Deleted user)". The Added by and Deleted by values show the same.
  • The locks that the account held are removed.
  • When the account was the admin of drives, these drives have no admin from then on.

The account of a member is deactivated

This also applies to an account that expires.

  • The memberships stay. The user cannot sign in, so the user cannot open the drives.
  • The web links of the user stop working. Their visitors see "This share is no longer accessible!", followed by "The user account sharing this item is currently unavailable!".
  • The shares that the user made from the drive keep working, because they belong to the drive.
  • The locks of the user stay.
  • When the user is the admin of drives, the user stays their admin.

Everything works again when the account is active again.

A user joins or leaves a group that is a member

  • A user who joins the group gets access to the drive immediately. That user receives no e-mail, no subscription to the folder notifications, and no "New shared drive available" entry.
  • A user who leaves the group loses the access through the group immediately. When the user is also a member in another way, the highest of the remaining roles applies.
  • When the user leaves the group, the web links, the folder notification rules and the stars that the user had through that group membership are deleted.
  • A guest that has nothing else shared with it is deleted.

A group that is a member is deleted

  • The membership of the group is removed.
  • The web links that its users made through the group stop working.
  • The folder notification rules that its users had through the group are removed by the daily cron job.
  • A guest that has nothing else shared with it is deleted.

The admin of a drive leaves

The drive is left without an admin when its admin is deleted, or can no longer manage shared drives. Every administrator who can manage shared drives can then manage the drive and take it. See Drives without an admin.

The deactivation of the admin's account does not change the admin.

The creator of a drive leaves

The user who created a drive in the file manager is only its first member. When that user leaves, the drive and its files stay. When no other member has the role Manager, only the administrators can manage the members.

The last Manager leaves

FileRun does not stop the last Manager from leaving, or from taking a lower role. After that, only the superuser and the admin of the drive can manage its members. When the drive has no admin, every administrator who can manage shared drives can do it.

The drive and its folder

A drive is renamed

  • Only the name changes. The folder on the disk keeps its name.
  • The id of the drive does not change, so the addresses of the drive, and the bookmarks, keep working.
  • Over WebDAV, the folder of the drive gets the new name. The old name keeps working.
  • The entries that are already in the activity log keep the old name.

The folder of a drive disappears

This can happen when a storage is not mounted, for example.

  • The drive leaves the lists of its members immediately.
  • The daily cron job disables the drive. The members keep their memberships.
  • Nobody receives an e-mail about it.
  • When the folder is back, the admin enables the drive again.

See Drives whose folder is missing.

The folder of the shared drives changes

When the superuser changes the setting Folder of the shared drives, only the new drives use the new folder. The existing drives keep their folders. FileRun does not move any files.

Overlapping folders

FileRun does not refuse two drives on the same folder, but avoid it. The same applies to the other cases where the folders overlap:

  • Two drives on the same folder show the same files. In each drive, a member has the role of its membership in that drive.
  • A drive folder inside a home folder: the owner of the home folder sees the files of the drive as the owner's own files, with all the permissions of an owner. When that user moves or deletes the folder, the memberships of the drive end.
  • A drive folder inside another drive: the members of the outer drive see the files of the inner drive as files of their own drive.

Keep the Folder of the shared drives, and every path that you type for a drive, outside the home folders and outside the other drives.

Two drives with the same name

Two drives can have the same name. The members tell the drives apart only by their names, so choose names that are different.

Files and permissions

The owner of the files

The drive owns every file in it. This is why the files count against the quota of the drive, and why the deleted items go to the trash of the drive.

  • The activity log names the member who acted.
  • The Who has access panel shows the admin of the drive, never an owner.
  • The details of a file do not show the member who uploaded it. The activity of the file shows it.
  • The trash of the drive shows who deleted each item.

Access to one folder only

There are no separate permissions for the folders inside a drive. A member has the same role in the whole drive. To give a person access to one folder only, a member with the role Distributor, Content manager or Manager shares that folder with the person. The person then finds the folder under Shared with me. Another way is to create a separate drive for that content.

Common problems

Problem Reason
A user does not see a drive. The user is not a member. Or the drive is disabled, or its folder is missing.
The admin of a drive does not see its files. The admin is not a member. The superuser can add the admin as a member. See The admin of a drive.
A Manager does not have Drive settings. The command is shown only to the members who have the role Manager. A guest never has it.
A Manager does not have Share on the drive. On the top folder of the drive, Share is shown only when the Manager can create web links there. Use Who has access → Manage access instead.
A member cannot create web links. The role must be Distributor, Content manager or Manager. The drive must allow links. The member's account needs User can share via web links.
A member cannot share with other users. The role must be Distributor, Content manager or Manager. The drive must allow sharing. The member's account needs User can share with other users and a home folder.
A member does not see the Activity tab. The role must be Contributor, Content manager or Manager. The member's account needs User can access the files' activity logs.
A member cannot find a deleted item. It is in the trash of the drive, which only the Managers can open.
A Manager does not see the trash of the drive. The drive is read-only. A read-only drive has no trash.
A Manager cannot empty the trash. The Manager's account needs User can delete files and folders permanently.
A Manager cannot change another Manager. Only the superuser and the admin of the drive can change or remove another Manager. When the drive has no admin, every administrator who can manage shared drives can do it.
Nobody can unlock a file. Only the member who locked the file can unlock it. A member whose account is an administrator account can also unlock it.
Nobody is told about the deletions in a drive. The folder notifications refuse Other actions inside shared folders by default. See Folder notifications.
Members added in the control panel received no e-mail. The Members tab of the control panel does not send e-mails, except to the guests. A Manager can send them with Notify people, in the file manager.
A user cannot create a drive. The account needs User can create shared drives, and no storage quota. The superuser must also have set the Folder of the shared drives.
Nobody receives the quota warnings of a drive. The warnings go only to the admin of the drive. A drive without an admin warns nobody. The script cron/space_quota_notifications.php must also be scheduled.

Limits

  • A drive has one admin at most.
  • An administrator cannot remove the admin of a drive, and can only choose another admin. A drive has no admin again only when its admin is deleted, or can no longer manage shared drives.
  • The role of a member applies to the whole drive.
  • The members do not see the quota of the drive. Only the Managers see it, in the settings of the drive.
  • A drive has no limits of its own on the size and the type of the uploaded files. The limits of each member's account apply.
  • The search does not look through all the drives at once.
  • The Media section does not include the files of the drives.
  • The trash of a drive is not available over WebDAV.
  • The members are not told when a drive is disabled or deleted.
  • Only the Managers and the administrators see the description of a drive.
  • The folder of a drive that FileRun creates is named by a number, not by the name of the drive. On the disk, the folders do not show which drive they belong to.