Folders and uploads

You can bring in single files or a whole folder tree at once. Files keeps your folder structure, merges it into the folders you already have, and turns files that already exist into new versions.

Folders#

• Create a folder with New folder in the Upload menu or the toolbar, or with ⌘ Shift N.
• Rename it by selecting it and pressing F2, or with Rename in its menu (right-click).
• Move it by dragging it onto another folder in the tree, the breadcrumb or a folder card, or with Move to… in its menu. Its subfolders and files move with it. A folder can't move into one of its own subfolders.
• Nesting. Folders can be nested up to 32 levels deep.

A file and a folder can't have the same name in the same folder.

Names#

• Case doesn't matter. "Postcard A.pdf" and "postcard a.pdf" are the same name, extension included. Letters that only look alike are different: "Straße.pdf" and "Strasse.pdf" are two files.
• Accents match whichever computer typed them, so a folder dropped from a Mac matches the same folder uploaded from Windows.
• Not allowed: an empty name, "." or "..", a / or \, control characters, and more than 255 characters.
• Trailing dots and spaces at the end of a name are removed, as Windows does.

Upload files and folders#

Drag files or folders from your desktop or a file server onto the Files page. The overlay says where they will go, for example "Drop to upload to Files / Customers / C-102". Drop onto a folder in the tree, the breadcrumb or a folder card to upload into that folder instead of the open one.

To pick from a dialog instead, use Upload › Files… or Upload › Folder….

• The structure comes with it. A dropped folder is created in the folder you drop it on, with its subfolders as they are on your disk, empty folders included. A folder that already exists is used, never duplicated, so dropping the same tree twice merges into one.
• Scanning comes first. Files reads the whole tree, checks it against what is already there, and then uploads.
• Big drops ask first. A drop of more than 1,000 files or 10 GB shows the count, the total size, the destination and the system files left out, for example "Upload 12,480 files (38.2 GB)?", before anything starts.

Files that are skipped#

System files that operating systems leave in folders are not uploaded:

• Thumbs.db, ehthumbs.db and desktop.ini (Windows);
• Icon files that hold custom folder icons (macOS);
• files starting with ~$ (lock files of open office documents);
• hidden files and folders, whose names start with a dot, such as .DS_Store and the ._ files macOS writes on shared drives.

The upload tray counts the skipped files and lists them.

Files that already exist#

When a file you upload has the same name as a file already in its folder, it becomes the next version of that file. Before a drop starts, Files checks every file in it. When some of them already exist, it asks what to do with them, for example "38 files already exist in these folders", and says how many others are new:

Unchanged files are left alone. A file with the same size and modified date as the current version isn't sent again, so re-dropping a folder only uploads what changed. A file whose content turns out to be identical to the current version doesn't make a new version either. The dialog and the tray count both as unchanged.

Two files with the same name in one drop, going to the same folder, are never versions of each other. This can happen with names that differ only in case on a file server that tells them apart ("Menu.PDF" and "menu.pdf"). The second one is kept as "menu (2).pdf".

The upload tray#

The tray at the bottom right shows the progress of every upload. You can collapse it and keep working. It goes through these steps:

1. Scanning: counting the files, and the skipped ones.
2. Checking: comparing them with what is already in Files, and asking about files that already exist.
3. Uploading: the percentage, the amount sent and the time left.
4. Verifying: Files checks each file's content. Its card shows Processing until then.
5. Done.

Chips count the new files, new versions, unchanged, skipped and failed files. Failures are listed first, with Retry failed. Cancel stops the uploads that haven't finished, and Show in folder opens the destination. The browser asks before you leave the page while uploads are running.

A new file whose first upload failed shows Failed on its card. Upload it again, or move it to the trash.

Resume after a reload#

If the page reloads or the browser closes while files are uploading, Files offers to finish them when you come back in the same browser, for example "12 uploads were interrupted". Browsers don't let a page read your files again on its own, so press Choose folder… or Choose files… and pick the same folder or files again. Files recognises them and sends only what is missing: the parts of a large file that already arrived aren't sent again. Discard forgets the interrupted uploads.

Interrupted uploads can be resumed for 48 hours. After that, upload the files again.

Limits#

Every kind of file is accepted: PDFs, images, Illustrator and Photoshop files, fonts, ZIP archives and office documents. Files reads the details and makes previews of PDFs, of JPEG, PNG, TIFF, WebP, BMP and GIF images, and of CF2, CFF2 and DXF die drawings (see Files). An Illustrator file saved with PDF compatibility is read as a PDF. Other files are stored exactly as they are, and ZIP archives are never unpacked. Files over 1 GiB, images over 400 megapixels and die drawings over 20 MB are stored and versioned as usual but get no preview.

Uploads count toward your team's storage. A drop that doesn't fit is stopped before any file is sent: see Storage.