Checking Effective Access on The Folder

A folder's permissions come from two places: permissions assigned directly on that folder, and permissions inherited from parent folders. Permissions can be assigned to a User or Partner, granted through Group membership, or implied by an admin-level permission. The Check Access feature answers "does this User, Group, or Partner have access to this folder, and where does it come from?" without you tracing all of that by hand.

The Check Access feature is available in the web interface, through the Permissions tab in a folder's settings, to anyone who can manage permissions for that folder. It checks one folder against a single User, Group, or Partner, or against more than one Group at once. When you check multiple groups together, Files.com combines their access the same way Multiple Group Permissions work: only access granted to every selected group counts toward the result.

Reading the Results

Running a check returns two things. Effective Access on This Folder shows the Access Level and any Extended Permissions the User, Group, or Partner holds on the folder, combined across every path that contributes to it. How They Got It lists each contributing path and how the access arrived there: a direct grant, group membership, inheritance from a parent folder, or an admin permission that implies it.

If a permission fence blocks inheritance above the folder you're checking, How They Got It reflects that. A parent grant blocked by a fence does not show up as a contributing path.