Generally, you can put iFolders anywhere on your local hard drive when you create an iFolder or set up an iFolder that is shared with you. However, there are some practical and specific limitations. Consider the following guidelines for placing and using iFolders on your computer:
An iFolder’s name must be a unique folder name in the directory where you put the iFolder.
An iFolder’s name cannot contain the following invalid characters:
\/:*?"<>|;
This is applicable only for Windows clients. iFolder clients on Linux and Mac may allow you to create a file or iFolder with some of these special characters. However, if you create an iFolder or file on Mac or Linux with any of these special characters, you will receive a file synchronization conflict when you try to synchronize files. You must then rename the file to resolve the issue. For information on renaming files, see Section 8.13.2, Resolving Filename Conflicts.
For other naming conventions, see Section 8.3, Naming Conventions for an iFolder and Its Folders and Files.
The iFolder must reside on a local hard drive; the location cannot be on a network drive or non-physical drive.
An iFolder cannot exist at the root of the hard drive.
An iFolder can be created only from a folder where you have the file system access rights to read and write files. When you set up a shared iFolder on a computer, you must have file system access rights to the folder where you are placing the iFolder.
An iFolder cannot contain or reside in an applications folder such as the Program Files folder.
The iFolder cannot contain or reside in the iFolder metadata folder. The default location of the metadata folder is as follows:
Linux: In your home folder in the <Home Directory>\.local\share\simias subdirectory
Windows: In the C:\Documents and Settings\WindowsLogonUsername\Local Settings\Application Data\simias directory
Macintosh: In the $HOME/.local/share/simias
An iFolder cannot contain or reside in other iFolders, including your iFolder 2.x iFolder.
If a large-sized iFolder (for example, more than 10 GB in size) is shared, then the members that share the iFolder may not be able to view the iFolder until the iFolder client is restarted. To view such large-sized iFolders, you must restart the client after the iFolder is available on the iFolder server.
iFolder does not support network folders as iFolders. For example, iFolders cannot be the users’ network-based /home directories that are mapped to the users’ workstations. iFolder also does not support WebDAV access for users from their desktop to their iFolder collection on the iFolder server’s user-data volume.
Although you can log in to more than one iFolder account at a time, an iFolder can be associated with only one iFolder account. You cannot synchronize one iFolder against multiple accounts. When you create an iFolder, the iFolder can be shared only with other users and LDAPGroups that are provisioned in the same iFolder server or domain.
An iFolder is available to all the members of an LDAPGroup when it is shared with that LDAPGroup.
When multiple users share a computer, the local copies of your iFolders are private to your storage space on the disk if the file system supports privacy features, and if you configure your system to use them.
On Windows, NTFS includes built-in security features such as file and folder permissions and the Encrypting File System (EFS), which is the technology used to store encrypted files on NTFS volumes. These security features are not supported on FAT32 file systems. Make sure the local login identities for users (other than the Administrator identity, of course) do not have the Administrator rights or equivalent. The Administrator user has access to all files and directories on the computer. For shared computers where privacy and security are essential for each user, the users can encrypt their local copy of iFolder data with EFS or a third-party file system encryption.
Linux and Macintosh file systems are designed for multi-user environments. File permissions allow you to control access for the user, groups, and others. A user’s personal files are typically set with full permissions for the user and no access for the groups and others settings.
If you store iFolders locally on a FAT32 volume on Linux, it requires special handling because FAT32 file systems are not POSIX compliant. For information, see Section 8.5.4, Creating iFolders on a FAT32 Mount Point (Linux).
If users of the same computer share iFolders, multiple copies of the iFolder can exist on the device, with a copy for each user who downloads it from the server. Different local login identities cannot share a single location for the shared iFolders.