User and Group Folder Management
Guide for Administrators: Create accounts for your team and organize access using shared folders for each department.
The right user and permissions architecture ensures that information flows securely within the company. Through Nextcloud, as an administrator, you can fully control who has access to what, create shared folders for specific workgroups (e.g., Marketing), and protect sensitive data from unauthorized viewing or accidental deletion.
Create New Users & Groups
When a new employee joins the company, you need to create a personal account for them:
- Connect with Administrator To access your account, click on your profile icon (top right) and select Users.
- To organize your users, first create your groups (e.g.,. Logistics, Sales, Technology) by pressing Add group in the left column.
- Click the button + New user top left.
- Please fill in the required fields: Username, Full Name, Password and the Email his.
- In the field Groups, select the department it belongs to. This is the key to automatically accessing the right folders! Click the checkmark (Save) to finish.
[ Screenshot: The “New User” creation form with the Username, Groups, and Quota fields ]
Creating and Assigning Group Folders
Instead of manually sharing files, we use the Group Folders feature so that anyone who joins a group automatically sees the folders for their department:
- From your profile icon (top right), go to Administration settings.
- In the left-hand menu, under the section Administration, click on Group folders.
- Type the name of the new main folder (e.g.,. “Accounting Records”) and press Create.
- In the column Groups Next to the folder, select which group is authorized to view it (e.g., the group Logistiri).
[ Screenshot: The Group Folders settings panel, where folders are assigned to groups and write/share permissions ]
Setting Advanced Permissions
After linking the group to the folder, you need to set their access permissions using the checkboxes:
- Write: If you uncheck this option, group members will only be able to view and download files; they will not be able to edit or add new ones (Read-Only).
- Share: If you disable this feature, you prevent employees from sharing these files outside the company (via Public Links).
- Delete: You can allow users to create and edit documents, but lock the delete function so that no critical documents are ever accidentally lost!
Prevent cloud abuse from day one. In the Users table, you'll find the column Quota (Storage Limit). Don’t leave it set to “Unlimited.” Set a reasonable limit for each employee (e.g., 10 GB or 20 GB) based on their position. That way, if someone tries to upload their personal photos or movies, the system will stop them, protecting your company server’s storage space!
The Administrator account has full control over the system; it can delete anything, view all files, and change security settings. If you want a colleague to help you with administration (e.g., simply creating new users), **do not** give them the Admin password. Instead, create a personal account for them and add them to the designated group sub-admins. This way, they will have user management privileges without having access to the server's core.
[ Screenshot: The “Subadmin” option in the user panel for assigning limited administrative privileges ]
Would you like to connect Nextcloud to your company's Active Directory (LDAP)?;
As a business grows, manually creating users across multiple platforms becomes time-consuming and poses a security risk. At Skynetix, we can implement **LDAP / Active Directory Integration**. This allows your employees to log in to Nextcloud using the exact same password they use for their computer or corporate email (Single Sign-On). At the same time, when an employee leaves, deactivating their account in your central system automatically locks them out of the Cloud as well, eliminating the risk of data leaks!
