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Documentation

Administrator's guide

Type of user accounts

1) The superuser account

The superuser is the default account FileRun comes with. Its default username is superuser, however this can be freely changed. The password is generated at installation time.

Along with the administrative tasks the other admin users can do, he is the only user that can:

  • Change the system's configuration.
  • Install software updates.
  • Manage licensing.

The superuser account cannot be deleted or deactivated.

2) Regular admin accounts

Admin users can:

  • Manage user accounts, except their own and other admins' accounts.
  • Manage roles.
  • Manage user groups.
  • Manage e-mail notification settings.
  • Browse users' activity logs.
  • Manage metadata settings.
  • Check users' storage usage.
  • Oversee users' online activity.
  • List and delete web links users have created.

When configuring the admin's permissions, you can choose:

  • What administrative section he is allowed to access.
  • Which groups of users he can see and manage.
  • Whether he will be able to define the path of the users' home folder, or if he will be limited to a specified folder.

3) Independent admin accounts

Independent admin users can:

  • See and manage only user accounts, roles and groups they create.
  • Browse the activity logs of the user accounts they created.
  • Manage metadata settings for the user accounts they created.
  • See and manage only his e-mail notification settings.

When configuring the independent admin's permissions, you can choose:

  • How many user accounts he will be able to create.
  • Whether he will be able to define the path of the users' home folder, or if he will be limited to a specified folder. If you define a Home folder template path for the independent admin user, he will not have any home folder-related options when adding a new user. If you leave the field blank, all the users he creates will have their home folders automatically created inside the admin's own home folder.

An independent admin user is required to configure space and traffic quotas for the users he creates.
He cannot assign more space and traffic than it was assigned for its own account.

4) Guest accounts

Compared to regular user accounts, guest users:

  • Cannot have a home folder.
  • Cannot use desktop sync, mobile apps, the API or connect via WebDAV.
  • Cannot rename, move or delete files or folders, nor change the associated data (such as tags, ratings, metadata or colors), nor write comments, whatever the role of the share says.
  • Can edit existing files only when the Guest role allows editing (possible since FileRun 2026.3.1). After an update from an older version the option is off, so guests stay read-only until an administrator enables it; on a new installation it is on.
  • Can access a shared file/folder with either download or upload permissions, but both permissions will not be available at the same time. If the sharing permissions allows uploading, the download permission will automatically be off.
  • Cannot change the name on the account. (To prevent them from confusing users into sharing files with the wrong people.)
  • Cannot create shares.
  • Cannot access the files' activity logs.

The permissions above are fixed for the Guest role. The rest is set in the role's permissions, like for any other role: whether guests can download, upload, edit files, use collections, star files, read comments and read tags, ratings and metadata.

When a guest is among the recipients of a share, the sharing window offers only the roles that mean something for a guest, described from the Guest role's permissions: Viewer, Commenter (viewing comments and metadata, when the role allows reading them), Editor (when the role allows editing) and, for folders, Uploader. The roles Distributor, Contributor and Content manager are not offered, because they would give a guest nothing more. A role given to a guest through the API is stored as given, but the guest still cannot do more than the Guest role allows.

Guest accounts are automatically deleted when there are no shares available anymore.

5) The Visitor account

The visitor account is a special user account that FileRun comes preconfigured with (since version 2026.1.0).
When sharing files and folders via links, visitors who are not logged in, will be automatically logged in with the visitor account.
It can be used to control the general access and permissions for external shares.
This account cannot be deleted.

Configuring users' file access

Basics

Each FileRun user can have a home folder, which is an actual folder on the server's file system. Users do not have more than one home folder, but they can access other folders and files shared by other users. The user's home folder is assigned using the Home folder path field available under the Permissions tab, when adding or editing the user accounts.

The user is able to browse all the subfolders available in his home folder.

Two users with the exact same "home folder" path will access the same files.
To prevent the users from seeing each other's files, make sure the users have different home folder paths.

Warning

Make sure the users' home folders are located outside the public area of your web server. In other words, files that users upload to their home folders should not be accessible directly by accessing your website's address like this: http://www.your-site.com/filerun/users-folder/private-file.txt
So make sure the home folder paths do not contain any of the words public_html, html, www, inetpub or your-domain.com.

Providing admin user with access to all users' files

The most common setup keeps the users' access separate while allowing the admin users or superuser to access everything. To achieve that, make sure you create the users' home folders inside the same root folder and assign the root folder as the home folder for the admin users. Here's an example:

User A's home folder: /storage/files/users/user_a/

User B's home folder: /storage/files/users/user_b/

Admin's home folder: /storage/files/users/ (The admin can access all the users files)

Superuser's home folder: /storage/files/ (The superuser can access even folders one level higher - to store files which other admin users cannot access)

Accessing more than one folder

To allow the user to access files located outside his home folder, you need to use the file sharing system. Log in with a user account that has access to another location (usually an admin account), right-click the desired folder, and select the Share option.

