Solel//dev docs

Your space and shared spaces

Files has a space for your own things, a space for each household group, and a list of what other people share with you. This page explains each one and who can see it.

My files

My files is yours. Nobody else sees what's in it unless you share it, and that includes admins and the server's owner. Other apps keep things here too:

  • Photos keeps your pictures in Photos, in a folder for each year and month.
  • Mail puts attachments in a folder called Mail when you choose Save to Files.
  • What you bring in from Google Drive goes in Google Drive, in the folders it had there.

Your storage, at the bottom of the sidebar, shows how much your files take up and how much room is left on the server.

Household spaces

Each household group has a space of its own, listed under Household in the sidebar. Everyone is there from the start, with everyone in it. Anyone in a group can add, change and delete what's in its space.

Admins make groups and choose who's in them in Settings › People. See People: adults, children and guests.

Shared with me and Shared by me

Shared with me lists what people have shared with you, newest first, with who shared it. Shared by me lists what you share and who with. See Sharing with people.

  • Recent has the files you've added or changed lately.
  • Starred has what you've starred. Stars are yours alone.
  • Search files looks through names in your spaces and what's shared with you.

Add files

  1. Open the folder you want them in.
  2. Drop the files on the window, or press Upload and choose them.

An upload never replaces anything. If the folder already has a file with that name, the new one gets the next free name, like Report (2).pdf. If the server runs out of room, Files says so beside the file, with Try again.

New folder makes a folder. To put something somewhere else, open its menu (the three dots beside it) and choose Move to… or Copy to….

Who sees what

  • Adults see My files, their groups' spaces and what's shared with them.
  • Children have a space of their own and their groups' spaces too. They can only ever view what's shared with them, and they can't share.
  • Guests have no space of their own. Files opens on Shared with me, and that's all they see.
  • Being an admin doesn't widen this. An admin sees only what's theirs, their groups' or shared with them.

Building an app that works with files? See Files in Build apps.