What is a shared iFolder account?

Explanation: A shared iFolder account is one in which a group of users agree to work collaboratively within a single iFolder account. However, accounts in iFolder 2.1 and earlier are designed for a single user. There are no official file-sharing capabilities in the product.
Action: To create a shared iFolder account, your iFolder administrator can create a unique user ID and password to be given to multiple users of that group account. In this way, multiple users can log in to the same iFolder account to synchronize the shared files.

Be aware of the following issues of shared iFolder accounts:

  • All member users of the shared account will have full Read/Write access to the files stored in the account.
  • Because iFolder has no file-locking features, member users would need to use an alternative method to manage file access and version control.

    It is possible (but not desirable) for two users to modify the same file at the same time. When iFolder syncs, it will keep the file with the latest date and overwrite any previous versions. One way to help avoid this is to have users rename a file they want to work on by adding some distinctive information to the file name such as adding their to the end of the file. The user can rename the file by removing the initials when finished.

  • If one user deletes or moves a file from his or her local iFolder directory, then that file will be deleted from all users' machines when they next synchronize.
  • The only way to remove someone's access to a shared iFolder account is to have the iFolder administrator change the password; then you can distribute the new password to the proper people. This will prevent someone from logging in to the account but will not remove the files from his or her computer.
  • Each member user must retain the same directory structure within his or her local iFolder directory.