Notifications for File Changes

FileCloud automatically sends you an email notification when:

  • a file or folder is shared with you
  • one of the following actions is performed (by you or another user) on a file or folder you have access to: 
    • a file or folder is uploaded
    • a file or folder is downloaded
    • a file or folder is shared
    • a file or folder is deleted
    • a file or folder is renamed
    • a file is updated
    • a file is previewed in the browser or one of the mobile apps
    • a file or folder is locked

Administrators can set notifications at the global level and users can override them at the user level.

FAQ's


By default, when users make any of the changes listed above to their own files or folders, FileCloud sends them a notification. When a user makes any of the changes listed above to shared files or folders, all users that the file or folder has been shared with receive a notification.

All file change notifications are consolidated and emails are are sent by FileCloud at regular notification frequencies (15 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day etc) as set by your FileCloud administrator as part of the Cron Job Setting.

If you have enabled file and folder change notifications and a user is not receiving a notification, it may be because:

  • the file change was made directly on the LAN

  • that specific file change was blocked in the Admin user interface in Settings > Policies or in Settings > Misc > Notifications.

Where was the change made?

To receive a notification, actions must occur in one of the following places:

  • The FileCloud Admin Portal
  • The FileCloud User Portal
  • The FileCloud Sync client
  • The FileCloud Drive client
  • The FileCloud Mobile App

This applies to both My Files and Network Folders.

For network folders, when files are changed directly on the LAN, FileCloud does not have any knowledge of file changes and will not send a notification.

Is the Notification Blocked in Another Place?

File change notifications can be blocked for a specific action in any of the following places:

  • Global settings
  • Policy settings
  • Share settings
  • Network folder settings,
  • File or folder settings
  • NTFS Permissions
  • Account settings for external users 

If a user is not receiving a notification, check to see if that file action is disabled at any level.


Are you using a trial account?

Trial accounts have notification limits. If you are using a trial account and have been able to send notifications previously, the notification limit may have been reached.

You can now see when the cron job that generates digest notifications was last run.

(warning)  This option is only available in FileCloud Server version 19.1 and later.


To see when digest notifications were last generated:

  1. Open a browser and log in to the Admin Portal.
  2. From the left navigation pane, select Settings.
  3. On the Manage Settings screen, select the Misc. tab, and then the Notifications tab.
  4. Look under the field labeled Email Notification Frequency.

By default, FileCloud uses the following schedule for sending daily and weekly digest emails:

  • Weekly digest emails are sent on Fridays at 8 am.
  • Daily digest emails are sent at 9 am.

However, beginning with FileCloud Version 20.1, you can override these times by adding settings to the cloudconfig.php file.

  1. Open cloudconfig.php in 
    • Windows: xampp/htdocs/config
    • Linux: /var/www/config

  2. To set:

    1. The day of the week that weekly digests are sent, add the setting:

      define("TONIDOCLOUD_WEEKLY_DIGEST_DAY_NUMERIC", 5);
      
      enter 0 - 6, where  0 = Sunday and 6 = Saturday 
    2. The hour of the day that weekly digests are sent, add the setting: 

      define("TONIDOCLOUD_WEEKLY_DIGEST_HOUR", 8);
      
      enter 0 - 23, where 0 = 12:00 am and  23 = 11:00 pm
    3. The hour of the day that daily digests are sent, add the setting:

      define("TONIDOCLOUD_DAILY_DIGEST_HOUR", 9);
      
      enter 0 - 23, where 0 = 12:00 am and  23 = 11:00 pm

Notes: These settings do not affect other settings for notifications. If Email notification frequencies are set to run every 60 minutes, these emails are sent as well as the daily and weekly digests.
            Digests are processed by cron, so if you schedule a mailing at 9, but the cron process is scheduled to run at 9.30, the emails are sent at 9:30.


Changing notification settings

Global notification settings

Prerequisites

  1. Cron jobs must be setup. See Steps at Setting Up a Cron Job or Scheduled Task

To enable file change notifications: 

  1. Open a browser and log on to the Admin portal.
  2. From the left navigation panel, click Settings.
  3. On the Manage Settings screen, click the Misc. tab, and then the Notifications sub-tab.
  4. To display notifications of file changes on the user portal, check Enable File Change Notifications.

  5. To send email notifications of file changes to users, also check Enable Email File Change Notifications.
    This setting is not enabled unless Enable File Change Notifications is checked.  
  6. Click Save.

Beginning with FileCloud 20.1, if Enable File Change Notifications is unchecked, users cannot override the admin notification settings.


Increase the Frequency of Notifications

You can set the file change notification frequency level in the Admin portal, and users can override this and set their own frequency in the User portal.

  • This option is only available in FileCloud Server version 19.1 and later.
  • In previous versions, the File Change Frequency Notification could only be changed in cron's running interval.

To set file change notification frequency in the Admin Portal:

  1. Open a browser and log in to the Admin Portal.
  2. From the left navigation pane, under Settings, select Settings.
  3. On the Manage Settings screen, select the Misc. tab, and then the Notifications tab.
  4. Find the a field labeled Email Notification Frequency.

  5. Change the value.
  6. Save your changes.

To see how users can set their own notification frequency, see the help topic Notifications.


Do not send notifications that were created a number of days ago

You can configure FileCloud Server to not send email notifications that were created a specified number of days ago (by default, 7 days). This prevents the system from sending notifications that remained in the email queue for a number of days and may have messages that are no longer relevant or accurate.

To prevent sending notifications after a specific number of days:

  1. Open a browser and log in to the Admin Portal.
  2. From the left navigation pane, under Settings, select Settings.
  3. On the Manage Settings screen, select the Misc. tab, and then the Notifications tab.
  4. In the Number of Days After which Notifications Are Not Sent, type in a number.
    Enter 0 to disable notifications.

