Archive Only Mode

Your Files.com site can be configured into a mode under which files and folders will never be able to be modified or deleted. This mode is typically used by regulated customers who are seeking to use a Files.com site as a storage archive for data retention compliance or regulatory purposes.

This setting can never be turned off once it has been enabled.

Archive Only mode affects the stored files and folders of your Files.com site and the actions that you can take on those files and folders.

Once Archive Only mode is enabled, files and folders are prohibited from being updated or deleted.

In terms of typical CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations for files and folders, the Archive Only mode will allow only Create and Read operations. Because create and read operations are allowed, files and folders can be created, uploaded, copied, duplicated, listed, downloaded, copied, and previewed. However, the prohibition on operations that update or delete means that files and folders cannot be updated, edited, modified, renamed, moved, overwritten or deleted.

While files and folders can be copied, a copy operation will only succeed if nothing is overwritten at the destination. You cannot perform a copy operation that will overwrite a file or folder.

Archive Only mode affects all user types of your site, including Site Administrators.

Restrictions apply to all connection methods, including web, FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, AS2, API, Desktop App, Mobile App, and Command Line Interface App (CLI). This includes connections made using login sessions, SFTP/SSH Keys, or API Keys.

Site administrators can still perform regular management and configuration of the site. Configuration of items such as Users, Groups, Permissions, Inboxes, Share Links, Authentication and other features remains mostly unchanged with the exception that any associated folders or files which are created will be prohibited from being updated or deleted.

For example, an Administrator will be able to create, update, and delete user accounts but will not be able to update or delete any files and folders associated with those user accounts.

Mounted remote servers, accessed via Files.com, will be affected by Archive Only Mode. Files and folders on the mounted remote server will be prohibited from being updated, overwritten, renamed, or deleted through Files.com.

Accessing the remote server directly, circumventing Files.com, will not enforce any of the Archive Only Mode features of Files.com. Files and folders on the remote server can be updated and deleted by users of that remote system.

Remote Server Syncs will be affected by Archive Only Mode. Files and folders on both the remote server and Files.com will be prohibited from being updated, overwritten, renamed, or deleted by a sync. For example, if the destination of a sync is empty then the first sync will succeed but subsequent syncs will fail as destination files cannot be overwritten.

The After copying setting of Delete source files from this site will be prohibited from deleting source files and should not be used when Archive Only Mode is enabled.

Actions performed on the remote server directly, circumventing Files.com, will not enforce any of the Archive Only Mode features of Files.com. Files and folders on the remote server can be updated and deleted by that remote system.

Most Folder Settings actions will continue to operate normally as uploaded files and folders are processed prior to being stored on Files.com, but some are limited or completely prohibited.

Some actions will continue to function as normal on Archive Only site. The Append timestamps to files and Rename uploaded files folder settings will automatically rename newly-created files. GPG encryption and decryptions will work on an Archive Only site, although the result cannot overwrite an existing file. Inboxes will still work on an Archive Only site.

Both Remote Server Mounts and Remote Server Syncs will be limited by the prohibitions of Archive Only Mode.

Because deleting files is prohibited in Archive Only mode, the File Expiration folder setting will not function.

Automations will be affected by Archive Only Mode. Files and folders will be prohibited from being updated, overwritten, renamed, or deleted by an Automation.

The actions of Create Folder and Copy Files will only succeed if nothing is overwritten at the destination.

The actions of Move Files and Delete Files will be prohibited and should not be used when Archive Only Mode is enabled.

All data is retained and cannot be deleted, overwritten, or expired in Archive Only Mode.

The site wide setting for Overwrite behavior should be set to "Automatically append numbers to conflicting file names". This will prevent duplicate files from being rejected by the archive and avoids causing error messages, which would be logged or shown to users. Duplicate files will be renamed, using appended numbers in the new file name, so that they can be stored in the archive.

To see if your subscription plan supports Archive Only mode for your site, type "Archive-only mode" in the search box at the top of every page and select the matching result. If you are on a plan that supports Archive Only mode then you can contact our Support team to enable this feature for you. Since this feature can never be turned off once enabled, consider using a Child Site for this feature.

Generally speaking, any attempt to delete or update a file will cause a failure or error. Update can refer to actions such as editing, modifying, renaming, moving, or overwriting a file or folder.

A site that has been set to Archive Only Mode should never be used for any processes that need to perform any of these prohibited actions. Think of the site as WORM (Write Once, Read Many times) storage.

Refer to any error messages or warning messages shown in the logs to determine if your users or automations are attempting to delete or modify a file or folder.

Inform users that files and folders of the site cannot be deleted or modified in any way.

Update automations to ensure that they do not attempt to delete or modify any files or folders.