The site's root folder is the root of the Default Workspace. A folder setting there can apply to the folders beneath it, making the root a useful place to configure Malware Scanning or a default File Expiration rule. By default, these settings do not extend into other Workspaces.

Two site settings control who can change the site root's folder settings and whether supported settings extend into every Workspace. They let Site Administrators maintain common rules across the site while delegating day-to-day folder management. Each folder setting keeps its normal override behavior: inheriting a root setting does not require every folder to use the same value.

Child Site Management Policies can put the same folder settings on every Child Site.

Restricting Root Folder Settings to Site Administrators

When Restrict Root Folder Settings to Site Administrators is enabled, only Site Administrators can create, change, or delete folder settings on the site's root folder in the Default Workspace. Without this restriction, users with folder admin permission on that folder can also change or remove those settings.

The restriction also reserves exceptions that switch off an inherited site-root setting for Site Administrators. For example, only a Site Administrator can create, change, or remove a Never delete files in this folder exception to an inherited root File Expiration rule. The same protection applies to exceptions that disable the root's file-extension or regular-expression upload limits.

Folder Admins can still configure their own settings on folders below the site root, including different values for settings that allow overrides. The restriction does not reserve another Workspace's root folder for Site Administrators. It protects inherited site-root settings and exceptions that switch them off inside other Workspaces only when Root Folder Settings Apply to All Workspaces is also enabled.

Applying Root Folder Settings to All Workspaces

The Root Folder Settings Apply to All Workspaces setting extends inheritance of four site-root folder settings into every Workspace on the site, including Workspaces created later. Their normal recursion and override rules still apply.

This setting requires Restrict Root Folder Settings to Site Administrators to be enabled first, and the restriction cannot be turned off while this setting is on. Requiring both prevents delegated administrators from removing the shared root settings or adding exceptions that switch them off after those settings are extended into their Workspaces.

The site-root settings remain on the root folder in the Default Workspace, where Site Administrators manage them. Workspace Administrators can see the inherited settings but cannot edit or remove the site root's own settings. The restriction on exceptions that switch off those inherited settings follows them into each Workspace.

Workspace Administrators can set their own File Expiration, file-extension limit, or regular-expression limit on their Workspace's root folder or any folder within it. This lets each workflow use its own retention period and accepted filenames without changing the defaults for other Workspaces. That setting takes precedence within its scope, even if its value is less restrictive than the site-root setting. For example, a Workspace Administrator can set a 90-day File Expiration rule on the Workspace root even when the site root specifies 30 days. This changes the Workspace's effective expiration period without changing the site-root rule. Choosing Never delete files in this folder instead is a disable exception and requires a Site Administrator.

Malware Scanning has different inheritance rules: it cannot be overridden or switched off below a folder that has it. A Workspace that inherits site-root Malware Scanning cannot reduce that protection.

Enabling inheritance also makes a recursive root File Expiration rule apply to existing files in Workspaces, subject to normal deletion timing. More specific File Expiration rules and Never delete files in this folder exceptions still take precedence where they apply.

You can turn this setting off later. The supported root folder settings then stop applying inside Workspaces, and each Workspace goes back to using only the folder settings set within it. Files that File Expiration already deleted are not restored.

Managing Root Folder Settings Across Child Sites

A Child Site Management Policy can create the four supported folder settings on the root folder of every Child Site it covers, and can turn on both settings on those sites. A folder setting managed by a policy is read-only on the Child Site for everyone, including the Child Site's own Site Administrators.

Seeing Who Can Change Each Folder Setting

The list of folder settings includes an optional Managed By column. For each folder setting, the column shows the lowest role that can change it, which is Folder Admin, Site Administrator, or Parent Site Administrator.

Higher roles can always change what lower roles can. A Parent Site Administrator outranks a Site Administrator, and a Site Administrator outranks a Folder Admin. A folder setting showing Folder Admin can be changed by all three roles, and one showing Parent Site Administrator can be changed only by a Parent Site Administrator.