With many available interfaces and drag-and-drop convenience, a user may inadvertently move a folder, drop it into another folder, or otherwise alter your file structure away from what your workflow or team requires. Logging and interface flexibility make those mishaps easy to correct, but when a team relies on the integrity of your folder structure, you can take it a step further.

Use the Lock Subfolders folder setting to lock the folder structure from the present folder down through all subfolders, depending on the option you choose. The options let you lock some portions of your folder tree while leaving other portions unlocked. File operations continue as normal, but users cannot directly create, move, rename, or delete folders protected by the lock. Automations have a separate setting that controls whether they bypass these locks. Inboxes and upload-only Share Links can also create folders for separate submissions.

Options for Lock Subfolders Setting

The Lock Subfolders folder setting has three options, depending on what your organization needs.

Lock structure of folders in this folder and also in their children is the most restrictive choice. It prevents folder creation, deletion, and renaming in this folder or any of its subfolders, with the exceptions described below. Choose this option when you have a folder tree that you want to duplicate in multiple places on your site.

Lock structure of folders in this folder but not in their children prevents structural changes to the immediate children subfolders only. If you have an integration that requires the existence of a specific folder to hold processed files but allows for archive folders to be created each month within that processed folder, this option supports that arrangement.

Lock this folder's existence only, but not any folders inside it prevents changes to one specific folder without restricting any of its subfolders. This option prevents even administrator users from accidentally making changes that could derail an automated process.

On the site's root folder, only Lock structure of folders in this folder but not in their children can be set. This protects the site's top-level folders without locking the folder structure inside them. The recursive option cannot be set on the root because it would lock the folder structure of the entire site. The existence-only option cannot be set there because the root folder itself is permanent.

To remove a lock configured on the current folder, choose Allow users to create, rename, and delete any folders in this folder. This does not cancel a lock inherited from an ancestor.

Lock Subfolders has a Combine nested effect: every lock that covers a path applies. A less restrictive setting at a subfolder cannot remove a parent's restriction, and the explicit-disable option is not supported. Change or remove the lock where it is configured to reduce its scope. A new lock cannot be added beneath an existing lock that covers the entire subtree.

The folder structure lock applies to all users by default, including Site Administrators and Workspace Administrators. Users who have admin access to the folder can change the behavior in the folder's settings. Workspace Administrators can configure folder locks on folders within their Workspace. Site Administrators can completely bypass the locks site-wide.

Changes to a Parent Folder

A folder structure lock applies to operations on the locked folder and, depending on the lock level, folders inside it. It does not restrict operations on folders above the locked folder.

A user with Full permission on a parent folder can delete that parent. The delete operation removes everything inside the parent, including the locked folder, its contents, and the Lock Subfolders setting, at every lock level. This follows the general rule that deleting a folder also deletes its Folder Settings.

Renaming or moving the parent has a different result. The locked folder remains inside the parent and retains its Lock Subfolders setting.

Overriding Locks on Subfolders for Site Administrators

If you want your site administrators to make structural changes on locked folders, enable the Allow site administrators to bypass the locks on subfolders setting from Data Governance -> Restrictions in the web UI. Once enabled, site administrators can create, move, rename, or delete folders and subfolders within any locked folder on your site. This bypass relaxes only that Site's locks. A Child Site's locks continue to apply to Parent operations through _/Sites/, just as a Connected Host's folder locks apply to a Guest.

Automations

Automations have an Ignore Locked Folders setting, represented by ignore_locked_folders in the API. It defaults to on (true), so Automations can create folders and copy or move content into a locked folder tree without being blocked by Lock Subfolders. This allows an automated workflow to maintain a folder structure that users cannot change directly.

When Ignore Locked Folders is off (false), the normal Lock Subfolders rules apply to the Automation's folder operations. In Automations v2, Copy File and Move File nodes can override the Automation's setting; a node with no explicit value inherits it. Ignoring folder locks does not bypass folder permissions or other Folder Settings, such as filename restrictions.

Through Connected Sites, Ignore Locked Folders bypasses only locks on the Automation's own site. A Guest Automation still follows the Host's applicable locks; the Host must change its Lock Subfolders configuration to permit structural changes there.

Routes and Remote Storage

A Partner Channel Route Path follows locks at both the Channel path and its target, including their applicable ancestor locks. Routing preserves the exchange's folder structure as well as the structure at the storage destination.

A Files.com Remote Server mount also follows the other Site's locks. A Sync whose folder is inside that mount remains subject to the mounting Site's locks. Access Across Sites and Storage explains how each Site's settings and exceptions combine.

Inboxes and upload-only Share Links can keep visitors' submissions separate within a locked folder tree. When Separate submissions into subfolders is enabled, Lock Subfolders allows creation of each automatic submission subfolder at every lock level, including Lock structure of folders in this folder and also in their children. The Subfolder name template controls its name. This exception keeps submissions apart while preserving the rest of the protected folder structure.

An Inbox's automatic email submission subfolders receive the same exception, unless Do not create subfolders for inbound email uploads to this inbox is enabled. When submissions are not separated into subfolders, there is no exception to the folder lock.

The exception covers only the submission subfolder. Folders visitors upload, including folders inside their own submission, and the subfolders used by Requested Upload Slots follow the normal lock rules wherever the lock applies.

An Inbox's Disable folder uploads setting can block visitor-uploaded folders where the lock permits folder creation, without preventing automatic submission subfolders. Upload-only Share Links accept folder uploads where the lock permits them. Neither overrides Lock Subfolders.

Conflicts with Create User Folders Here Behavior

When you configure a folder as the location for new user folders to be automatically created, the Lock Subfolders setting does not prevent the new folders from being created.

Locking Folder Structure