Archive Only Mode

Archive Only Mode configures a Files.com site so that files and folders can never be modified or deleted. Regulated customers use this mode to operate a Files.com site as a storage archive for data retention compliance or regulatory purposes.

Archive Only Mode is irreversible by design. This protects retention guarantees by ensuring files can never become editable or deletable again.

We recommend using a child site, rather than your primary Files.com site, for Archive Only Mode.

Never use a site in Archive Only Mode for any process that needs to remove or overwrite files. Think of the site as WORM (Write Once, Read Many times) storage.

Example: Archiving From a Files.com Site to an Archive Only Site

Once a child site has been set to Archive Only Mode, use an Automation to send files to the archive from another Files.com site.

To prevent duplicate file names from being discarded, first configure your archive site's Overwrite behavior to "Automatically append numbers to conflicting file names". Layer this with a Rename uploaded files setting on the folder of your archive site for more flexibility in how files are automatically renamed.

Within the parent site for your organization, create a Copy Files Automation that runs whenever a file is created, updated, moved, or copied. Select the source folder and suffix it with ** to make it recursive.

For the destination folder of the Automation, choose a folder within your Archive Only site that represents the source. Separate folders for each incoming source prevent rejected uploads or unexpected renames when different sources provide duplicate file names.

Any file created, uploaded, updated, moved to, or copied to the source folder or its subfolders on the parent site is automatically copied into your Archive Only Mode site.

Effects of Archive Only Mode

Archive Only Mode affects the stored files and folders of your Files.com site and the actions you can take on them.

Once Archive Only Mode is enabled, files and folders cannot be updated or deleted. This applies to every user of your archive site, including Site Administrators.

Restrictions apply to all connection methods from every type of application or API. This includes connections made using login sessions, SFTP/SSH Keys, or API Keys.

File and Folder Actions

For typical CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations, Archive Only Mode allows only Create and Read. Files and folders can be created, uploaded, copied, duplicated, listed, downloaded, and previewed. They cannot be updated, edited, modified, renamed, moved, overwritten, or deleted.

A copy operation succeeds only if nothing is overwritten at the destination. You cannot perform a copy operation that would overwrite a file or folder.

Administrator Actions

The read-only restriction applies to files and folders. Site Administrators continue to manage and configure the site normally, except that any folders or files created by those features cannot be updated or deleted.

For example, an Administrator can create, update, and delete user accounts, but cannot update or delete any files and folders associated with those user accounts.

Remote Server Mount

Mounted remote servers accessed through Files.com are subject to Archive Only Mode. Files and folders on the mounted remote server cannot be updated, overwritten, renamed, or deleted through Files.com.

Accessing the remote server directly, bypassing Files.com, does not enforce Archive Only Mode. Users of the remote system can still update and delete files and folders on the remote server.

Sync

Syncs are affected by Archive Only Mode. Files and folders on both the source and destination cannot be updated, overwritten, renamed, or deleted by a sync. When the destination folder of a sync is empty, the first sync succeeds, but subsequent syncs fail because destination files cannot be overwritten.

Sync on a site in Archive Only Mode cannot delete source files after copying. Avoid using this setting when Archive Only Mode is enabled.

Review the Sync Logs for errors generated when a Sync attempts to delete or modify a file or folder.

Folder Settings

Folder Settings that run before a file is stored still work in Archive Only Mode. Any setting that deletes, overwrites, or modifies an existing file or folder does not work in Archive Only Mode.

Some actions continue to function normally. The Rename uploaded files folder setting automatically renames newly-created files. GPG encryption and decryption work, but the output cannot overwrite an existing file.

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

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

Automations

Archive Only Mode affects how Automations work. Files and folders cannot be updated, overwritten, renamed, or deleted by an Automation.

Create Folder, Copy Files, and Import Files Automations succeed when nothing is overwritten at the destination. When a file would be overwritten, the Automation step fails.

Run Sync Automations successfully trigger a Sync, and the Sync is governed by Archive Only Mode.

Move Files and Delete Files Automations always fail in a site running Archive Only Mode. Do not use Move Files or Delete Files Automations.

Automation failures generate alert emails for site administrators. Review error messages or warning messages in the Automation logs to determine if your automations are attempting to delete or modify a file or folder.

Data Retention Settings

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

Set the site-wide Overwrite behavior to Automatically append numbers to conflicting file names. This prevents the site from rejecting duplicate files and avoids errors being shown to users.

Best Practices for Archive Only Mode Sites

Clarify the Purpose of Your Site

Use the header, footer, login page help text, and MOTD customization options to make it clear to your users that data uploaded to this site can never be deleted.

Automatically Rename New Files to Avoid Data Loss

Configure the Overwrite behavior of your archive site to Automatically append numbers to conflicting file names. When a duplicate file is uploaded, it is stored with an appended number in its file name instead of being rejected.

Configure the top-level "home" folder of your archive site to Rename all uploaded files and apply a timestamp automatically. This ensures duplicate files are stored with a timestamp in their file name regardless of which upload method is used. The timestamp pattern _YYYY-MM-DD_hh-mm-ss is granular to the second, so duplicate files uploaded within a second of each other are all successfully archived.

Separate Data By Source

To store data from multiple sources, create a separate subfolder and user account for each source. Do not co-mingle archived data from multiple sources in the same folder. This improves provenance and auditability and makes it simple to identify where archived data came from.

A separate user account per source segregates logs by source user account, which makes tracking data origin straightforward. Configure each user account with Full permission to its corresponding archive folder; deletions and changes are still prohibited.

Use a Child Site for Archive Only Mode

Once Archive Only Mode is enabled, it can never be disabled for a site. There is no way to remove any files or folders from an Archive Only site.

We recommend using a child site, rather than your primary Files.com site, for Archive Only Mode. Parent sites have special access: users in a parent site can be granted delegated access to any Child Site, and parent site administrators have access to the contents of all Child Sites.

Enabling Archive Only Mode on a parent site permanently prevents you from removing anything from a Child Site without logging in directly to the child site.

Enabling Archive Only Mode

Not all plans support Archive Only Mode. If you are on a plan that supports it, contact our Support team to enable the feature for you.

Because the mode is irreversible, we recommend using a child site instead of your primary Files.com site for Archive Only Mode.