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¶
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.
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.