  5. Save your changes.

User accounts with external access can manage FileCloud content only through a Web browser.

These user accounts:

  • Can only view/upload/download to content shared with them
  • Do not count towards the user license limit 
  • Cannot be authenticated via AD and can only be local user account
  • Linked email accounts cannot use the same domain specified in the FileCloud URL
  • Can't be added directly to network shares via the Admin Portal
  • Can access content from network folders if they are shared

If you have users with external access to content, you may want to avoid confusion that may occur when an email is sent about content that users with external accounts cannot access.

To set the file change notification frequency for external accounts:

  1. Open a browser and log in to the Admin Portal.
  2. From the left navigation pane, under Settings, select Settings.
  3. On the Manage Settings screen, select the Misc. tab, and then the Notifications tab.
  4. To stop sending notifications, select the Disable Notifications for External Accounts checkbox.
  5. Save your changes

When a File or Folder is shared, the owner can allow or restrict file change notifications for all users that have access to that share.

  • Enabling this setting sends an email notification when a file is opened or downloaded for a public share.
  • Notifications can be enabled or disabled by the user in the User Portal 
  • Notifications can also be enabled or disabled by the admin in the Admin Portal.
  • The user can override these settings by setting custom notifications for a file or folder path.
User PortalAdmin Portal

 

 

To share a file with everyone without restrictions:

  1. Open a browser and log in to the User Portal.
  2. In the User Portal, click My Files.
  3. Hover over the file you want to share.
  4. Click the Share icon.
  5. On the Share Link for File dialog box, click Share Options
  6. In Share Options, set Send Email Notifications to YES.

To enable File Change Notifications
for Shares:

  1. Log in to the Admin Portal.
  2. From the left navigation pane,
    select Settings.
  3. Select Misc.> Notifications.
  4. Select Enable Share Notification.
  5. Click Save.

Policy notification settings

The ability to enable or disable notifications through policies is available in FileCloud Server version 17.3 and later. 

Notification settings can be set for a specific policy and that policy can be applied at group or user level.

  • For example, notifications can be enabled for all users in the Global Default Policy.
  • Notifications can also be disabled for a specific user or group by defining a policy and disabling the notification.

Administrators can configure how notifications will work by using the following settings. Note that unless Disable User Override is checked, users can override all of these settings except for Disable Notifications.

Disable Notifications - When checked, disable all notifications. This setting cannot be overridden.

Disable User Override - When checked, disable user override of these settings. Applicable only when the above setting, Disable Notifications, is not checked.

Disable Add Notifications - Do not send notifications when a new file is added to a shared folder.

Disable Update NotificationsWhen YES, do not send notifications when a shared file is updated.

Disable Delete Notifications - When YES, do not send notifications when a shared file is deleted.

Disable Download Notifications - When YES, do not send notifications when a shared file is downloaded.

Disable Preview Notifications - When YES, do not send notifications when a shared file is previewed.

Disable Lock/Unlock NotificationsWhen YES, do not send notifications when a shared file is locked or unlocked.

Disable Share NotificationsWhen YES, do not send notifications when a shared file is shared.

Disable Rename NotificationsWhen YES, do not send notifications when a shared file is renamed.

Disable Self NotificationsWhen YES, do not send notifications to a user when any of these actions are done to a file or folder (shared or not shared) owned by the user.


To customize notifications in a policy: 

  1. Open a browser and log on to the Admin portal.
  2. From the left navigation panel, under SETTINGS, click Settings.
  3. On the Manage Settings screen, click the Policies tab.
  4. On the Policies screen, click the row of the policy you want to customize.

  5. On the Manage Policy dialog box, select the Notifications tab.
  6. In the Manage File Change Notifications section, set the options as you want to use them. 
  7. Click Save.



Network Folder Notifications

Administrators can disable notifications for specific network folders.

Users can override these settings by setting custom notifications for a file or folder paths.

To enable File Change Notifications for Network Folders:

  1. Open a browser and log in to the Admin Portal.
  2. From the left navigation pane, under MANAGE, select Network Folders.
  3. On the Manage Network Folders screen, select a folder that you change the notification setting for.
  4. Click the Edit Network Folder () button.
  5. On the Network Folder Details screen, to enable notifications, clear the Disable Notifications checkbox.
  6. To save your changes, click Update.

Many organizations have Windows-based Network Folders that are shared with employees.

  • The permissions on these Network Folders are managed using NTFS rights setup for various users and groups (usually from Active Directory). 
  • FileCloud can use the same NTFS permissions on the Network Folders for user authorization and access to these resources. 

For more information, read about Network Folders with NTFS Permissions

(lightbulb) By default, file change notifications are disabled for Network folders with NTFS Permissions.

  • To enable notifications, you will need to edit a configuration file
  • By default, configuration files for FileCloud installation will be under WEBROOT/config
SettingOptionDescription
TONIDOCLOUD_NOTIFICATION_ENABLE_NTFS0Disable notifications for NTFS folders
TONIDOCLOUD_NOTIFICATION_ENABLE_NTFS1

Allow notifications for NTFS folders


To configure file change notifications for Network folders with NTFS Permissions:

  1. Navigate to the following directory:

    WEBROOT/config
  2. Open the following file for editing:

    cloudconfig.php
  3. Add the following line, using 1 to allow notifications and 0 to disable notifications for NTFS Folders.
define("TONIDOCLOUD_NOTIFICATION_ENABLE_NTFS", "1");

Also see:

Customize notifications in user settings