Managing users

Adding a user

To create a new user account follow these steps:

  1. Open the control panel.
  2. Select Users.
  3. Click Add new.
  4. Fill in the form. The minimum required fields are:
    • Basic info > Name
    • Login > Username & Password
    • Permissions > Home folder > Path
  5. Click Add user to create the user with the specified options.

To assign a user's home folder, type in the path to a folder on your server. This will become the user's personal working space.

Please use only forward slashes (/) when setting up paths, even if you are running a Microsoft Windows server.

If you are not sure how the path should look like, look at your own home folder path which is displayed on the form, inside the read-only field "Your personal home folder is".

A common example of what the path might look like is /user-files/your_username. Make sure to replace your_username with the specific username of the user. Use the Check path button to verify that the path written points to an existing folder. If the folder does not already exist, you can simply create it by using the Create folder now button.

Editing a user

To edit a user account follow these steps:

  1. Open the control panel.
  2. Select Users.
  3. Select the user you want to edit.
  4. Click Edit user.
  5. Make the appropriate changes in the form.
  6. Click Save changes.

Deleting a user

To delete a user account follow these steps:

  1. Open the control panel.
  2. Select Users.
  3. Select the user you want to remove.
  4. Click Delete.
  5. Click Delete to confirm the user's deletion.

Deleting a FileRun user account does not remove the user's home folder or its activity log entries. Unless you specifically choose to do so, by clicking on the "Permanently delete the users' home folders" option in the "Delete users" confirmation window.

Caution

What gets deleted in the process:

  • the user's "Trash" folder
  • the Web links created by the user
  • the file/folder sharing information

Tip: Select multiple users in the list by holding the Ctrl/Command key. You can delete them all at once.

Deactivating a user

To deactivate a user account follow these steps:

  1. Open the control panel.
  2. Select Users.
  3. Select the user you want to deactivate.
  4. Click Deactivate.

This can be used to temporarily disable one user's access to FileRun.

Note

Deactivating a user account does not make any changes to the user's data.

Reactivating a user

To reactivate a user account follow these steps:

  1. Open the control panel.
  2. Select Users.
  3. Select the user you want to reactivate.
  4. Click on Edit.
  5. Check the This user account is active option located in the Login panel.
  6. Click Save changes.

Groups

Groups can be used for:

  1. Sharing a folder with multiple users at the same time. (You can also configure a user's permissions so that it can only share folders with certain groups of users.)
  2. Configuring e-mail notifications: adding notification rules involving multiple users at the same time.
  3. Setting up admin users that can manage only certain groups of users.

Adding a group

To create a new group follow these steps:

  1. Open the control panel.
  2. Select "Groups".
  3. Click "Add new".
  4. Fill in the form:
  5. Required field:
    • Group name
  6. Click Save changes to create the group with the specified details.

Adding or removing users from groups

To add or remove a user from a group follow these steps:

  1. Open the control panel.
  2. Select Users.
  3. Select the user you want to add to a group or remove from one.
  4. Click Edit.
  5. Under the Groups tab, choose the Add groups or Remove selected option.
    No need to click Save changes.

Alternatively: Go to the Groups control panel section → Select a group → Click Edit → Choose the Add users or Remove selected option.

Renaming a group

To change a group's name follow these steps:

  1. Open the control panel.
  2. Select "Groups".
  3. Select the group that you want to rename.
  4. Click "Edit group".
  5. Make the appropriate changes in the form.
  6. Click Save changes.

Deleting a group

To delete a group follow these steps:

  1. Open the control panel.
  2. Select "Groups".
  3. Select the group you want to remove.
  4. Click "Delete group".
  5. Click "Delete" to confirm the group's deletion.

Deleting a group does not delete the users contained.

Roles

Roles can be used to easily apply sets of permissions to multiple users at the same time.

If you select a role for a user, you will no longer be able to set individual permissions and settings for that user.

Adding a role

To create a new role follow these steps:

  1. Open the control panel.
  2. Select "Roles".
  3. Click "Add new".
  4. Fill in the form:
  5. Required fields:
    • Role name
  6. Click Save changes to create the role with the specified details.

Editing a role

To edit a role follow these steps:

  1. Open the control panel.
  2. Select "Roles".
  3. Select the role you want to edit.
  4. Click "Edit role".
  5. Make the appropriate changes in the form.
  6. Click Save changes.

Deleting a role

To delete a role follow these steps:

  1. Open the control panel.
  2. Select "Roles".
  3. Select the role you want to remove.
  4. Click "Delete role".
  5. Click "Delete" to confirm the role's deletion.

Deleting a role will not delete any user account.