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Help with folder permissions

  • May 22, 2025
  • 4 replies
  • 26 views
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Can you recommend a best practice for the following please?

 Parent Folder (accessible to all)

  •  subfolder (accessible to all)
  • Bo (only viewed by Bo and me)
  • Lisa (only viewed by Lisa, Bo, and me)
  • Jack (only viewed by Jack, Bo, and me)

I understand the above will not work as is due to waterfall permissions. However, the only alternative I know of is to add a root level folder for every employee, meaning Bo and I will see tons of All Files folders. How can I share a folder related to specific employees with just that employee and their manager without having a miles-long All Files list myself?

 

Any suggestions for editing our file structure and/or accomplishing the above?

    4 replies

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    Hi Sophie,

    Thanks for your question. Yes you are correct that the following folder structure can't live under one parent root folder due to waterfall permissions. 

    From what you've described I can see there are two root folders necessary with your Parent Folder containing SubFolder as one separate space (viewable for all); in the other root folder would be the top folder viewable for Bo and yourself containing separate subfolders (Lisa, Bo and yourself), and (Bo, Jack, and yourself).

    Is the parent folder meant to be accessible for all employees, something similar to an HR folder of guides and resources? Appreciate your question and sharing to the community!

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    Sophie,

    I agree with Howard; depends what your use case is.  We tend to recommend (to our users) that they have few collaborators at the top level; waterfall permissions will still get you in that case, but maybe somewhat less.  It  would keep clutter out of your All Files page.  Here's what I'd do for your example.

    Parent Folder (Sophie)

    •  subfolder (Sophie and Bo)
    •        Bo (Sophie and Bo by waterfall)
    •        Lisa (Sophie and Bo by waterfall; add Lisa)
    •       Jack (Sophie and Bo by waterfall; add Jack)

     

    Kurt Baker

    Penn State University

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    Thank you both so much for your quick help! We are going to try the structure above (and consider paring down our parent list). 

    This particular parent folder is as you presumed - a compliance/regulatory folder that houses employee resources and is quarterly updated. 

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    Hi Sophie! Your friendly Customer Education Manager here! Just wanted to chime in real quick and add a few remarks with regards to waterfall permissions. Bottom line: whenever you're finding that you need people to have less access at the bottom of a folder tree, it's time for a restructure! I think Howard's and Kurt's suggestions are spot on. Another option, since you're talking about a compliance/regulatory folder that presumable everybody would need access to plus some private folders that have more selective collaborator needs, is to make the compliance and personal folders into 2 separate structures. For example:

    "Compliance/regulatory" folder (Everyone is invited)

    "Employee" folders (Sophie & Bo) with the following subfolders:

    • Bo (Sophie & Bo by waterfall)
    • Lisa (Sophie & Bo by waterfall; add Lisa)
    • Jack (Sophie & Bo by waterfall; add Jack)

    That way, everyone can have the right kind of access to the right kind of stuff. I also wanna add that if you or your users ever need a quick refresher on permissions and the waterfall model, you can always check out our quick Collaborate Securely video located here!

    This is a great question! Thanks so much for asking it, Sophie! Let us know if you've got other questions about this! 

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